Dive Instructor Academy


Salty Education



PADI Skill circuit



24 PADI Dive skills



DIVE SKILLS





Practice, practice and practice



During your Divemaster course or internship you will develop the dive skills required to not only assist in teaching sessions, but also be proficient in all dive situations. There are 24 specific dive skills you will need to master which are often referred to as the dive skills circuit. These are listed below.


How do get scored? The scoring for the skill circuit is based on a rating from 1 to 5.

  1. You are unable to do the skill
  2. You are able to do the skill with significant difficulty
  3. You perform the skill without illustrating any details of the skill. In other words you just did the skill. If you were to remove and replace your mask during a dive you just do it, but there was no teaching involved.
  4. You performed the skill slowly and pointed out specific details of the skill. For instance pointing out that you blow out of your nose, that you look up, and placement and ensuring there is no hair in the mask when removing and replacing a mask.
  5. You performed the skill perfectly, slowly, showing details of the skill in a beautiful fluid manner


Skill circuit - 24 PADI skills





Dive skills



  1. Equipment assembly, adjustment, preparation, donning and disassembly
  2. Predive safety check (BWRAF)
  3. Deep-water entry
  4. Buoyancy check at surface
  5. Snorkel-regulator/regulator-snorkel exchange
  6. Five-point descent, using buoyancy control to stop descent without contacting the bottom
  7. Regulator recovery and clearing*
  8. Mask removal, replacement and clearing*
  9. Air depletion exercise and alternate air source use (stationary)
  10. Alternate air source-assisted ascent
  11. Free flowing regulator breathing
  12. Neutral buoyancy, rise and fall – using low pressure inflation
  13. Five-point ascent
  14. Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent
  15. Orally inflate BCD to hover for at least 60 seconds
  16. Underwater swim without a mask
  17. Remove and replace weight system underwater
  18. Remove and replace scuba unit underwater
  19. Remove and replace scuba unit on the surface
  20. Remove and replace weight system on the surface
  21. Surface dive while skin diving and clear snorkel using blast method upon surfacing
  22. Disconnect low-pressure inflator
  23. Re-secure a loose cylinder band
  24. Perform an emergency weight drop

* To earn a 5 in skills indicated with an * the skill must be demonstrated whilst neutrally buoyant.



The skills below are performed to a score of 5





REGULATOR RECOVERY





Regulator recovery is an important skill for new divers to master. The obvious requirement to be able to find the regulator recover it and replace it can be done via the sweep method shown here or the reach method. Both are acceptable.



BCD REMOVAL & REPLACE





Fin pivoting teaches the student how breathing has an effect on buoyancy. Rising up and down by using your lung volume by inhaling and exhaling. Practicing this skill and explaining it to the student well as tow what is happening will make divers more proficient at diving with the correct trim and buoyancy.



Hover - oral inflation





Becoming proficient at the hover is important for any diver and as a divemaster mastering this skill shows your ability to remain neutrally buoyant. Buoyancy is what every diver should become better at. During the openwater course students learn to become neutrally buoyant by orally inflating the BCD. This teaches breath control in addition to buoyancy.



FIN PIVOT





Fin pivoting teaches the student how breathing has an effect on buoyancy. Rising up and down by using your lung volume by inhaling and exhaling. Practicing this skill and explaining it to the student well as tow what is happening will make divers more proficient at diving with the correct trim and buoyancy.





DIVE INSTRUCTOR ACADEMY - AUSTRALIA


DIVE INSTRUCTOR ACADEMY - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, CARIBBEAN
Kai Steinbeck is a PADI Platinum Course Director offering PADI Instructor & Divemaster Courses in Australia and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.
123 PARKYN PARADE, MOOLOOLABA, QLD., AUSTRALIA
0419172910