PADI Self Reliant Diver
Although diving with a buddy is the norm, there are reasons for an experienced diver to develop self-reliance and independence while diving.
With proper training, equipment, and the right attitude to accept the risks involved, an experienced diver can responsibly engage in dives without a buddy.
1. Course overview
As part of the course requirements, you’ll participate in 3 open water dives. The knowledge development portion will be carried out through PADI e-Learning in your own time.
You already need to be PADI Advanced Open Water certified (or equivilent certification from another training agency), with at least 100 logged dives to begin this course.
You’ll complete a skills assessment with your instructor before starting the course, and you also need to be at least 18 years old.
2. What you'll learn
Learning how to compensate for situations you would normally handle with a buddy is the focus of the Self-Reliant Diver course.
This includes proper dive planning using air consumption rate calculations, life support system redundancy, and independent management of dive emergencies. You’ll practice performing an air consumption rate swim to gather information for later calculation, as well as switching to a redundant air supply system during simulated emergency situations.
You’ll also practice swimming without a mask, navigating to various points, including your exit – plus the correct and proper usage of your DSMB.
3. Equipment
Unlike our introductory courses, you’ll either need to provide your own scuba kit, or hire some from us for the duration of your course. If you want to look at purchasing your own, we’d be happy to help you also.
As a minimum, you’ll need a mask, snorkel, fins, buoyancy compensating jacket (BCD), scuba regulator, and the instrumentation to monitor your depth and air supply. You can hire cylinders from us, or bring your own in-test cylinders with you to be refilled at the dive site.
You’ll also need adequate exposure protection for the conditions you’ll be diving in (this could be a wetsuit or drysuit) to keep you comfortable on your dives. If you dive in a dry suit, you need to ensure you have the correct training for this too.
Some courses may require additional equipment, depending on the individual course requirements.
Any equipment you provide yourself must be in a serviced, well-maintained and safe condition. No exceptions!
4. Learning materials
We will send you any e-Learning materials needed for your specialty course, which will take you to the registration area of the PADI site. This teaches you the background information you need for your course, and allows you to study at your own pace.
You can complete this on pretty much any device with an internet connection.
Some courses also have physical learning content, which we can give you once you’re enrolled.
Ready to start?
You can book and pay for your course with us online, either for yourself or someone else. We’ll send over any e-Learning content to your email, and we can then work with you on suitable dates and times for any in-person sessions.
We have availability throughout the year, although if you have specific dates or a timeline in mind, please check with us first.
Your next adventure...
As a dive professionals, we enter the water as self-reliant divers. While teaching students, we are always mentally and physically prepared to take care of not just our students, but also ourselves.
There’s no such thing as being overprepared. At Stellar we firmly believe that all divers should become PADI Rescue Divers, ideally before attempting the PADI Self Reliant course.
You may even want to consider the next step and going pro as a PADI Divemaster. Becoming one is one of the biggest steps you will make on your scuba journey.
You’ll become a role model that divers will look up too; a go to person between students and the instructors. Not only will you hone your diving skills and move to the “next level” – you’ll gain supreme confidence and experience in areas that you haven’t even begun to explore.
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.