teknitroxdiver
Contributor
Has anyone here done Pro Dive's full instructor course? How about the resort specialist add-on? I'm thinking about doing the full program when I get out of high school as an alternative to going to college. Opinions? :huh:
Anyone gone to Pro Dive IDC?
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I'm in day 2 of the IDC at prodive. They're very good, if not one of the best in Florida.. I'd still stick to college and do IDC in the summer or spring break (like alot of people in my class). Dive industry is not a money making business... you basically need to open a shop for any serious business in my opinion. So, while you can teach or work at dive shops as a hobby or a side business, it's always good to have a main source of income. Atleast that's my standpoint as an instructor candidate living in Miami.
The truth is, even in Miami and the Keys, which is considered a very strong dive destination in the US, diving is a seasonal sport. This in itself makes it nearly impossible to live off of. I've personally seen the dive shops in pain this winter because I work at one.. or, I was in training.. but couldn't train much because we had no customers. It gets that bad. But it's crazy in the summers with non-stop phone ringing action and weights being sold out everyday. If you average winter and summer... well, I still wouldn't say it's a stable way of making a living.
Back to pro dive tho, their IDC course is top quality. it's lots of work with long classes, but it's all very well structured and extremely well executed. It's done so well it would almost pass as a college style class.
Still, consider the costs of the IDC+Resort specialist course, then add all your insurance (diver insurance + liability insurance), also additional gear that you may need to meet PADI standards (wheel dive planner, reels, liftbag, in come cases eRDP, newest textbooks, yada yada).. pheweee, it's not cheap.
think about it. Feel free to send me personal mail any time if you want to talk about anything.
The truth is, even in Miami and the Keys, which is considered a very strong dive destination in the US, diving is a seasonal sport. This in itself makes it nearly impossible to live off of. I've personally seen the dive shops in pain this winter because I work at one.. or, I was in training.. but couldn't train much because we had no customers. It gets that bad. But it's crazy in the summers with non-stop phone ringing action and weights being sold out everyday. If you average winter and summer... well, I still wouldn't say it's a stable way of making a living.
Back to pro dive tho, their IDC course is top quality. it's lots of work with long classes, but it's all very well structured and extremely well executed. It's done so well it would almost pass as a college style class.
Still, consider the costs of the IDC+Resort specialist course, then add all your insurance (diver insurance + liability insurance), also additional gear that you may need to meet PADI standards (wheel dive planner, reels, liftbag, in come cases eRDP, newest textbooks, yada yada).. pheweee, it's not cheap.
think about it. Feel free to send me personal mail any time if you want to talk about anything.
OP
teknitroxdiver
Contributor
Thanks a bunch for the input. I plan to supplement the Pro Dive classes with a few business classes from the local college, with the hope of buying a resort or dive operator if my current employment offer is not what I find I like or if it goes out of business. Here's what I mean by that:
My family owns a trucking company; I plan to go to work at that company (high-salary management+company pilot job with ownership in the future) as a primary field of employment. No post-secondary education is required for that job. If I were to at some point want a change or the company were to go out of business, I would (Plan B1) use my IDC courses and the business classes along with a loan and what money I had (hopefully) saved to buy a dive operator or (Plan B2) use the hours I had accumulated with the company to get an aviation job with either a corporation or one of the 'big 3' cargo companies. Due to those reasons, I am having trouble getting a grip on spending 4 years and close to $100,000 for an education that I wouldn't ever use to it's full potential. Plus, in the 3 1/2 years that I would spend making money instead of spending money on college, I would have quite a bit saved.
Of course, all that is just preliminary daydreaming/brainstorming.....
thanks again
My family owns a trucking company; I plan to go to work at that company (high-salary management+company pilot job with ownership in the future) as a primary field of employment. No post-secondary education is required for that job. If I were to at some point want a change or the company were to go out of business, I would (Plan B1) use my IDC courses and the business classes along with a loan and what money I had (hopefully) saved to buy a dive operator or (Plan B2) use the hours I had accumulated with the company to get an aviation job with either a corporation or one of the 'big 3' cargo companies. Due to those reasons, I am having trouble getting a grip on spending 4 years and close to $100,000 for an education that I wouldn't ever use to it's full potential. Plus, in the 3 1/2 years that I would spend making money instead of spending money on college, I would have quite a bit saved.
