Skills on your knees? Why that's only half the story in the PADI course.

In the diving industry, there's a debate as old as the first buoyancy compensator (BCD): Is it actually permissible to kneel while learning to dive? I constantly hear statements like: "PADI doesn't teach students how to dive properly – real skills must be learned in trim (horizontal position)!"

As a PADI Course Director and owner of the Cyprus Diving Centre, I know both sides of the coin. And yes, we often start the PADI Open Water Diver course in a stable position – on our knees or fin tips. Here, I'll explain why we do this, why it's only half the story, and why the fault usually doesn't lie with PADI.

🚲 The training wheel phase: Why stability counts at the beginning

Imagine you're learning to ride a bike. No one would put you straight on a mountain bike for a downhill run without any practice. It's similar with learning to dive . The first time you breathe underwater, your brain is in "overload" mode.

In this first phase—we call it the pool or "confined water" phase—the focus is on safety and learning basic movement patterns. When we partially flood the mask for the first time, it's incredibly helpful if the student is in a comfortable, stable position. This allows you to fully concentrate on the skill without simultaneously fighting for your balance. This reduces stress and builds the necessary confidence.

📋 The “secret” in the Instructor Manual (that many overlook)

This brings us to the heart of the problem. As a Course Director, I train diving instructors and meticulously adhere to the PADI Instructor Manual . It contains an exercise that is unfortunately far too often "forgotten" or abbreviated:

The simulated mini-dive.

Before heading out to the open sea, my students have to demonstrate in the pool or at our place in Green Bay that they:

• Lead quantity and trim have been perfectly checked.

• Carry out a proper 5-point relegation.

• Neutrally buoyant, they float and swim.

• And now for the kicker: During this dive, they have to react to problems (e.g., flooding the mask or resolving cramps) – without kneeling on the bottom!

This is precisely where the wheat is separated from the chaff. If a diving instructor skips this exercise, the student only learns how to "kneel on the bottom." Anyone who dives with us in Protaras learns from the very beginning that the knees are merely training wheels.

🌊 The moment of truth: Diving in Green Bay

In open water, for example in our beautiful Green Bay , the students then demonstrate that they have mastered the skills. Here, there is no further demonstration by the instructor. Ideally, the student is already swimming with neutral buoyancy or balancing gently on their fin tips.

But the most important exercise in the entire course is often underestimated: the actual DIVING!

We deliberately spend a lot of time underwater to explore Cyprus's underwater world together. We integrate skills into the flow of the dive. You should be able to clear your mask while we glide past a sea turtle – without interrupting the dive.

🐢 My conclusion as a Course Director

The fault does not lie with the PADI system or the training standards. PADI provides us with all the tools to train top-notch divers. The problem is often time constraints or a lack of knowledge on the part of the instructor when implementing these techniques.

For me, true scuba diving instruction means safely guiding you from the stable "training wheels" phase to complete weightlessness. Because in the end, we all want the same thing: to glide weightlessly through the blue, observe the fish, and enjoy the freedom underwater – all without knee pads.

🎓 From the basics to the professional level: Why this is so important to me at IDC

This discussion about "kneeling vs. hovering" isn't just relevant for beginners. As a PADI Course Director , I lead our IDCs (Instructor Development Courses) here in Cyprus, training the next generation of diving instructors.

Modern and practical training is extremely important to me. In my IDCs at the Cyprus Diving Centre, aspiring dive instructors learn from the very beginning that PADI standards are not a rigid checklist, but rather a framework for top-notch diving. We examine this very topic—trim and neutral buoyancy during skills training—in depth.

A diving instructor who is training with me learns:

• How to take away students' fear without pinning them to the ground.

• How to teach open water exercises while suspended in mid-air.

• Quality takes precedence over time pressure.

So, if you learn to dive with us – whether as a complete beginner or on your way to becoming a professional – you can be sure that we teach using the most modern methods. My goal is for every instructor we train to pass on the passion for perfect body position in the water to their students.

Your Daniel "KID" PADI Course Director, Cyprus Diving Center