Dive Instructor salary 2016

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At the shop where I used to DM the instructors got $75 Canadian per student. OW courses could be very large (12?), but are usually 6-8 students. This means the instructor doesn't make twice the DM course salary of $300. One instructor said for the work involved, he should have remained a DM assistant. Nobody on staff to my knowledge doesn't have a day job.
 
Most instructors I know pay to teach. The exceptions are the shop owners.
How does that work-- and why?
 
How does that work-- and why?

I can answer that.

There are two sides to this. First the cost side.

I'm a technical diver and I dive a lot. Almost every dive I make is deep and long and involves breathing through most of 3x 12L tanks of gas, much of it Nitrox. I do this at least once a week if not 2 or 3 in the warm summer months.

I also own (let me count them) ... 7 regulators and three complete sets of diving gear, including my daughter's set, which, of course, I maintain fastidiously, much to the contrast of my own gear which can sometimes go without service until I can't remember the last time I've had it on the bench.

If I added up all the costs I would have for gas and maintenance on my gear alone, not including anything else, then having "no questions asked" access to the compressor and the work bench already compensates me for ..... let's call it €2000 a year. So to me, that's the base line cost of my hobby outside of gear replacement that I have to deal with.

I do also have replacements. This year a battery for my watch, a new battery for my primary light a charger that bit the big one, a replacement of a 14 year old wing that I managed to keep in operation beyond its natural life span by gooping it and seals done on my drysuit. Next year I will also have costs..... etc. All of this I get from the shop at a steep discount because I'm staff. In short, I reduce costs by enough that I can usually take a diving vacation each year on a budget-neutral basis.

The shop I work for is also a travel agent. They run a LOT of trips and if you go along as their "man on the ground" on a trip like that then your trip is either free (if there are more than 6 people going) or 50% off (if less than 6 people are going) for the cost of taking care of the group while you're gone. You have to like this but I actually do like this and if you consider a free trip (per saldo) every couple of years then that's pretty cool.

The other side of it is more of a principle thing. I want to "pay forward".

The simple fact is that I have had some outstanding scuba instructors in my life time and they were all people like me. People who did it because they WANTED to do it, not because they wanted to profit from giving me lessons. Where I live (and have lived) scuba instructors are paid next to nothing. They are the dive industry equivalents of "untouchables", people who are indispensable for the economy but whose caste is so low that other people literally don't want to touch them. I've said many times that if a scuba instructor made minimum wage he/she would think they won the lottery. The lowest paid people at McDonalds make more money (a LOT more money) than a scuba instructor.

So why would you do it? speaking only for myself I want to pay forward. I want to give my students the foundation that they need to become good, safe, divers who can grow. I am in the position I am in right now because other people before me volunteered their time to teach me how to dive at this level. Now I feel like the torch bearer and I WANT to pass that on. Already one of my ex students has become a technical instructor, one (not a ex student but an ex buddy who I took under my wing) has become a PADI CD, an IANTD instructor trainer and a TDI instructor trainer, and another will become an outstanding PADI instructor as soon as he has the time to invest in it. These things and also the OW students who enjoy the sport with good buoyancy control and minimal stress make me feel proud about my work as an instructor. I'm doing the right things and my students are doing the right things...

Keep in mind that I focus almost entirely upon newbie divers, mostly OW, so I can get them early and form the way they dive and the way they think about diving. To me it doesn't matter at all that some of my ex students have exceeded my qualifications. I literally.. could... not... be.... more ... proud.

I guess there is a third element and it's this:

I work in a high-stress, public sector, big budget environment in real life. Budgets under €100-million are small. Budgets in the billion range are not uncommon. Right now I'm working in a high-profile project with 1/2-Billion budget and we're (me and my crew) are starting to find this "normal". The upshot is that my day job is hard. I'm paid well but my work means that any little mistake I make may get in the papers and become political. Despite how I come across online, I'm a bit (to say the least) of an introvert and that stress builds up... and up.... and up..... and I need a way to let it go. That's what my diving does. No matter how stressed out I am on Friday night (the night I give lessons) or Sunday (the day I do open water lessons), as soon as my head hits the water I'm a diver... and ONLY a diver... no longer the boss, no longer responsible for stupid huge amounts of money.... no longer one of those guys who decides how you can (or cannot) commute to work, no longer someone (fortunately anonymous) who journalists moan about without knowing who it is..... Just a diver ... just another guy..... just a buddy .....just an instructor.... just someone ENJOYING... THEIR ... HOBBY.

And I get to do all of that for round-about the same amount of money it costs.

R..
 
How does that work-- and why?
Travel and lodging costs more than the compensation received for teaching, add on insurance, annual dues, etc, the instructors are out of pocket a fair amount.

Some DMs make nothing to be there, and get 10% off msrp. Yet still do it.
 
