A Scuba Diving Instructor Salary Explained - How much do Dive Instructors earn?

[wetb4igetinthewater]

would require a certain number of active local divers with sufficient disposable income to contribute club dues (or a high number of expat divers) and sufficiently low insurance cost requirements

could scale it if more instruction was local rather than destination.

So in a word: no.

It is great for niches where people dive locally but that is not the majority of divers.

 

[boulderjohn]

John, I vaguely recall you mentioning somewhere that the course you took to become a certified diver was lacking and in some regards, probably violated most of the agency standards. It only sticks in my mind because I thought I remembered you saying it was a NAUI program. I didn't do an extensive search to verify, but I did find this post of yours: PADI vs NAUI

Would you say you got your moneys worth from that particular class?

I have spoken about the deficiencies of my OW course many times. In order to get the course done in 3 days, lots of standards were skipped. It was years before I realized the standards were skipped, so I did not report anything. The shop was running two such classes of about 8 students each when I took it. I recently checked, and the shop still existed. That was about a quarter century ago. Any idea how many people they have certified since then?

Now I will go back in time 36 years and another major standards violation. I was in a resort in Hawai'i, and the resident instructor did a demo in the pool and invited people to come in and try scuba in the pool. I was part of the small group that did. He taught the very basics--mask clearing, etc. I had no trouble with it, and while he was getting the others to do each skill, I swam around the pool. He then said we could have a discover scuba dive the next day, and I signed up. Well, the next day was Easter, so no one else signed up. The instructor, his girlfriend, and I did a dive together. We maxed at 75 feet, and I had a blast. When we were done, the instructor said I looked like an experienced diver. I agreed to get certified, and then dislocated my shoulder that afternoon, thus delaying my certification for years.

When I taught OW, I used to start by having students swim around on the surface breathing from their regulators. Then I had them dump air and swim around the shallow end of the pool, putting just enough air in the BCD to be roughly neutrally buoyant. That was before I taught a single skill. When I got them to the surface, I told them they had just learned all they needed to know about scuba, thanked them for coming, etc. That would get me a good laugh. Then I would say that I was actually serious. They had just learned all they needed to know to dive. The rest of the class was all about learning what to do when things go wrong and improving skills.

Confusingly Contradictory Summary

• I believe you can teach enough basic skills to have anyone be able to go out and dive as if fully certified with very little instruction. When I was a DM, I taught many Discover Scuba students who I believe could have gone right out and dived successfully. In fact, it was the realization that my Discover Scuba students looked more like divers than the students finishing OW pool sessions that led me to experiment with neutral buoyancy instruction.
• The most important part of OW scuba instruction is neutral buoyancy swimming. My OW class skipped most of the pool instruction, but I had 4 really nice OW dives, and I was pretty good at the end of them. Similarly, my original Discover Scuba experience had a great OW dive. In my discover scuba instruction as well, I had students swimming in the deep end as soon as possible. In stark contrast, in the OW pool dives my shop was doing, students spent 95% of the time kneeling on the bottom, and if they went on to do the OW dives with our instructors, they did most of those dives on their knees as well. A student who actually swims for a few hours during instruction will look and act more like a diver than someone who meets every standard while kneeling on the floor. It is possible to turn out a diver with decent skills in a shortened amount of time if you skip steps like the swim test, multiple equipment setups during pool time, switching from snorkel to regulator, etc. and keep the time on buoyancy and swimming.
• When people talk about the time of a class, they often do not include the academic learning time. They compare classes in the past when they sat in lectures for hours and contrast that with a class when students walk in already having done the academic part at home and act as if the academic learning did not take place. If they are going to compare times, they have to exclude the time they spent in the classroom and only compare the diving practice time.
• But that does not mean those shortened classes should exist. As an instructor, I will never skip a skill, and I cannot teach a class in only 3 days, unless it is with a skilled individual or twosome. I have written about the fact that students I have taken from the pool through OW have been mistaken for divers with more than 100 dives when they were actually just starting out. That is because I teach them neutrally buoyant from the start and give them plenty of time, both in the pool and in the OW, to swim, swim, swim. I do all the skills, too, but I do them with students who are neutrally buoyant and not kneeling. In the standard time of a class, if we all taught the full class this way, our students would leave our classes looking like true divrs.

