Bio – Butch Hendrick

Walt "Butch" HendrickAs President & Founder of Lifeguard Systems, Butch has been teaching, developing rescue procedures and performing surface and subsurface water rescues for over 30 years in 15 countries. He and his family started and ran one of the first scuba resorts in the Caribbean in Puerto Rico. They were innovators, pioneers, and leaders in the sport diving industry. They installed and ran the only nonmilitary hyperbaric chamber in the Caribbean. Hendrick performed many rescues of divers and other people in the water, and he started the first diving rescue team in the area. Butch had his boat Captains license before he had his driver’s license. He went on to develop many of the procedures used and taught today such as the rescue do-si-do and in-water mouth to mouth for scuba accidents. He developed many Island safety emergency management plans and safety protocols, such as those used today by the Cayman Islands and Bonaire.

In the 1970’s Butch established the training program, and conducted the dive training for FDNY Rescue Companies dive teams, including, in 1991, the FDNY diver instructor training course. He has trained other noted teams such as FDNY Rescue Companies, U.S. Parks Dept., Washington DC FAA, South African Paramedics Dive Team, and hundreds of other fire, police, EMS, and military teams.

Published over 300 times, Hendrick is a noted International public speaker, and expert.

Hendrick has been training public safety dive teams, sport divers, and rescue personnel for over 35 years in over 15 countries. He is a major innovator and contributor to the water rescue industry. He is one of the most important fathers of diver safety education, always striving for increased safety standards.

President and founder of Lifeguard Systems, Inc., an international rescue and recovery training company. Lifeguard Systems is the oldest Public Safety Diving and Ice Rescue Training company with the same continuous owner and President in the United States.

President and founder of RIPTIDE, Inc, a nonprofit organization dedicated to drowning prevention, drowning victim recovery, and homicidal drowning investigation.

Butch’s credentials include:

  • Expert Legal Witness for diving and other water-related incidents
  • Homicidal Drowning Investigation, assists law enforcement and private citizens with homicidal drowning investigations
  • Numerous Media Interviews

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Certifying Agencies …

Positions …

Received…

Speaker & Presenter (partial list) …

Written and Produce audiovisual programs …

Publications (partial list)…

Manuals and Books (some co-authored with Andrea Zaferes)…

Certification Training Programs Written and Currently Taught …

Equipment Design…

Procedures: Development of hundreds of widely used, effective, rescue techniques and procedures. To just name a few:…

Many water and ice accident victims around the world are alive today because of Walt Hendrick’s innovations, training programs, publications, audiovisuals, equipment designs, public speaking, and actual rescue efforts.