In our previous blog post, we introduced why neutral buoyancy is one of the most important skills any diver can learn. It improves safety, protects marine life, and makes diving feel effortless and natural.
But let’s go a step further. This time, we want to talk not just about why buoyancy matters but why it’s essential that every Open Water Diver skill is taught and practiced in neutral buoyancy from the very beginning of training.
And why it’s the instructor’s responsibility to set that standard.
What Are Open Water Skills and Why Do They Matter?
The PADI Open Water Diver course includes a series of underwater skills that every diver must learn to become certified. These include removing and clearing your mask, recovering your regulator, sharing air, maintaining buoyancy, and making a controlled emergency ascent.
These aren’t just routine drills—they’re potentially life-saving skills.
If you’re ever in a situation where you need to remove water from your mask, assist a buddy, or deal with a minor problem underwater, you’ll fall back on what you learned during your training. And that means how you learn these skills is just as important as what you learn.
Why Skills Should Be Taught in Neutral Buoyancy
As we discussed previously, neutral buoyancy allows divers to hover effortlessly in the water column without rising or sinking. This skill is central to safe, controlled, and environmentally responsible diving.
But here’s what many new divers (and sadly, some instructors) don’t realize:
➡️ If you learn your Open Water skills kneeling on the bottom, you’re not really learning how to dive you’re learning how to kneel.
➡️ When problems arise in open water, there’s no flat sandy patch conveniently waiting for you to drop down and “practice.” You need to respond calmly and effectively in real-world diving conditions—hovering, neutrally buoyant, and aware of your surroundings.
Teaching skills in a neutrally buoyant position prepares students for exactly that. It makes their transitions to open water smoother, and their long-term diving experiences more confident and enjoyable.
It Starts with the Instructor and Instructor training
As instructors, our job isn’t just to get students certified. Our job is to create capable, confident divers. And that starts with how we demonstrate and teach the skills ourselves.
At Fast Manta, we demonstrate every core skill while neutrally buoyant—and we expect our students to follow that example. We don’t kneel. We don’t make excuses. And we never lower our standards to “just enough.”
So why do many instructors still teach their students on their knees?
It often comes down to training history. Most likely, they were never taught to teach any other way. During their own Divemaster or Instructor Development Courses, their mentors didn’t show them how to perform skills while hovering. As a result, they lack both the technique and the confidence to teach in neutral buoyancy.
This outdated approach continues to be passed down from instructor to instructor—not because it’s the best way, but simply because “that’s how it’s always been done.”
At Fast Manta, we break that cycle.
How We Break the Cycle
In our Divemaster and Instructor Development Courses (IDC), all skills must be performed and taught in neutral buoyancy. Even though it goes beyond the minimum required by PADI standards.
Why? Because we’re not here to produce average instructors. We’re here to build future mentors who know how to lead by example.
We don’t believe in shortcuts. We believe that if you can’t deliver your teaching in the best possible way, you shouldn’t be teaching it at all.
This isn’t just a job. It’s a profession built on trust, safety, and lifelong learning. We are teaching people life-saving skills, and if those don’t deserve to be taught the right way, then what does?
Progress Is Happening. But It Starts With You
The good news is, change is coming. We’re seeing more dive professionals recognize the importance of proper buoyancy-based training. Attitudes are shifting. Standards are rising. But meaningful change still comes down to personal accountability.
Are you ready to change and become a better instructor or are you stuck in outdated habits that don’t serve your students?
At Fast Manta Diving Krabi, we’ve made our choice clear: we teach with integrity, we train beyond the minimum, and we take pride in every diver we send out into the world.
We’re Proud of How We Train and You Will Be Too
We don’t just certify divers we mentor them.
From your very first breath underwater to becoming a dive professional, we teach diving right. From Day 1 up to instructor level. Whether you’re starting your journey as a beginner or dreaming of becoming a dive leader, we’ll guide you every step of the way. With purpose, passion, and professionalism.
When our students head off to explore the Similans, the Maldives, or the Great Barrier Reef, we want dive guides to recognize the quality of their training instantly. When someone asks, “Where did you learn to dive like that?”, we want the answer to be Fast Manta.
From day one, we teach you to dive the way real divers dive: neutral, calm, and in control.
Because that’s what great teaching looks like. And that’s the standard we live by.
