PADI diving courses
At Stellar Divers, we offer the entire range of PADI courses – including various PADI specialties and rebreather courses.
We can take you from a complete beginner, or improve upon your existing skills, or progress on to professional courses, such as Divemaster and Instructor. Whatever your scuba diving goal we can help you achieve it!
The PADI system progressively and logically builds upon your skills and awareness as a diver, starting with the basics before layering in additional knowledge in some of the more advanced courses.
It’s a great system, and allows you to learn at your own pace through a combination of eLearning material, video, and of course practical training with a PADI professional.
Kids, beginners & non-divers
We offer an introductory PADI Discover Scuba Diving With over an hour in our pool, you’ll get a full scuba experience with one of our experienced PADI Divemasters who will show you the exciting fundamentals of scuba diving.
Afterwards, you can decide whether you’d like some further training towards a formal qualification, with either the PADI Scuba Diver or (ideally) the full PADI Open Water Diver courses.
For younger divers who are between 8 and 10 years old, we recommend the PADI Bubblemaker and PADI Seal Team programmes.
For scuba alternatives, we also offer a fantastic PADI Skin Diver and PADI Freediver courses, aimed at learning snorkelling skills and developing cutting-edge breath holding techniques, to enter the underwater world quietly on your own terms.
The first step most new divers take before starting the Open Water course. Get a feel for breathing underwater in a pool, and learn some basic skills over an hour or two.
Minimum age: 10 years
Essentially around half of the course content of the PADI Open Water course. You’ll earn a certification, but you still need to dive under direct supervision of a Divemaster or Instructor.
Minimum age: 10 years
The most sought out and exciting learn to dive program in the world. You will be globally recognised and respected as a scuba diver at more dive centres than any other certification.
Minimum age: 10 years
Learn snorkeling and skin diving techniques including checking buoyancy, surface swimming, clearing water from your snorkel and performing effortless surface dives.
Minimum age: 8 years
Freediving has evolved, breath holding techniques and protocols are now cutting edge. Join us, let us show you how to be an amazing PADI Freediver, discover your inner power, discipline and control.
Minimum age: 12 years
Bubblemaker is as fun as it sounds – a chance for kids to blow bubbles by scuba diving! Children get to use scuba gear and swim around in shallow water in our indoor pool.
Minimum age: 8 years
Children use real scuba gear in the swimming pool and learn all the same cool skills that us older divers have to learn too – including clearing their mask and recovering their regulator.
For ages 8 to 12 years
Continuing education (Core courses)
Once qualified as an PADI Open Water Scuba Diver, your journey is really only just beginning. There are so many new skills to learn and have fun with, and so many places to explore them with!
Most divers go straight on to complete their PADI Advanced Open Water course – and to enjoy all the benefits that it brings. You can also become a PADI Adventure Diver, if you’re not able to do the full advanced course right away.
As your diving awareness expands to include others, many divers consider their PADI Rescue Diver course. It not only teaches you advanced skills to help yourself, but also to help others.
If you haven’t been diving in quite a while, it’s super important to refresh your skills with the PADI ReActivate course.
The focus in this course is “thinking like a diver” where we move you from a novice diver into a more rounded experienced diver. You’ll get to complete 5 PADI Adventure Dives; Navigation, Deep, and 3 additional adventure dives of your choice. We highly recommend that you do Peak Performance Buoyancy, Wreck & Rescue adventure dives.
Minimum age: 12 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Similar to the PADI Scuba Diver course as a mid way option, this provides a stepping stone towards the Advanced Open Water course with 3 fun adventure dives of your choosing.
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Understand the prevention, recognition and the essential knowledge required to deal with most situations around and underwater. It’s a pivotal step in expanding your knowledge and experience, and even though it has a very serious basis it can often be the most fun course you will do.
Minimum age: 12 years
Prerequisites: PADI Adventure Diver (including Junior) with completed underwater navigation dive, or a comparable certification from another dive agency. You must also take the Emergency First Response course, or hold a suitable certification taken within the past 24 months.
Keeping your scuba skills up to date is vital so you stay safe and enjoy your diving. If you haven’t been diving for a long time and feel rusty (6 months plus), then this is the perfect way to get yourself back in tip-top scuba shape.
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Emergency First Response skills are important for anyone to have. The course is designed to give you the skills and confidence to deal with medical emergencies and administer the correct care while the emergency services arrive.
