 Ask five divers why they enjoy search and recovery and you get five answers. They are as many reasons to learn search and recovery as there are divers and objects to bring up. But, you can usually group every answer you get into one of three general reasons to learn search and recovery skills.
First, sooner or later you’ll need them. Everyone who spends time near the water loses something in it, and that’s especially true of divers. Second, its fun. It’s hard to match the challenge and reward of a successful search and recovery. Third, you may be interested in earning “hobby” money and getting more familiar with what professional divers do for a living.
This brings up important distinctions between recreational search and recovery and professional search and recovery. In search and recovery, recreational divers learn how to use simple equipment to find small (10 kg/25 lb or less) to medium (up to 45 kg/100 lb) objects within recreational depths and environments. Professionals use sophisticated equipment in virtually all water environments and to extreme depths to locate objects as large as ships. Recreational divers look for objects with relatively little value, whereas professionals look for objects that have great value, that involve crimes, or even missing persons. Leave professional jobs to the professional divers trained to handle them. If your interest lies beyond recreational search and recovery, complete training with an appropriate professional/commercial dive school. Two Types of Search and Recovery: “Search and Recovery” really describes two closely related activities: searching for a specific object that you know someone lost in the vicinity, and bottom-combing, i.e. searching for no specific object, but perhaps a type of object, such as jewelry, golf balls, etc, that you might find I the search area.
When you’re searching for a specific lost object, you know there’s something to find there, somewhere. The dive ends when you find it, or when you reach another limit such as your air supply or no decompression limit. This type search requires the most careful planning and search techniques. The search patterns you’ll practice in the Search and Recovery Adventure Dive apply to these types of searches.
Searching for nonspecific objects is exciting because you never know what you’ll find – maybe something interesting, maybe lots – but until you look, you don’t know what you’ll find. Your dive doesn’t necessarily end when you find something; rather, you keep going until you’re low on air or reach some other limit. The recovery skills you practice in the Search and Recovery Adventure Dive help you get what you find to the surface, whether you’re making a specific or nonspecific search. The Search and Recovery Environment. Planning Search and Recovery Dives. Underwater Searches. Rope Search Patterns. Knowledge Reviews. PADI 5 Star National Geographic Instructor Development Center. 198/12 Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong, Phuket, Thailand. Phone: (+66) 076292052 Fax: (+66) 076293034
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