PADI Search & Recovery Diver
Learn how to conduct structured searches while underwater as part of a team, and then to raise items safely to the surface for later recovery. It’s great fun!
1. Course overview
Over the course, you’ll participate in 4 open water dives over at least two days. The knowledge development portion will be carried out through PADI e-Learning in your own time.
You either already need to be a PADI Open Water diver and PADI Underwater Navigator, or you need to be PADI Advanced Open Water certified. Equivilent certifications from another training agencies may also be accepted.
You also need to be at least 12 years old.
2. What you'll learn
You will cover techniques and application of a variety of search and recovery method, including planning, organisation, procedures, techniques, problems, and hazards of search and recovery diving.
You’ll also learn about limited-visibility diving and underwater navigation techniques, as well as proper techniques and safety considerations for object location, including the use of various search patterns, lines and reels.
Finally, you’ll practice methods and safety considerations for recovery of objects using various lifting devices, such as a lift bag.
3. Equipment
Unlike our introductory courses, you’ll either need to provide your own scuba kit, or hire some from us for the duration of your course. If you want to look at purchasing your own, we’d be happy to help you also.
As a minimum, you’ll need a mask, snorkel, fins, buoyancy compensating jacket (BCD), scuba regulator, and the instrumentation to monitor your depth and air supply. You can hire cylinders from us, or bring your own in-test cylinders with you to be refilled at the dive site.
You’ll also need adequate exposure protection for the conditions you’ll be diving in (this could be a wetsuit or drysuit) to keep you comfortable on your dives. If you dive in a dry suit, you need to ensure you have the correct training for this too.
Some courses may require additional equipment, depending on the individual course requirements.
Any equipment you provide yourself must be in a serviced, well-maintained and safe condition. No exceptions!
4. Learning materials
We will send you any e-Learning materials needed for your specialty course, which will take you to the registration area of the PADI site. This teaches you the background information you need for your course, and allows you to study at your own pace.
You can complete this on pretty much any device with an internet connection.
Some courses also have physical learning content, which we can give you once you’re enrolled.
Ready to start?
You can book and pay for your course with us online, either for yourself or someone else. We’ll send over any e-Learning content to your email, and we can then work with you on suitable dates and times for any in-person sessions.
We have availability throughout the year, although if you have specific dates or a timeline in mind, please check with us first.
Your next adventure...
As you’ll learn in your Search and Recovery course, sometimes speed and efficiency are key. Why not consider learning to use a DPV in the PADI Diver Propulsion Vehicle course? It’s one of the most fun and exciting courses that we can offer, and probably as close to flying as you can get underwater!
If you haven’t already taken your PADI Rescue Diver course, definitely consider this too. Understand the prevention, recognition and essential knowledge required to deal with most situations around and underwater.
It’s a pivotal step in your diver journey, and will build upon some of the principles you learned during Search and Recovery.
The Stellar Crew
We have a very straightforward philosophy; we are totally committed to ensuring you – our customer – have the best, safest and most enjoyable experience possible. It’s as simple as that!
Here at Stellar, we all love to scuba dive, and we love to have fun doing it. We absolutely want you to feel the same way when you dive with us.
We can very proudly boast that we’re a PADI 5-star Instructor Development Centre. Put simply, this means we also train the trainers – so naturally we take our education of safe diving very seriously. You’re in safe hands, and you’ll have a lot of fun in the process too.