Search and Recovery Diver Instructor
Teach divers to locate, lift, and recover lost objects underwater.
1 day
PADI Certified
Course booking
From
£150.00
Need help choosing? Our team can match the course to your experience, goals and confidence level.
PADI 5-Star
Instructor Development Centre
Small Groups
Real Instructor Attention
Unit 4, Bellman Court, Great Knollys Street, Reading, RG1 7HD
Diving Academy
Safety First
Confidence Before Speed
Course overview
What to expect
Search and Recovery Diver Instructor
Search and Recovery is one of the most satisfying specialties to teach, appealing to divers who love a genuine underwater problem to solve. This one-day course prepares you to organise, promote and run it, working through search patterns and lift bag techniques with a firm focus on how to coach these skills clearly. Open to Assistant Instructors, instructor candidates and Divemasters, counting toward Master Scuba Diver Trainer status.
In detail
About This Course
The PADI Search and Recovery Specialty Instructor course trains you to organise, promote and conduct the PADI Search and Recovery Specialty Diver course, one of the more technically satisfying specialties to teach. In a single day at Diving Academy, you will work through the search patterns, lift bag techniques and recovery procedures divers use to locate and retrieve lost or submerged objects, with the focus firmly on how to present and coach these skills effectively rather than simply performing them yourself.
Search and Recovery appeals to divers who enjoy problem-solving underwater, and teaching it well means being able to break down search patterns and lift techniques into clear, teachable steps, anticipate common student errors, and run sessions that build real diver confidence and control. You will get teaching tips and hands-on experience direct from your local PADI Course Director, grounding the course in practical, transferable instructional skill rather than theory alone.
To enrol you will need PADI Assistant Instructor, instructor-candidate-in-training, or PADI Divemaster status, bearing in mind that some specialties carry additional prerequisites worth confirming with Diving Academy ahead of your course date.
As with the other PADI specialty instructor ratings, Search and Recovery counts toward the Master Scuba Diver Trainer rating, which requires at least five specialty instructor certifications. It is a strong choice for instructors looking to offer a more technical, skills-driven specialty alongside their existing teaching programme.
The process
How The Course Works
Step 1
Standards & Presentation Practice
You begin in the classroom, working through the Search and Recovery Diver specialty exactly as your future students will experience it. You practise delivering a knowledge development presentation and learn to teach back a missed knowledge review question on the spot, so every explanation you give actually sticks.
Step 2
Search Pattern & Recovery Skills Review
In the water, you revisit the search patterns and lifting techniques divers use to locate and raise objects, this time watching for the mistakes a student is likely to make. Sharpening your own compass work, natural navigation and lift bag handling means you can correct bad habits before they set in.
PADI's diver-level Search and Recovery course covers search patterns, natural navigation and lift bag recovery
Step 3
Marketing Workshop & Certification
The day wraps up with a marketing and promotional workshop, giving you concrete ways to get certified divers genuinely excited about search and recovery rather than waiting for them to ask about it. Finish the course and you're certified to run the Search and Recovery Diver specialty at your own centre.
Course curriculum
What You'll Learn
Learning Outcomes
- how to teach the Search and Recovery Diver specialty course
Getting ready
Before You Start & What's Next
What's Included
- teaching tips and hands-on experience from your local PADI Course Director
Prerequisites
- PADI Assistant Instructor, instructor candidate in training, or PADI Divemaster (some specialties have additional prerequisites)
Next Steps
- Master Scuba Diver Trainer (MSDT) - requires at least five specialty instructor certifications
Upcoming training
Dates & Booking
No fixed dates listed right now
Choose your preferred start date and the academy will confirm instructor availability with you directly.
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Quick facts
Duration
1 day of structured training
Location
Unit 4, Bellman Court, Great Knollys Street, Reading, RG1 7HD
Certification
Recognised PADI qualification on completion
Have questions?
We're here to help
Our course directors can talk you through Search and Recovery Diver Instructor, confirm it's the right fit for your experience, and help you find a date that works.
From
£150.00
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