How much would you have been willing to pay a good instructor?

What would you be willing to pay a good OW instructor?

  • less than $99

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • $100-$199

    Votes: 4 8.2%
  • $200-$299

    Votes: 9 18.4%
  • $300-$399

    Votes: 15 30.6%
  • $400-$499

    Votes: 5 10.2%
  • $500-$599

    Votes: 8 16.3%
  • $600-$699

    Votes: 3 6.1%
  • $700-$799

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • $800-$899

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • More than $900

    Votes: 4 8.2%

  • Total voters
    49

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kidspot

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
4,854
Reaction score
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Location
Moses Lake, Washington
# of dives
500 - 999
Kind of a take off on several threads as of late...

Assume you found an instructor who was exactly what you think a good instructor should be. Whether that means he spent the time necessary, challenged you, was passionate about the sport, had great dive skills, taught more than the book had in it, etc.. whatever is important to you in other words. How much would you have been willing to pay (realistically speaking, none of that "a good education is priceless" even though it is)

There are classes within 1 mile of my house ranging from $125-$500 for BOW. Lets assume a max class size of 4 and a minimum of 5 full days instruction (8 hrs/day minimum).

I ask because I wonder if we are shortchanging some of the good instructors out there, who teach because they love the sport, but really could never afford to live off of what they make... Do they deserve more and would you be willing to send your family/friends to them at a significantly higher cost?

Personally I am quite cheap and always look for a bargain, (just look at my projects in the DIY forum - lol) but it would be worth $500 for good instruction to me (I might just have to save my pennies a bit longer or put it off for a few more months...). And I think an active instructor could make a fair living on that (figure $3-4k per month after expenses including a paid DM and 1 boat charter per class)

Aloha, Tim

P.S. If folks are willing to pay more, I actually hope some of the instructors out there would start charging more... Just understand the pupils you get will expect a lot more too!
 
Trick question.

If I had known what I know now, $500 would have been no problem for a good instructor.

However, I doubt I would have been able to pick one out with what I knew then.
 
ahh yes - that is the tricky part isn't it... So maybe it should really be how much would tell your friends they should be willing to pay for an instructor you know fits the bill....
 
kidspot:
ahh yes - that is the tricky part isn't it... So maybe it should really be how much would tell your friends they should be willing to pay for an instructor you know fits the bill....

Yes that is a better question. I won't know till I get past my checkout dives where the whole process leaves me but probably more than we did.

Pete
 
kidspot:
Lets assume a max class size of 4 and a minimum of 5 full days instruction (8 hrs/day minimum).

wow...a 40 hour long class...with only 4 per class...I'm not sure how you'd fill all of the time...Would you take all 40 hours before knowing if you passed? Or would you be certifiable after 25 with the remainder of the time to build skill and confidence?

How many beach dives? Is the cost just the instructor? Or does it include gear?

:wink:
 
Don Burke:
Trick question.

If I had known what I know now, $500 would have been no problem for a good instructor.

However, I doubt I would have been able to pick one out with what I knew then.

And, if a guy came along that said you could learn all you need to be comfortable and certified for $300, you'd have considered it, right? Even if more experienced folks told you that the $500 guy was gold plated?

When I learned, I was a bit younger...(it was 1983, after all) and I had barely enough to eat and buy my college texts...$200 was much more then than it is now...and I think I still learned from a good guy...In San Diego, YMCA Cert...
 
scubasean:
wow...a 40 hour long class...with only 4 per class...I'm not sure how you'd fill all of the time...Would you take all 40 hours before knowing if you passed? Or would you be certifiable after 25 with the remainder of the time to build skill and confidence?

How many beach dives? Is the cost just the instructor? Or does it include gear?

:wink:

Some would say I was "certifiable" before class began :wink: ... but that's another definition... no - just instruction - assume the full time was used to develop the diver as far as possible, 1 boat dive, the rest beach dives (doesn't have to be limited to 4 dives either, you could have 8 or 10 even) The point being that the instrucor actually makes valuable use of the time... (I know this is hard to quantify when there are so many variables)
 
Depends on the actual class as much as the instructor.

If I got a GUE-level OW class that had 40 hours of classroom and 20+ hours of pool work, plus a dozen OW dives, and certified me for Nitrox, $1k is more than reasonable.
 
scubasean:
wow...a 40 hour long class...with only 4 per class...I'm not sure how you'd fill all of the time...Would you take all 40 hours before knowing if you passed? Or would you be certifiable after 25 with the remainder of the time to build skill and confidence?

How many beach dives? Is the cost just the instructor? Or does it include gear?

:wink:
Lots of pool work and lots of video review, coupled with nitrox and rescue techniques (which should all be covered in OW), can easily eat up 40 hours..
 
jonnythan:
Depends on the actual class as much as the instructor.

If I got a GUE-level OW class that had 40 hours of classroom and 20+ hours of pool work, plus a dozen OW dives, and certified me for Nitrox, $1k is more than reasonable.

lol - I almost thought about listing that as the course material, but since the GUE course is not yet available, we'll just have to leave the depth of the material with a creative instructor from PADI, NAUI, SSI, YMCA, etc.. (I know I left dozens of them out...) and btw - course material (beyond requirements) would depend very much upon the capacity of the students... some learn faster than others, but this again is part of a good instructor - knowing how far to push his students... (It's a tough line to draw and I've taught students that wound up on both sides of the fence, some in tears and others I should have pushed harder ... hopefully I'm getting better at walking that line as a teacher)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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