 

[johndiver999]

The boat I was on this weekend seems to use this model. The captain on our last outing said, and I quote, "the deck hand and divemaster work for tips and tips alone" so take care of them.

I put a pin in my brain to look into this later, 'cause that sounds crazy.

It may well be true. It always seems strange to me that the industry has seemed to be effective in maintaining a facade of "professionalism" or "professionals" with respect to staff, and then at the same time pay them NOTHING !

Is there another field where unpaid manual laborers are referred to as "professionals" and then work only for tips?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Is there another field where unpaid manual laborers are referred to as "professionals" and then work only for tips?

People often expect professional photographers to work for "exposure". Not sure how "exposure" is used to pay for the rent or mortgage.

 

[TMHeimer]

Learning to dive in a warm, clear, benign location where everything in the OW+AOW arsenal is easy because of the conditions does not prepare you for the day you drop into cold, dark, low visibility conditions.

A serious eye opener.

The benign conditions encourages short-circuiting of course standards. Definitely not the same in cold, poor conditions.

You could be right. IMHO cold dark water isn't that much different or more challenging than the tropics. Maybe that's because I was trained in cold or because I always have my nose to the bottom searching for shells.
Thick wetsuit (drysuit) & lots more weight....I suppose it could be an eye opener, but probably more so for someone who hasn't spent much time at all doing water stuff.

 

[TMHeimer]

Part of the issue is that it's a cool job that people are willing to do cheaply or for free. The same reason male porn actors get paid a tiny fraction of what female porn actors get paid. Like scuba, there is also economic pressure from amateur competitors. Anyone with a webcam and a paypal account can start a porn business. Even if they are completely unqualified to be in the business.

My old lament about musicians. If it's "fun" should you get paid.....??? Like Wetb4 said-- musicians should also play for "exposure" and maybe even FREE BEER !

 

[Wibble]

Exactly. But there are plenty of dive shops where a person can walk in on a Friday and wind up with a scuba certification by Sunday in a class with 6 or 7 other students. Those shops bank on stacking the students in (quantity).

They rely on the students being just good enough to not drown and to follow the leader on their simple dive excursions.

 

[scubaozy]

It may well be true. It always seems strange to me that the industry has seemed to be effective in maintaining a facade of "professionalism" or "professionals" with respect to staff, and then at the same time pay them NOTHING !

Is there another field where unpaid manual laborers are referred to as "professionals" and then work only for tips?

Its up to the individual, it is not fair to blame it all to the industry. I did get paid and would not work for nothing. I am still renewed and qualified to teach but I wont teach for fun, even I love diving. Weak link here is not the industry but non professional professionals.
I have worked in following schemes:

• Base salary + commission on courses conducted per student (harder the course higher rate per head) or extras (like night dive)
• Base salary + commission on sales, equipment and upgrade course, divemasters could score here well
• Base salary only, fixed rate whole month regardless how much business

As you see, I don't have "no salary" scheme . You should be aware you are undermining others and the industry if you are not getting paid. I personally looked for a good diving center with long term employees. They are the ones who will care for their customers and instructors. In most of the cases I had social securities paid, in one case got paid holidays including flights home and back.
When I started my pro journey, I had just finished my studies in Finland, I wanted to get out of dark and cold for a while. My idea was actually to work perhaps 6-8 months somewhere warm. At that time, I did not worry too much on the earnings but I focused on getting a good company to work for. After working a while I have seen that actually I could put same amount on the side as if I worked in Europe. So I continued working and it was very hard to get me out of diving career after that. It was series of coincidences that I got back to a "normal" life and job.
If I look back, there are quite a few colleagues I know are still in the industry. My estimation is 60% of them returned back to normal life after 5-15 years of diving career. Some of them opened world class dive centres that are rated top by dive magazines, one of them has become the director of the dive center he (and I) worked for and is still working there..
So, it is possible to make a career, it is all up to the individual qualities and attitude, you have to play right. First step is to respect your self and demand remuneration for your labour.

