Why we teach skills in a hovering position
Should Open Water skills be taught in neutral buoyancy? You’ve probably heard this question debated in your dive shop and online, even if you’re not a dive professional. You might have heard that teaching in neutral buoyancy is harder, or that you can pass your instructor exams while teaching negatively buoyant. It’s natural then to wonder if teaching in neutral buoyancy is worth the extra effort. Let’s talk about it!
Here’s our strong belief: there are many benefits to teaching in neutral buoyancy, even if it is harder!
What does “teaching in neutral buoyancy” mean?
When we talk about teaching skills in neutral buoyancy, we are referring to where the instructor and their students are positioned in the water column. Teaching in neutral buoyancy means that the instructor is maintaining proper buoyancy and trim while demoing the exercises, and the students learn and practice their new skills while floating. They are not sitting on their knees or kneeling (negatively buoyant) on the pool or ocean floor. Hovering in neutral buoyancy is the foundation of mastering scuba diving.
What are the challenges of teaching in neutral buoyancy?
Teaching in neutral buoyancy can be challenging, especially at first, but conducting dive courses and skills while neutrally buoyant has so many benefits that it’s absolutely worth the effort.
Divers who want to be top-notch divemasters and instructors should choose a PADI Pro Program that will push them to master skills demonstrations in neutral buoyancy.
We often hear instructors saying that they want to teach in neutral buoyancy, but never learned how to demonstrate the skills while floating, or don’t feel confident managing their students as they learn to master buoyancy and skills simultaneously. It’s normal to feel this way! That’s why it is so important to choose a PADI Instructor Development Course (IDC) that holds candidates to these new, higher standards.
There are six main benefits to conducting dive training in neutral buoyancy:
#1 - Teaching divers to perform skills while hovering prepares them to hover when diving.
Divers who can clear their mask in mid-water will carry that ability to the reefs, wrecks, and quarries where they dive for fun. At the most basic level, “learning while neutrally buoyant” equals “doing while neutrally buoyant”, and that’s our goal as instructors!
#2 - Divers who have good control of their buoyancy can relax and enjoy themselves during and after the course.
Imagine this situation: you’re a newly certified diver on your first fundive, and your mask starts to flood. You look around for a place to sit on your knees and clear your mask like you learned in your Open Water course, but realize you’re along a deep wall or over sensitive coral reef. You’ve never tried to clear your mask while hovering and start to panic.
Now, imagine this: you’re diving along a deep wall when your mask starts to flood. You’ve cleared your mask a ton while hovering during your recent Open Water course and easily do so now, just like you practiced with your PADI instructor, and continue on with the dive.
Which dive experience do you want your students to have after they leave your course?
#3 - Divers with great buoyancy make better dive buddies.
The extra effort you put in now will make your job as a teacher and guide easier in the future. Good buoyancy is the first step towards being a good fundiver and a good dive buddy. These are the basic ingredients for amazing dives
#4 - Teaching and learning in neutral buoyancy helps protect marine life and keep students safe.
Maintaining good neutral buoyancy is one of the best ways to protect the reef and marine life. You can’t damage what you didn’t touch! Even sandy patches are full of delicate marine life like flounder, pipefish, slugs, nudibranchs, and so much more which is easily crushed and killed by negatively buoyant divers. On the other hand, it’s easier and more fun to observe all the awesome marine creatures when you’re confident with your buoyancy and know you can handle basic skills without needing to change position.
The same goes in reverse - bites, cuts, and stings can easily happen while kneeling on the bottom or while “flailing” the arms or legs in an attempt to manage buoyancy. Sea urchins, lionfish, and scorpionfish are notorious for “biting back” on divers who stuck their fingers or knees where they shouldn’t have. These types of negative experiences as a student can scare divers away and negatively impact the industry as a whole.
#5 - Teaching in neutral buoyancy gives you more time to teach and practice buoyancy control without requiring more in-water time.
One of the biggest complaints from new instructors is that they don’t have enough time to practice buoyancy with their students during the course, so students leave with only rudimentary buoyancy skills. Instructors who practice buoyancy during all skills, not just buoyancy-specific skills, will have more time to practice and reinforce the basics. More buoyancy practice means teaching subsequent confined water skills will become easier, open water dives will go more smoothly, and students will be easier to guide as your future fundivers.
#6 - Teaching neutral divers turns their class from just “learning skills” to an experience.
The future of scuba marketing and sales lies in adventure and adventure travel. Making the class an adventure positions you to gain market share in your area and grow the future scuba diving market.
Divers who feel confident after their Open Water course will continue to dive. They will come back to you for continuing education and will bring their family and friends, helping you and the scuba industry continue to grow and thrive.
Join the conversation! Did you learn your PADI Open Water skills while neutrally buoyant? Share your experience and how it shaped the instructor you are or want to become!
Have a topic you’d like us to cover? Drop it in the comments, then follow us on Instagram and Facebook to see your questions answered!