Minimum age: None
PADI speciality courses
Choose your own adventure! There are so many new skills to learn and have fun with, and so many places to explore them with!
Discover your unique diving aptitude – whether that’s deep diving, dry suit diving, wreck diving, or something else entirely.
If you can’t decide, you might also want to consider the PADI Advanced Open Water Course – you’ll get to try out a selection of different adventure dives to get a taste first!
Complete at least 5 PADI specialty courses, along with the PADI Rescue Diver course, do 50 logged dives and earn the incredible achievement of PADI Master Scuba Diver – an elite group of respected divers with significant experience and scuba training.
Learn about the complexity of these underwater habitats, including how you can help conserve these vital systems. Anyone who has an interest in the aquatic world can take this course.
Minimum age: no restrictions
You’ll find you enjoy your dives even more when you recognise the creatures that you see. Once you learn the main fish families and characteristics, it will help you decipher the species you see all over the world!
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Learn how to manage the key differences you’ll encounter boat diving, including important terminology, etiquette, safety and procedures.
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
A must for any serious diver; it gives you the necessary skills to dive deeper and also the ability to dive further into wrecks, if this is something that interests you too.
Minimum age: 15 years
Prerequisites: PADI Adventure Diver, or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
One of the most popular diving specialties. The accessibility of digital underwater photography & videography has made it easier and more fun than ever. Learn how to capture images to share and re-live your adventures with your friends and family!
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
One of the most fun and exciting courses that we can offer you! With a Diver Propulsion Vehicle (DPV), it’s as close to flying as you can get underwater. You have to experience it to believe it!
Minimum age: 12 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Enjoy rivers and ocean currents by “going with the flow”, whilst staying with your dive partner, communicating with the dive boat, and knowing where you are the whole time! Simply glide along and enjoy the rush of flying underwater while the current does the hard work.
Minimum age: 12 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Stay warm, dry, and be comfortable on all dives! Unlike a wetsuit, a dry suit seals you off from the outside water and that keeps you warm – even in very cold water. You’ll cover the background knowledge related to dry suit diving, with plenty of practice in UK waters.
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Learn how to breathe EAN, or ‘nitrox’, up to 40% oxygen content. This extends your diving times, and often allows you to dive with less fatigue. Many dive resorts around the world encourage you to have this certification.
Minimum age: 12 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Ever wondered what makes a regulator work? Ever dared to peek inside a second stage? Let our experienced service technicians show you what you can do to help maintain and care for your kit for years to come.
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Scuba Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Diving with a full face mask allows you to breathe from your nose and mouth, and provides added comfort in colder water. The mask can also be fitted with communication gear, which can be useful for various types of specialty diving.
Minimum age: 12 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Drop into a whole new world and watch it come to life under the glow of your dive light. With the right training and planning, night dives can be as easy as diving during the day – with even more amazing things to see!
Minimum age: 12 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
No other speciality will benefit your diving more. Divers who’ve mastered the highest performance levels in buoyancy stand apart. You’ve seen them underwater. They glide effortlessly, use less air and ascend, descend or hover as if by thought. They interact gently with aquatic life, with minimal impact to their surroundings.
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Enjoy the thrill of bubble-free diving, and with longer no-stop limits. We specialise in training for the Poseidon MKVI & SE7EN rebreathers.
Minimum age: 18 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver and PADI Enriched Air Diver, or comparable certifications from another dive agency, plus at least 25 logged dives.
For the optional Advanced Rebreather component, you’ll also need to be a PADI Deep Diver, and have at least 30 logged dives.
Learn how to raise things from the sea floor, just like they do in TV & film. You will learn how to conduct structured searches while underwater as part of a team and then to raise items safely using lift bags. It’s great fun!
Minimum age: 12 years
Prerequisites: PADI Adventure Diver (including Junior) with completed underwater navigation dive, or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
With proper training, equipment, and the right attitude to accept the risks involved, an experienced diver can responsibly engage in dives without a buddy. Bolster your skills and confidence when diving alone, in a dive pair or as part of a team.
Minimum age: 18 years
Prerequisites: PADI Advanced Open Water, or a comparable certification from another dive agency, plus at least 100 logged dives.
Gain detailed insight into life underwater! It’s truly fascinating what lies beneath, and we can introduce you to this amazing ecosystem and show you how to interact with it responsibly.
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Become the diver everyone wants to follow – because of your new found legendary sense of direction! Finding your way is not a matter of luck – learn how to find your way around with various valuable navigation techniques.