Of course, all that is just preliminary daydreaming/brainstorming.....
thanks again
hehe, well, that's an interesting position.. I'd tend to think that unless you're shooting for a pretty good college, it's not really worth the money because your tuition actually funds other people's research.. who knows what the administration uses it on. I'm just speaking from personal experience as a master's student. It wasn't too impressive, and so I quit. Now it might have been different in a renowned or private college.. I went to a state run college with questionable quality right off the bat. It was totally not worth the money and time.
Purchaing a dive op.. hmm.. well, I hear about dive shops going down and going up for sale. There's been a couple in the past half year or so in Miami. Small ops switch hands quite often in the Keys I think. So, it's not an uncommon thing to find these opportunities. It's good you're getting busines education because frankly, alot of the dive ops are not business professionals. They're former boat operators or local instructors who've been in the scene for a long time. Sometimes they run out of business simply because they do... others, I think it's just from poor management and bad business practice. So could you make a difference? it's a very good question.
But comparing that with a family business that I'm guessing is already established and is running fine (atleast for the moment)... I'd keep the family business for sure, unless it's destined for failure. Really, there's obviously a bigger market for trucking than diving. Besides, if it's a family business, you probably know a lot of the players in the local area, have relationships with them, and that makes plan B2 much more attractive because establishing yourself and making relationships takes time and effort, and it's something money can't buy. If you already have it, all the better! Where as if you dive into the dive industry, it's back to page zero unless you're pretty well connected already.
Connection is very important in dive industry. Say you buy PADI education products at price group 3, and you're good friends with another dive shop that's a price group 1 (cheaper). You need 30 OW Go Dive books to stock up for Summer. Do you order them yourself? No, you ask your friend at the price group 1 to order them for you. Say you have a customer who calls in to get a SUUNTO D9. People who want high end gear often already know what they want. Well, you're totally out of D9's. Who do you call? Your fellow dive shop friend!
Not to mension getting a boat captain + divemaster set up and running, if you're going to do a diveboat op.. if you're not going to operate a dive boat, you'd definitely need a friend who runs a boat op.. So, that gets you thinking.
Just some ideas. I'm no expert in starting up these businesses, but I've seen my LDS switch hands, and seen the new owner pick it up. The nuts and bolts of getting a shop rolling was fun to watch.
Purchaing a dive op.. hmm.. well, I hear about dive shops going down and going up for sale. There's been a couple in the past half year or so in Miami. Small ops switch hands quite often in the Keys I think. So, it's not an uncommon thing to find these opportunities. It's good you're getting busines education because frankly, alot of the dive ops are not business professionals. They're former boat operators or local instructors who've been in the scene for a long time. Sometimes they run out of business simply because they do... others, I think it's just from poor management and bad business practice. So could you make a difference? it's a very good question.
But comparing that with a family business that I'm guessing is already established and is running fine (atleast for the moment)... I'd keep the family business for sure, unless it's destined for failure. Really, there's obviously a bigger market for trucking than diving. Besides, if it's a family business, you probably know a lot of the players in the local area, have relationships with them, and that makes plan B2 much more attractive because establishing yourself and making relationships takes time and effort, and it's something money can't buy. If you already have it, all the better! Where as if you dive into the dive industry, it's back to page zero unless you're pretty well connected already.
Connection is very important in dive industry. Say you buy PADI education products at price group 3, and you're good friends with another dive shop that's a price group 1 (cheaper). You need 30 OW Go Dive books to stock up for Summer. Do you order them yourself? No, you ask your friend at the price group 1 to order them for you. Say you have a customer who calls in to get a SUUNTO D9. People who want high end gear often already know what they want. Well, you're totally out of D9's. Who do you call? Your fellow dive shop friend!
