The PADI Regulator Removal & Recovery is one of the oldest and most famous scuba diving skills. The PADI Regulator Removal & Recovery skill is important in case the second stage of the scuba regulator accidentally comes out of your mouth. This can happen if you get entangled or any other reason whilst scuba diving. The Regulator Removal & Recovery skill is quite easy to perform and teach, but you still have to pay close attention to your students whenever the second stage is out of their mouth.
New scuba divers will perform this skill during confined dive number 1 in the PADI Open Water Diver course. Diving Instructors learn to teach the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in the PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC). In this article I will explain first how to teach the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill the right way to get full marks during your PADI IDC, and then how to safely teach it in real life. I hope if you like it you can share this article on your social media and leave some comments below.
Why is the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill such an important PADI Skill?
To be honest it is quite rare for the second stage or a regulator to come out of the mouth during a scuba dive. However, it can happen, and in the very unlikely event a scuba diver loses their regulator (because another diver bumps against the reg, or there’s a strong current, or a panic) it’s a very important skill to master.
“Any PADI diving skill can be performed in slightly different ways depending on the style of the Diving Instructor. In this article I want to explain one way of performing the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill within PADI standards, that is one of the safest, most realistic options and it will get you full scores (5.0) on any PADI IDC Course and the PADI Instructor Examination (IE)”.
Picking the best location for the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in Confined Water
Confined Open Water means a swimming pool or an open water area with swimming pool-like conditions. By PADI Standards you have to first teach the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in shallow water. This is important. In the event that a student panics during this skill, they can easily stand up – simply knowing that they can stand up relaxes the student’s mind.
After a student diver has mastered the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in shallow water they will repeat it on Dive 1 in the Open Water at depth. I will explain how to teach the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in Open Water in another article.
How to organize the PADI Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in confined water
First of all make sure that the area where you perform the skill is clear from other scuba divers and swimmers. Then place your students in a straight line or half circle next to each other on the shallow bottom of the swimming pool or confined open water. If you have an assistant (PADI Divemaster or Assistant Instructor) than instruct them to watch over your students on the side, in-front or behind them. Once everyone is in place perform a Regulator Removal & Recovery skill demonstration and then perform the skill with the students one by one or two by two until everyone has completed the skill.
The Regulator Removal & Recovery skill briefing
There are many different ways to brief the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill. During the PADI IDC and IE you need to mention a few points to get full scores:
Objective
Value
Description
Signals
Organisation
You can find the Objective in the PADI Instructor manual in Section 3 of the Open Water Diver course in Confined Water Dive 1.
Objective:
Recover a regulator from behind the shoulder
Value:
In the unlikely event that your regulator comes out of your mouth, you can easily recover it by using this technique.
Description:
Start by taking a few slow breaths in and out, then whenever you are ready, remove the regulator from your mouth. Make sure you have the mouth piece down and don’t forget to blow tiny little bubbles. Move your hand to the right and drop the regulator. Then, whilst leaning to the right, with your right hand, touch your knee, your bottom and your tank. Move it around in a backwards sweeping arc and you’ll find your regulator will be hanging over your right arm. Locate your regulator, grab it and put it into your mouth. Clear it either way you like either by spitting through it or pressing the purge button. Please resume breathing afterwards.
Signals:
Signal skill, mouth piece, breathing, leaning, bubble, sweep, etc.
Organisation:
We are going to do it right here in the shallow end. Please position yourself in a half circle around me. My Divemaster will be looking after you and I will start with a demonstration. After my demonstration I will come up to you one by one until we have all performed the skill.
Do you have any questions?
This is a great way to explain the briefing but the order is not very realistic. To make it more realistic I recommend using this order:
Objective
Value
Organisation
Description (with signals integrated)
I advise to integrate the signals by showing them during the description – to make the briefing even more clear and concise.
So here is an example of a more realistic briefing about how to recover a regulator from behind the shoulder both in real life teaching and during the PADI IDC and Instructor Exam:
“Hi all, the next skill we will be performing is how to recover a regulator from behind the shoulder.
This is a great skill to learn because in the unlikely event that your regulator comes out of your mouth, you can easily recover it by using this technique.
We do this skill right here in the shallow end, please be in half a circle around me. My Divemaster will be looking after you and I will start with a demonstration. Please keep looking at me during my demo and afterwards I will ask you if you understood it with an “OK?” sign. After my demonstration I will come up to you one by one to watch you perform the skill until we are all done.
So how are we going to do the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill? (now demonstrate the hand signals, whilst explaining the skill)
Start by taking a few slow breaths in and out, then whenever you are ready, remove the regulator from your mouth. Make sure you have the mouth piece down and don’t forget to blow tiny little bubbles. Move your hand to the right and drop the regulator. Then, whilst leaning to the right, with your right hand, touch your knee, your bottom and your tank. Move it around in a backwards sweeping arc and you’ll find your regulator will be hanging over your right arm. Locate your regulator, grab it and put it into your mouth. Clear it any way you like either by spitting through it or pressing the purge button. Please resume breathing afterwards.
Do you have any questions?”
Now this is a much more realistic order for the Regulator Removal & Recovery briefing!
Best way to demonstrate the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in confined water
Start by positioning yourself in front of the students and signal to them that you are about to demonstrate the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill and that they look at you throughout the full skill demonstration. The first step is to show that you are taking 2 or 3 breaths in and out. Then show that you are taking a deep breath in and remove the regulator from your mouth. Remind them to have the mouth piece down and to blow bubbles.
(I always like to show the mouth piece pointing down before the bubbles as I have noticed that students more often forget that bit than the bubble blowing, because they are already cautious about not holding their breath).
