The RescueX Story

RescueX is on a mission to make rescue less risky. We prepare organizations to respond to water-related emergency rescues through a proven extrication method, standardized training and software for Emergency Response Planning (ERP), and our Rapid Extrication Board™ specially designed for water rescue.

Our Solutions

Leadership Team

Our leadership team aims to bring you the most comprehensive training availible on the market.

Brian Saxon

Founder & Chief Training Officer

Firefighter paramedic, dive instructor, and former dive safety officer with passion for rescue preparation

Our Story

Finding a Faster Way to Rescue

RescueX founder Brian Saxon got his start in the rescue world as a life gaurd. This lead him to a career as a Dive Safety Officer before settling in to his current carreer as a Firefighter/Paramedic.

Along this journey, Brian saw gaps in training for the dive indusrty, sepcifically on the subject of rescue because there was no training availible for getting the person out of the water or for providing immdediate post extrication care.

" It started mostly with, ‘Why am I the only one that thinks this won’t save anyone and why aren’t they teaching us to pull the person out of the water? "

Brian’s insatiable curiosity and discontent with traditional SCUBA rescue techniques led him to develop a new training program that included extrication and post-extrication care that none of the training programs in the SCUBA industry had.

The problem was there were no tools made to pull an unresponsive person out of the water quickly. To solve the problem, Brian set out to create a board that would be easy to use, fast to deploy, and most importantly, help to get an unresponsive person to a point of care as quickly as possible.

With innovative training and the Rapid Extrication Board™, RescueX was born.

RescueX is on a mission to prepare rescuers to provide effective care in water-related emergencies. Through a more comprehensive rescue method, standardized training/software for Emergency Response Planning (ERP), and a Rapid Extrication Board™ specially designed for confined-space water rescue, RescueX gives organizations the tools to handle emergencies efficiently.

If you’re a dive safety officer, dive professional, or someone responsible for rescue divers and their water rescue gear, RescueX can help you customize and manage a strong emergency training program with ease.

RescueX founder Brian Saxon has more than 16 years of experience in SCUBA diving and has earned more than 11 years of hands-on rescue experience as a firefighter/paramedic.

He knows diving. And he knows rescue.

But before Brian had answers for better water extrication methods, he had questions--lots and lots of questions.

" It started mostly with, ‘Why am I the only one that thinks this won’t save anyone and why aren’t they teaching us to pull the person out of the water? "

This was during Brian’s time working at the Denver Aquarium in 2007, when taking a rescue class he realized that the techniques they were learning looked okay on paper, but were flawed in practice.

" This was the final for the rescue class where you surface an unresponsive diver and perform a rescue breath once every five seconds on the victim while you swim them around the pool and slowly take their off their gear and your gear. Once you and the victim had your gear off the exercise was over. I asked the instructor, ‘How was this going to save a life if they didn’t have a heartbeat? Plus, how do we get them out of the water?’ "

Brian’s insatiable curiosity and discontent with traditional SCUBA rescue techniques led him to develop the Rapid Extrication Board and eventually the RescueX training system—but not before asking a lot more questions along the way.

He knew it wouldn’t work to just create a tool and hope for the best. Users needed a minimum of training to ensure that proper techniques were used to extricate victims from the water. Seconds matter, and Brian was so passionate about rescue that he didn’t want to leave anything up to chance or user error.

" I’ve done a lot of different types of rescue and safety training, but this was different. Were people going to learn from it or were they going to be bored because they think it’s your typical training? I got my answer after my first training at a Missouri aquarium—it was a smash hit! I conducted four in total and at the end of each training the staff applauded. I had a guy approach me after one of the classes and said ‘Man I was checked out walking into your class. I was hungover and half asleep. Five minutes into your presentation I was at the edge of my seat and was very bummed that I was that hung over. But I truly learned a lot and your board is amazing!’ "

THAT is what Brian had been looking for. A solution that not only offered a cutting-edge tool for quicker, safer water extrication, but the purposeful and energizing training that would ensure a safer SCUBA experience for all divers.

A board is born

How passion and persistence helped Brian Saxon develop the Rapid Extrication Board:

2004

Brian becomes a lifeguard at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon and earns his SCUBA dive certification. “I had a manager that liked to do thorough ’real life trainings’ as he liked to call them. In those he taught us that there’s more than one solution to a problem. This is a lesson that has stuck with me.”
200?

As a volunteer diver at the Denver Aquarium (the Ocean Discover), Brian observes a “diver down” drill to test the staff’s ability to respond to an injured diver and to extricate them. “I was shocked at how long it took. The victim basically got into the basket himself, which alone weighed 40 lbs. It didn’t seem like a viable solution.”
2007

Now an employee at the Denver Aquarium, Brian completes his diver rescue training through PADI at a local SCUBA training center. After completing what’s called “Exercise 7,” the final for the rescue class where you learn to surface a victim perform rescue breaths while they’re floating, Brian has questions for his instructor. “How was this going to save a life if they didn’t have a heartbeat? Plus, how do we get them out of the water?” Brian realizes he can't get the answers he needs, as the instructor was only doing it as a hobby.