Diving without explaining yourself first
queerdiver is an open diving offer for queer people around Stuttgart, Böblingen and Herrenberg. Training, guided dives and shared dive days at a dive school where nobody has to guess whether they are welcome.
Diving is a sport built on trust
You go into the water with someone, you share your air in an emergency, and you rely on that person paying attention. That takes a basic level of trust — and it is hard to build while you are quietly working out whether a comment is coming when you mention your partner.
Most dive schools are not hostile. But „not hostile“ is something different from „explicitly meant“. queerdiver makes that difference explicit — not with a rainbow in the logo and business as usual behind it, but with concrete commitments.
What that actually means in the course
- Your name and pronouns apply — In paperwork, in conversation and towards everyone involved in the course. No questions asked, no discussion.
- Mostly one-to-one — No group dynamic for you to manage. If you would rather learn without an audience, you learn without an audience.
- Changing and equipment on your terms — Separate changing times, suit fitting at your pace, no remarks about your body.
- Buddy pairing without assumptions — About who wants to dive with whom, or who is able to carry whom.
- What you share stays here — Photos only ever with your explicit consent.
- No coming out required — You do not have to tell me anything about yourself in order to dive here. This offer is open, not curious.
One safety topic that belongs here: Binders restrict breathing and are not suitable underwater, because diving requires deep, unrestricted breaths at all times. A well-fitted wetsuit or a watersports compression top achieves a lot visually without restricting your breathing. We sort this out privately, before your first pool session. For medical questions — surgery, hormone therapy, fitness to dive — a physician trained in diving medicine is the right address, and I am happy to refer you.
Three ways into the water
Everything runs through DiveWithSteini in Herrenberg: same training, same prices, same instructor. queerdiver is not a surcharge and not a separate programme. It is a commitment.
Getting started
From a try dive to your first certification. Mostly one-to-one, scheduled around your calendar, full rental equipment included.
Try diving from €119, credited against your course.
Starting again
For everyone who is certified but has not been in the water for a long time, or who had a bad experience elsewhere and wants another go.
Refresher from €299, guided dives from €149.
Diving together
Open dates at local lakes, without course pressure. Bring people along, or come alone and get paired up.
Dates by arrangement, just get in touch.
I am Sven, and I do the teaching
I run DiveWithSteini in Herrenberg: SDI and TDI training, an in-house workshop, mostly individual tuition. Alongside that I research how people stay capable of acting under pressure — and one of the clearest findings is that safety does not only depend on technique, but on whether someone dares to speak up when something feels wrong.
That is exactly where an offer like this begins. Anyone busy keeping a low profile will not report an equipment problem either. A course in which you do not have to hide anything is therefore not just more pleasant. It is safer.
Just ask
No form, no obligation. Tell me where you stand — never dived, certified long ago, or somewhere in between — and we will work out what fits.