Not to mension getting a boat captain + divemaster set up and running, if you're going to do a diveboat op.. if you're not going to operate a dive boat, you'd definitely need a friend who runs a boat op.. So, that gets you thinking.
Just some ideas. I'm no expert in starting up these businesses, but I've seen my LDS switch hands, and seen the new owner pick it up. The nuts and bolts of getting a shop rolling was fun to watch.
AlexRodriguez
Contributor
teknitroxdiver:
I got my AOW with them last month and found them to be excellent. Not crazy about how packed the boat feels but they are good and do a good job of teaching you.
As for this being an alternative to college, I think its a big mistake. You will always carry with you your college education.
Alex
well, in my experience in florida pro dive is poss your best choice beside e.a.s.e. or maybe oceandivers at key largo. do the idc, if you wanna join the below pizza hut sallary diveguys 
!!!! i would forget about the ros program! its nice and you learn some stuff - on the other hand, if you really work in diving, thats stuff you will pick up in no time and your employer will be happy to teach you for no cost. about that whole problem, feel free to visit our website also (link at the bottom) its just for pro's and ppl on the way there! you will find a lot of info here and quite some there of instr / dm about training and what to do. sorry, dont try to steer you away from here at all - after all its one of the biggest websites on scuba! idc with pro dive - fine!, the ros course wasted money (it is expensive! not bad - so dont get me wrong). i wouldnt hire you based on it! gimme a instr (new one), have your nitrox instr (cause it sells), be a gasblender (cause i dont have to teach you from scratch - even if you need training on our system), and be a teamworker pref with mechanical skills and you have a job with me anytime without the resort op specialist course or any of the other likewise courses. i wont hire you as a manager anyway - you work yourself up there or bring a ****load more credentials than this ros card! spend the money to get a uscg licence as example - that will pay off for you a lot better ;o)
!!!! i would forget about the ros program! its nice and you learn some stuff - on the other hand, if you really work in diving, thats stuff you will pick up in no time and your employer will be happy to teach you for no cost. about that whole problem, feel free to visit our website also (link at the bottom) its just for pro's and ppl on the way there! you will find a lot of info here and quite some there of instr / dm about training and what to do. sorry, dont try to steer you away from here at all - after all its one of the biggest websites on scuba! idc with pro dive - fine!, the ros course wasted money (it is expensive! not bad - so dont get me wrong). i wouldnt hire you based on it! gimme a instr (new one), have your nitrox instr (cause it sells), be a gasblender (cause i dont have to teach you from scratch - even if you need training on our system), and be a teamworker pref with mechanical skills and you have a job with me anytime without the resort op specialist course or any of the other likewise courses. i wont hire you as a manager anyway - you work yourself up there or bring a ****load more credentials than this ros card! spend the money to get a uscg licence as example - that will pay off for you a lot better ;o)
OP
teknitroxdiver
Contributor
What's involved in getting a USCG licence for say, a 6-pack?
Hate to sound like your parents, but go to college and get a real job.
I've never seen too many 50 year old successful OWSI's myself, and the 50 yr old beach-bum thing gets old I'm sure.......
That's what you do AFTER you can afford to retire properly.
Good luck.
If you are as smart as I was at 17, you'll do the wrong thing and wish you could back up and start over..............10 years after the fact of course.
Not that I'm *****ing about my life, cause I ain't.
I've never seen too many 50 year old successful OWSI's myself, and the 50 yr old beach-bum thing gets old I'm sure.......
That's what you do AFTER you can afford to retire properly.
Good luck.
If you are as smart as I was at 17, you'll do the wrong thing and wish you could back up and start over..............10 years after the fact of course.
Not that I'm *****ing about my life, cause I ain't.
OP
teknitroxdiver
Contributor
Good advice no doubt. However, I'm afraid you've missed the part that the instructor cert will be a backup to my 'real' job. 
thanks
thanks
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