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

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Scuba Diving Tips

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Location
Netherlands
# of dives
5000 - ∞
A scuba diving instructor's salary is not easy to explain as it depends on many factors. Some instructors earn almost nothing, some make an average salary and others have a great income!

So, why are there differences in how much instructors make? In this video, I will explain a Scuba Diving Instructor Salary in detail:


You can also read my in-depth blog about a Scuba Diving Instructor Salary here.
 
i am in the first group that basically earns nothing
 
There's a tradeoff of being an on the knees mill and a quality instructor. The dive center owner makes the most money. The dive destination instructor can best make enough to buy a plane ticket in case the employer screws them out of that.
 
… You can also read my in-depth blog about a Scuba Diving Instructor Salary here.
Wow, that is quite the “article”!
Even so, I felt I am reading more of a recruiting pamphlet than an article, I read it to the end, because I was trying to understand how you substantiate the statement you make in the second sentence. I failed.

So, how do you substantiate this quite substantial statement you made?
“A Scuba Diving Instructor Job is one of the best careers you can get. ”

Do you see this to be so universally or i.e. specifically in Koh Tau?
Are we on the same page about what a good career (career, not job) is?
I.e. a professional path to life long income and professional and personal growth that enables one to obtain good and reliable and sufficient income to found & house a family, provide well for for it, send kids to school and university and enables one to retire comfortably and allows to keep up the arrived at lifestyle? I would see a high likelihood to achieve al that as requirement in order to call a career choice “good”.

Do you see that as being the case indeed for a career as diving instructor? One with good attitude and at the right location?

I am genuinely wondering, because I wonder how many (or, to be honest, few if any really) of the diving instructors (not shop owners or managers) I met to date have actually been able to make such a good and providing career out of it that it truly provides well for a family.
 
@Schwob

The dive industry is a Ponzi scheme. Most instructors don't last more than a year and a half as being an instructor isn't a career but an experience.

If you were a gap year kid, is there any better way thsn to spend that time with a zero to hero program in the tropics like Koh Tao. Sounds like a blast. I don't blame the kids at all.

But then mum and pa will get me back to the real world so I can attemd uni.

It is a career for platinum course directors that shuffle bright eyed and bushy tailed kids and charge them thousands. But those kids simply do not last. It is a tough business, harder if you have to work for yourself.

Why do you think that so many instructors get churned out every year while still teaching on the knees? There isn't the time or desire to teach properly for most. Meeting minimum standards is atill meeting standards

I've seen a lot of demo videos from instructors up to CD/IT and most are on their knees. Some are neutrally buoyant but they fin continuously as they don't understand the issue with the center of displacement being higher on the human body than the center of mass.

That's the status quo of the industry. Will it change? Only if RAID becomes top dog. Not my agency but I cheer their growth.
 
@wetb4igetinthewater
I am well aware.
I see it very similar to how you do (and I am old enough too).
FYI: I did not write more about how I feel and why, because,
a: who cares and
b:
I nevertheless was trying to hear from the OP how he might substantiate his claim. Age old habit of shining a light on what is or might be a big lie. Sometimes it aids a bit with helping sine towards admitting the truth. Finding truth is comparatively easy compared to getting those who might disseminate the opposite to see and change their ways. Of course, as so often with such perpetrators, the OP may see and know his ways full well and write these kind of articles for the obvious purpose, but hey, I wanted to give him a chance to explain how he justifies such a bold and (to us) obviously incorrect statement.
 
Less than most apprentices in the trades around here. Apprentices who will have a skill that is transferable and with an upward trajectory on their payscale and the ability to do scuba for fun.
Be better off cleaning boat hulls than instructing money wise.
 
Here in the Midwest, I doubt there are any full time scuba instructors. Seems like everyone I know, from OW up to tech also does something else. Most probably have a full time job outside the dive industry, but some might own a dive shop or something else diving related.
 
You do it for an extended holiday or because you enjoy it.

Some people make a vocation out of instruction, never a fortune.
 
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