 

[Jcp2]

Its up to the individual, it is not fair to blame it all to the industry. I did get paid and would not work for nothing. I am still renewed and qualified to teach but I wont teach for fun, even I love diving. Weak link here is not the industry but non professional professionals.
I have worked in following schemes:

• Base salary + commission on courses conducted per student (harder the course higher rate per head) or extras (like night dive)
• Base salary + commission on sales, equipment and upgrade course, divemasters could score here well
• Base salary only, fixed rate whole month regardless how much business

As you see, I don't have "no salary" scheme . You should be aware you are undermining others and the industry if you are not getting paid. I personally looked for a good diving center with long term employees. They are the ones who will care for their customers and instructors. In most of the cases I had social securities paid, in one case got paid holidays including flights home and back.
When I started my pro journey, I had just finished my studies in Finland, I wanted to get out of dark and cold for a while. My idea was actually to work perhaps 6-8 months somewhere warm. At that time, I did not worry too much on the earnings but I focused on getting a good company to work for. After working a while I have seen that actually I could put same amount on the side as if I worked in Europe. So I continued working and it was very hard to get me out of diving career after that. It was series of coincidences that I got back to a "normal" life and job.
If I look back, there are quite a few colleagues I know are still in the industry. My estimation is 60% of them returned back to normal life after 5-15 years of diving career. Some of them opened world class dive centres that are rated top by dive magazines, one of them has become the director of the dive center he (and I) worked for and is still working there..
So, it is possible to make a career, it is all up to the individual qualities and attitude, you have to play right. First step is to respect your self and demand remuneration for your labour.

Ah, the old self made man bootstrap approach. Did you not consider that it worked for you because of background regulations that allowed you to do this? The minimum wage requirements for different industries in different jurisdictions many times works actively against the individual. I’m not saying it’s right, just that it is. It would be as if the requirement for a decent job would be the ability to dunk a basketball in a 10’ basket, and you as a 7’ individual can’t see what the problem really is for everybody else.

 

[kensuf]

Confusingly Contradictory Summary

• I believe you can teach enough basic skills to have anyone be able to go out and dive as if fully certified with very little instruction. When I was a DM, I taught many Discover Scuba students who I believe could have gone right out and dived successfully. In fact, it was the realization that my Discover Scuba students looked more like divers than the students finishing OW pool sessions that led me to experiment with neutral buoyancy instruction.
• The most important part of OW scuba instruction is neutral buoyancy swimming. My OW class skipped most of the pool instruction, but I had 4 really nice OW dives, and I was pretty good at the end of them. Similarly, my original Discover Scuba experience had a great OW dive. In my discover scuba instruction as well, I had students swimming in the deep end as soon as possible. In stark contrast, in the OW pool dives my shop was doing, students spent 95% of the time kneeling on the bottom, and if they went on to do the OW dives with our instructors, they did most of those dives on their knees as well. A student who actually swims for a few hours during instruction will look and act more like a diver than someone who meets every standard while kneeling on the floor. It is possible to turn out a diver with decent skills in a shortened amount of time if you skip steps like the swim test, multiple equipment setups during pool time, switching from snorkel to regulator, etc. and keep the time on buoyancy and swimming.
• When people talk about the time of a class, they often do not include the academic learning time. They compare classes in the past when they sat in lectures for hours and contrast that with a class when students walk in already having done the academic part at home and act as if the academic learning did not take place. If they are going to compare times, they have to exclude the time they spent in the classroom and only compare the diving practice time.
• But that does not mean those shortened classes should exist. As an instructor, I will never skip a skill, and I cannot teach a class in only 3 days, unless it is with a skilled individual or twosome. I have written about the fact that students I have taken from the pool through OW have been mistaken for divers with more than 100 dives when they were actually just starting out. That is because I teach them neutrally buoyant from the start and give them plenty of time, both in the pool and in the OW, to swim, swim, swim. I do all the skills, too, but I do them with students who are neutrally buoyant and not kneeling. In the standard time of a class, if we all taught the full class this way, our students would leave our classes looking like true divrs.

I agree emphatically with most of this. Where I'll disagree is on academics and classroom time - I think there are some things that an instructor should cover even if the student did it all in e-learning (Boyles Law - squeezes/blocks/overexpansion injuries; Deco theory for on/off-gassing, dive planning, and DCI; Diving environment - specifically, local environmental considerations that were likely not covered in a generic e-learning).

I personally think the "sweet spot" is somewhere around a minimum of 5 days (~40 contact hours) for most students. How much is 5 days of your time worth?