Best Places in the World for Dive Master & Instructor Training?

[Marissa Crumrine]

Hello all,

My husband and I have been open water certified for about a year. We have plans to quit our jobs this coming summer and travel somewhere in August for Divemaster and Instructor training, with the intent to possibly make a career out of it. After all our certifications we are wanting to take some time to work in different places.

We still need to complete our AOW and Rescue Diver before starting the DM. We love to travel and are very open to getting our AOW, Rescue Diver, DM, and Instructor training done in different places.

However, we are thinking it would be easiest to stick around the same area for all of them, either all around the Caribbean or all in Asia, Australia, etc.

Initially, we have had our eye on getting our DM in Utila, Honduras, but I think we just became more aware of how many other places you can get certified in and we want to explore our options.

We are looking for recommendations and people with experiences getting their own training done in these places.

Overall, we are looking for variety, good people, safe location, great instruction, and fairly affordable living + courses as we are planning to take up to 6 months off of work to get our training done.

Thank you so much! We are so excited for this new adventure.

 

[BoltSnap]

I'd say just get your AOW, Nitrox and rescue and go nuts diving all over the world and do at least 100 dives in different places at different degrees of challenge and then start to think about DM and eventually instructor training.

This is the honest advice I'd give to any of my OW certified students. I wouldn't even start to talk about leadership training until they have earned the certifications I mentioned and done the diving they should.

P.S. I am instructor trainer, course director/instructor examiner.

 

[Marissa Crumrine]

Thank you for that advice! We will definitely discuss the things that you mentioned. Do you have favorite places to dive?

 

[Divin'Papaw]

My sincere advice is to first research thoroughly what kind of life being a scuba instructor can support. Be VERY realistic with yourselves and consider where you plan to live. Here in the states it’s pretty much impossible to support yourself let alone a family on it. The instructors I know either do it as a side gig to the job that pays the bills or as a second career after retiring from something else. Research it and be brutally honest with yourselves.

 

[TMHeimer]

My sincere advice is to first research thoroughly what kind of life being a scuba instructor can support. Be VERY realistic with yourselves and consider where you plan to live. Here in the states it’s pretty much impossible to support yourself let alone a family on it. The instructors I know either do it as a side gig to the job that pays the bills or as a second career after retiring from something else. Research it and be brutally honest with yourselves.

That above. It apparently is possible in some places to make ends meet teaching scuba. More likely if you have other skills like boat captain, mechanic, retail skills, etc. Apparently it is very difficult to "get ahead" financially. But yeah, I'd get a hundred or so dives at least before thinking divemaster course. I started mine at dive 158. The requirement of 40 to start may be appropriate for a tiny minority. Of course, I would take Rescue as soon as you are reasonably comfortable with basic diving and equipment.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

If you have significant savings, or have two healthy kidneys in which you can sell one, or don’t mind scraping by, then a career in scuba diving might be for you.

I’m being somewhat serious as if you don’t own the dive center, it is a tough career. Sure there are people who have done it, but those are such a rare exception.

Pre Covid19, there were 20K new instructors created each year. Instructors on average last less than two years. Zero to hero programs for gap year kids is awesome for them. But for adults who wish to be consummate professionals, it is rough, as the market is flush with cheap labor (gap year kids just need a ticket home before they start uni).

The full time pros who have been at it for years bring unique things to the table and serve niches.

you need to think long and hard about this as you can find yourself easily in a bad situation where you are being exploited and trapped.

 

[BoltSnap]

Do you have favorite places to dive?

Usually the ocean

I don't know where you live but for warm water close to the US, Bonaire, Curacao, GC and LC as a start.

BTW, if you are eventually going to become an instructor, I hope that you aren't doing it for the income that you expect to live on, pay bills and retire on, you won't be able to do any of that at all. At any rate, forget about instructor or DM for now, just dive your brains out and learn, learn, learn and learn even more.

 

[Marissa Crumrine]

Perhaps I should clarify what I meant when I said we would consider it as a career.

Honestly, right now, we want to get our DMs so that we can travel the world through diving over the next year and use our DM as a way to do trade for accommodations or work so that we can continue traveling.

In the long term future, after doing many dives and working in the industry for some time, we are considering living somewhere that would allow us to open up a dive shop so that we can take tourists on dives and teach others to get their own dive certifications.

We understand that the dive industry does not make one rich, and we are already frugal people. We just want to live life doing something that we love, and that provides us with new opportunities to travel the world.

I hope that helps and makes some of you a little less worried about our endeavor

Now, if anyone else would like to give us any other advice on the best places to get certified, that would be much appreciated!

 

[Edward3c]

In addition to dive skills do either of you speak anything other than English? That would open up a wider customer base.

 

[VikingDives]

Now, if anyone else would like to give us any other advice on the best places to get certified, that would be much appreciated!

What's your endgame? It sounds like you want to live someplace while you get training... Without starting a debate on the merits of that, I'd say pick a place that you think you want to live. Then find a place you think looks good, and have a couple of back up shops. Try to talk with someone who has done their program, they'll probably have a lot of insider information.

On the other hand, you could probably go from where you are now to instructor for far less money by sticking close to home. It will take longer, but your odds of picking a good program are at least equal (if not better). Check out Dive Addicts and see if you can take a Fundies course.