Now the next step is to slowly move you regulator to the right and then drop the regulator on your right side. Show your students to lean to the right and then slowly begin the sweep with the right arm by touching your knee, your bottom and your tank. Slowly and in an over-exaggerated way move your arm around in a backwards arc to the front again “catching” your regulator in the process. Now with your left hand, touch your right hand and slide it up your right arm towards your shoulder to easily locate the hose of the regulator.
Now follow the hose towards the second stage and put it back into your mouth. Show them how to forcefully exhale or purge the regulator by pressing the purge button and remind your students that they can choose any option. In the end remind your students to resume breathing.
Finish the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill demonstration by signaling if they understood the skill demonstration and then signal to your student(s) to start performing the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill.
How to perform the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill with your students in confined water
After you completed the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill demonstration signal to the PADI Divemaster or Assistant Instructor to see if they are ok and that they should watch the students that you are not performing the skill with. Then move closer to one of your students and signal them to start the skill. Correct any problems accordingly, if needed, and in the end of the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill give the students some positive reinforcement with a handshake or high five and a quick reminder of proper technique if they had a problem during the skill. Then communicate with your Divemaster/Assistant Instructor if he/she is ok and direct him/her to watch this student. Then switch to the next student and ask them to perform the skill until all students have completed the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill.
Throughout the skill I recommend to either not hold onto the student or just hold gently, because you are performing the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in the shallow area of confined water. Holding on too tightly can make them over-think the skill and they might get more nervous. Just be close enough or holding gently enough to be able to assist the student and correct any problems quickly enough to ensure their safety.
When we perform the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in Open Water we always hold onto the students for safety reasons.
Holding breath – It is very important to catch this problem quickly as your diving students just took a full breath in. If they then hold their breath they will start to become positively buoyant as they are displacing too much water. This can be very dangerous and might result in a lung over-expansion injury. This problem is easy to catch however – pay attention to their mouth and see if bubbles are coming out. Respond by gently tapping their cheek with your finger or signaling them to blow bubbles.
(If you don’t catch this problem on the PADI IDC or IE it will result into a score of 1.0)
Mouth piece pointing upwards – This problem can result in a free-flowing regulator. If it free-flows it is easy to catch because of the amount of bubbles coming from the regulator. But sometimes the regulator does not free-flow and then it is harder to spot, so stay sharp! You solve this problem by turning their mouth piece down or signaling them to turn it facing downwards.
(If you don’t catch this problem on the PADI IDC or IE you will receive a 2.0 only on problem solving, you can still pass if other criteria are met)
Dropping and recovering the regulator from the chest – The student removes the regulator and drops it onto their chest. Then he or she just grabs it and puts it back in their mouth. As much as this solved the problem, the objective clearly states that the student needs to recover the regulator from behind the shoulder. Solve this by signaling to recover with the “sweep” technique and ask them to repeat the skill.
(If you don’t catch this problem on the PADI IDC or IE it will result into a score of a 1.0)
Leaning left or/and using the left hand – In this case the student cannot locate the regulator as it normally falls on their right side. In certain cases you can solve this by signaling to them to lean to the right and use their right hand hand or even better and faster, just grab their regulator’s second stage, put it back into their mouth and then ask then to repeat the skill.
(If you don’t catch this problem on the PADI IDC or IE it will result into a score of a 1.0)
Any problem related with the sweep – Like sweeping the other way around, not touching the knee, the bottom or the tank, or any other weird version of the sweep.
(If you don’t catch this problem on the PADI IDC or IE it will result into a score of 1.0 or 2.0 depending on the situation)
Replacing the second stage upside down – This problem usually does not occur, but it might. Easy to solve by preventing it before it happens.
(If you don’t catch this problem on the PADI IDC or IE it will result into a score of 1.0 or 2.0 depending on the situation)
Not clearing correctly – When the student has a problem with clearing the second stage.
(If you don’t catch this problem on the PADI IDC or IE it will result into a score of 1.0 or 2.0 depending on the situation)
Finish the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in confined water with a great debrief
As in the briefing, you can debrief your students on the surface or back on land. In real life there are different versions of a good debrief, but a great one to use is the debrief taught during the PADI Instructor Development Course. In the IDC debrief you have to mention the following to get full points:
Positive reinforcement
Problems that occurred
Solutions to those problems
Restate the objective
Remember the value
To make it sound as nice and realistic as possible I recommend that you say this:
“Great job. You are all now able to recover a regulator from behind the shoulder (Restate the objective) and I especially liked the way that everyone leaned to the right during the skill. Well done! (Positive reinforcement)
However I saw someone holding their breath (Problem that occurred), remember to blow little bubbles throughout the skill (Solution to that problem), and I saw also someone using their left hand instead of their right hand (Problem that occurred), just remember to use your right hand as the regulator is on the right side (Solution to that problem).
But really great job all, and remember that this skill is an amazing skill to master. In the unlikely event your regulator comes out of your mouth, you can easily recover it by using this technique (Remember the value).
Again great job. Do you have any questions?”
Conclusion
I hope that these teaching tips to conduct the PADI Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in confined water will help you teach this skill in real life and if you follow everything in the article you will get full points for the skill in confined water during the PADI IDC and/or the PADI IE.
Of course there are many ways to teach the PADI Regulator Removal & Recovery skill in confined water according to PADI standards and please use your own style if you prefer, but this is one way of performing the Regulator Removal & Recovery skill correctly. If you have more tips then please share them in the comments below and don’t forget to “Like” this article and share it with as many people as possible through your social media.
Would you also like to become a PADI Diving Instructor or do you want to recommend us to a friend? Then please contact us and join our PADI IDC, MSDT or Dive Instructor Internship course.
Marcel van den Berg
PADI Platinum Course Director
Sairee Cottage Diving
Koh Tao, Thailand
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