Average Divemaster's Salary

[TMHeimer]

I worked at a dive shop part time on weekends for several years. One of our instructors said he would take my wife and me from AOW through AI if we helped out with classes. It was a two year internship, and our only costs were the books and cards.
Our shop would charter one boat each month and we would work as DMs on the boat, unpaid. Most times we could squeeze in one dive each, but not always. Once we didn't sell enough spots, so we had to pay for our own spots and still work. We never received a cent for any of our time as DMs. After a year of working boats I decided not to renew my DM card. I've been happy ever since.

I hear ya. And sorry if I seemed critical. Seems like you got with a nasty instructor. I just have this pet peave about DMs working for free, which is, apparently, par for the course in the U.S. (and maybe Canada?). I'm lucky to occasionally work for an owner who pays. Sorry I got into diving so late in life, as I really enjoy being a DM, for as long as it will last-- physically....

 

[MaxBottomtime]

No worries. I've read about DMs making decent tip money at resorts worldwide, it just doesn't happen here. Basically, it's like being a volunteer lifeguard for the Summer.

 

[theduckguru]

LDSs, resorts and charters don't give their products/services away for free, why DMs and instructors do is quite baffling.

 

[triplecove]

I dont get it, where does the $300+ go for the tuition on most ow classes? ? The LDS? the instructor none for the DM's?

 

[vladimir]

I used to trade commodities in the trading pits in NY. The Coffee, Sugar, and Cocoa Exchange; the Comex (gold, silver, and copper); the NYMEX (crude oil, heating oil, gasoline, platinum); and the Cotton Exchange, among others, were all housed in World Trade Center 4. The challenge was to figure out where the money was being made. Unlike today, you needed to be physically present to trade as a market-maker, so you had to choose where the best use of your time was. Market data was not as rich as it is today, so you had to do a little old-fashioned divination. One good indicator: if there was a broad consensus among, say, cocoa traders that there was no money to me made, there was probably good money to be made in the cocoa pit. Extra competition was never welcome, so they discouraged it in various ways, subtle and otherwise. Based on this thread and others, I'm guessing that a few of our fellow ScubaBoarders are getting pretty wealthy at the divemaster game.

 

[616fun]

I used to trade commodities in the trading pits in NY. The Coffee, Sugar, and Cocoa Exchange; the Comex (gold, silver, and copper); the NYMEX (crude oil, heating oil, gasoline, platinum); and the Cotton Exchange, among others, were all housed in World Trade Center 4. The challenge was to figure out where the money was being made. Unlike today, you needed to be physically present to trade as a market-maker, so you had to choose where the best use of your time was. Market data was not as rich as it is today, so you had to do a little old-fashioned divination. One good indicator: if there was a broad consensus among, say, cocoa traders that there was no money to me made, there was probably good money to be made in the cocoa pit. Extra competition was never welcome, so they discouraged it in various ways, subtle and otherwise. Based on this thread and others, I'm guessing that a few of our fellow ScubaBoarders are getting pretty wealthy at the divemaster game.

Sounds like you need to sign up and pay for the right to spend your money to DM.

Basically DMs in my area make tips (which are very few and far between) and an occasional scuba review. You are expected to cover your cost (professional dues, insurance, site entry fees, equipment and equipment maintenance, etc) and dive all shop gear. You may get a discount on gear, but its never as good as keyman (that is saved for the instructors). The best you get is free tank of air for pool or check out sessions.

On top of that in my area the instructors are so poorly organized they expect you to drop everything when they have a check out or class pop up. When I questioned this I was told that's just how it is and you have to pay your dues....

I've since sold all my shop related gear, gotten tech certified and dive for me. I do miss the excitement in the faces of the new students as they learn, but not enough to spend ~$400 a year to see that.

 

[SailNaked]

95% of all statistics are made up.
as an instructor I make <2$ an hour per student so unless I have 5 students I do not make minimum wage. in a year I am lucky to break even, after insurance and gear, and not lose money.
as a DM if there are tips, then I would make <5$ per tank, and have the potential to make minimum wage. with out tips I am free labor and it costs me money.

I assume that the statistics quoted were for our real jobs, and really just reference the average income for the type of people that also DM. In the US. in the Caribbean it is a different story.

 

[boulderjohn]

I dont get it, where does the $300+ go for the tuition on most ow classes? ? The LDS? the instructor none for the DM's?

IN my area, the instructor makes only a tiny portion of that fee. The rest of it goes to the overhead and the LDS profits. Overhead includes the cost of the instructional materials, pool rental time, building costs, state and federal taxes for the LDS, etc. As for profits, that's why the LDS is in business. I assume all businesses are hoping to make a profit. Whether or not the profit is reasonable or excessive in comparison with the rest of the course costs varies from shop to shop. In my area, two shops went out of business in the last couple of years, so I assume their profits were not excessive.

When I was a DM teaching pool discover scuba classes, I would sometimes get a tip. The tippers usually thought they were giving me a little something extra. In reality, every tip I ever got at least equaled what I was actually paid for the course.

 

[miketsp]

The best paid "DMs" I ever saw had exchanged volume for quality.

I won't say where but how it works is they would board a large tourist boat with all their equipment and some spare cylinders. The boat was taking snorkelers & day trippers out to a shallow reef structure where people could get off and walk around or snorkel. There was a steady flow of such boats with hundreds, if not thousands, of potential customers per day.
The dive team set up a desk on the reef and sold "discovery" dives for 25USD per go. Credit cards accepted.
This "discovery" dive consisted of less than 5 minutes briefing and being taught to use the regulator followed by 5 minutes being dragged around the reef with the "DM" holding on to the 1st stage. So maximum depth was "arms-length" as the DM was just swimming on the surface with only basic equipment. Customer was not allowed to use fins to ease control by the "DM".
If the customer wanted to go a little deeper to stick his head into a small cave, that was classed as a "technical" dive and cost an extra 10 USD. The DM would use the customer's octopus for this "dive".

The "dive team" would catch the first boat out in the morning and then the last boat back at night. Each DM would do 4, 5 or even 6 of these "dives" per hour, up to 10 hours per day, every day of the month, 4 months per year (tourist high season only). Air consumption was negligible with each full cylinder serving for many dives.

There was a permanent line of customers waiting to sign up all day.
I'll leave you to do the calculations but these guys were making a very comfortable yearly living off 4 months of work.

I was chatting to one of the "DMs" because I and my wife wanted to rent cylinders. He said there was no way he could do it unless he charged me an extremely high rental because it would interrupt his flow of "discoveries".
He confirmed that they were making a lot of money.
I'm pretty sure there was some commission going back to the tourist boat crews because there were a lot of announcements over the PA system on the way out recommending the experience and a couple of kids on each boat distributing leaflets.

I was quite amazed at how many sales were made.

 

[TMHeimer]

Stastistics mean nothing. The duckguru is right-- why do all that work for no pay? I'd hire me too if I were an LDS owner! boulderjohn: 300+ tuition? OW courses here cost around $300 now (Canadian Dollars, which now are at par with the USD). DMs get $300 per OW class. I don't know what instructors get. I love it but wouldn't do it for less-- $300 for an OW course is less than minimum wage in most of Canada.