Minimum age: 10 years
Prerequisites: PADI Open Water Diver (including Junior), or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
Experience something which is truly unique to scuba divers, and see history come alive diving a shipwreck! It is a fantastic and beautiful experience, with many historic and purpose-sunk wrecks to explore worldwide. Learn how to do so safely.
Minimum age: 15 years
Prerequisites: PADI Adventure Diver, or a comparable certification from another dive agency.
PADI pro courses
We can very proudly boast that we’re a PADI 5-Star Instructor Development Centre! Join thousands of PADI professionals around the world enjoying their dream of diving for a living, often in some amazingly exotic locations.
You’d typically start this journey as a Divemaster, working closely with one of our experienced PADI IDC Staff Instructors as your personal guide, mentor, and coach.
From here, you’re able to continue your professional training towards a PADI Instructor (or assistant instructor) to become one of the most sought-after dive professionals around the world. This training also involves the Emergency First Response Instructor course, if you don’t already have the certification.
Going that one step further, we’re also able to offer various course director led speciality courses, including MSDT, either as part of your PADI Instructor course package or seperate to it.
We’re even able to offer the PADI IDC Staff Instructor course, allowing you to join a very elite group and play a vital role in teaching PADI Instructor Development programmes.
Becoming a Divemaster is one of the biggest steps you will make on your scuba journey, so we’ll do everything possible to help you achieve your maximum potential with the best experience possible.
Minimum age: 18 years
Prerequisites: PADI Advanced Open Water and PADI Rescue Diver, or comparable certifications from another dive agency, plus at least 40 logged dives. You must also have had your Emergency First Response training within the previous 24 months.
Become one of the most sought-after dive professionals around the world as a PADI Oper Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI). We’ll be your guide, mentor and friend as we journey through the skills and knowledge required to help share the underwater world with others.
Minimum age: 18 years
Prerequisites: PADI Divemaster, or a comparable certification from another dive agency, plus at least 100 logged dives. You must also have (or be getting) your Emergency First Response Instructor training within the previous 24 months.
Continue your Instructor journey. Gain invaluable experience from our PADI Course Director as you gain 5 Instructor Specialities. Share your passion for Wreck diving, Deep diving and so many more diver specialities.
Minimum age: 18 years
Prerequisites for MSDT certification: PADI Instructor in teaching status. 25 diver certifications and 5 Instructor diver speciality certifications.
This is it, the Instructor’s Instructor! Move from instructor to leader; from coach to mentor. Be the one to pass the message & passion of diving directly to the next generation of PADI professionals.
Minimum age: 18 years
Prerequisites: PADI Instructor (MSDT) and Emergency First Response Instructor, both in teaching status.
Under the guidance & with the full support of our EFR Instructor Trainer you will learn how to build on the skill you learnt on the Emergency First Response course and focus on developing your instructional abilities to teach these skills to others. You don’t have to be a diver to take this course!
Minimum age: 18 years
Prerequisites: Have completed the Emergency First Response course within the previous 24 months, or be a practicing medical professional (such as a physician, medical technician, paramedic or nurse).
The diving
The diving you do will depend on the course or programme you are taking with us, so see the individual course for more specific details.
One of the most common questions we get asked is ‘where will I dive’. Most courses are split between confined water dives and open water dives.
Your confined water dives will take place at our indoor pool in Lincoln, whilst the open water dives are in deeper water, outdoors in the UK this is often Capernwray, however we may dive elsewhere depending on your individual needs.
Diving in waters around the UK may not sound as inviting as warm tropical waters, but trust us – it’s well worth it. Whenever you dive with us you’ll be in a drysuit or thick wetsuit, depending on the time of year and course choices. You will find yourself quite comfortable, learning in the UK also teaches you some very useful skills to make you a very well-rounded diver so you can enjoy scuba diving around the world.
The Stellar Crew
We have a very straightforward philosophy; we are totally committed to ensuring you – our customer – have the best, safest and most enjoyable experience possible. It’s as simple as that!
Here at Stellar, we all love to scuba dive, and we love to have fun doing it. We absolutely want you to feel the same way when you dive with us.
We can very proudly boast that we’re a PADI 5-Star Instructor Development Centre. Put simply, this means we also train the trainers – so naturally we take our education of safe diving very seriously. You’re in safe hands, and you’ll have a lot of fun in the process too.