Yes, it's a subject often discussed in the past in the Going Pro Forum. I understand the points made, but still disagree with the idea of teaching and not coming away at least a bit in the black economically. Maybe because my career was that of teacher. It is the way it is.
 
I worked pennekamp park in key largo as DM. I received 50.00 per trip two trips a day weather permitting, five days a week. This was more than I made as a dive instructor. Go figure!
 
Yes, it's a subject often discussed in the past in the Going Pro Forum. I understand the points made, but still disagree with the idea of teaching and not coming away at least a bit in the black economically. Maybe because my career was that of teacher. It is the way it is.
What irks me are the shops profiting off the loss of money by the teaching crew.
 
Most instructors I know pay to teach. The exceptions are the shop owners.
omg what do u mean ? pay the shop money to teach their student ? why is that bruh
 
well played sir well played.

I can answer that.

There are two sides to this. First the cost side.

I'm a technical diver and I dive a lot. Almost every dive I make is deep and long and involves breathing through most of 3x 12L tanks of gas, much of it Nitrox. I do this at least once a week if not 2 or 3 in the warm summer months.

I also own (let me count them) ... 7 regulators and three complete sets of diving gear, including my daughter's set, which, of course, I maintain fastidiously, much to the contrast of my own gear which can sometimes go without service until I can't remember the last time I've had it on the bench.

If I added up all the costs I would have for gas and maintenance on my gear alone, not including anything else, then having "no questions asked" access to the compressor and the work bench already compensates me for ..... let's call it €2000 a year. So to me, that's the base line cost of my hobby outside of gear replacement that I have to deal with.

I do also have replacements. This year a battery for my watch, a new battery for my primary light a charger that bit the big one, a replacement of a 14 year old wing that I managed to keep in operation beyond its natural life span by gooping it and seals done on my drysuit. Next year I will also have costs..... etc. All of this I get from the shop at a steep discount because I'm staff. In short, I reduce costs by enough that I can usually take a diving vacation each year on a budget-neutral basis.

The shop I work for is also a travel agent. They run a LOT of trips and if you go along as their "man on the ground" on a trip like that then your trip is either free (if there are more than 6 people going) or 50% off (if less than 6 people are going) for the cost of taking care of the group while you're gone. You have to like this but I actually do like this and if you consider a free trip (per saldo) every couple of years then that's pretty cool.

The other side of it is more of a principle thing. I want to "pay forward".

The simple fact is that I have had some outstanding scuba instructors in my life time and they were all people like me. People who did it because they WANTED to do it, not because they wanted to profit from giving me lessons. Where I live (and have lived) scuba instructors are paid next to nothing. They are the dive industry equivalents of "untouchables", people who are indispensable for the economy but whose caste is so low that other people literally don't want to touch them. I've said many times that if a scuba instructor made minimum wage he/she would think they won the lottery. The lowest paid people at McDonalds make more money (a LOT more money) than a scuba instructor.

So why would you do it? speaking only for myself I want to pay forward. I want to give my students the foundation that they need to become good, safe, divers who can grow. I am in the position I am in right now because other people before me volunteered their time to teach me how to dive at this level. Now I feel like the torch bearer and I WANT to pass that on. Already one of my ex students has become a technical instructor, one (not a ex student but an ex buddy who I took under my wing) has become a PADI CD, an IANTD instructor trainer and a TDI instructor trainer, and another will become an outstanding PADI instructor as soon as he has the time to invest in it. These things and also the OW students who enjoy the sport with good buoyancy control and minimal stress make me feel proud about my work as an instructor. I'm doing the right things and my students are doing the right things...

Keep in mind that I focus almost entirely upon newbie divers, mostly OW, so I can get them early and form the way they dive and the way they think about diving. To me it doesn't matter at all that some of my ex students have exceeded my qualifications. I literally.. could... not... be.... more ... proud.

I guess there is a third element and it's this:

I work in a high-stress, public sector, big budget environment in real life. Budgets under €100-million are small. Budgets in the billion range are not uncommon. Right now I'm working in a high-profile project with 1/2-Billion budget and we're (me and my crew) are starting to find this "normal". The upshot is that my day job is hard. I'm paid well but my work means that any little mistake I make may get in the papers and become political. Despite how I come across online, I'm a bit (to say the least) of an introvert and that stress builds up... and up.... and up..... and I need a way to let it go. That's what my diving does. No matter how stressed out I am on Friday night (the night I give lessons) or Sunday (the day I do open water lessons), as soon as my head hits the water I'm a diver... and ONLY a diver... no longer the boss, no longer responsible for stupid huge amounts of money.... no longer one of those guys who decides how you can (or cannot) commute to work, no longer someone (fortunately anonymous) who journalists moan about without knowing who it is..... Just a diver ... just another guy..... just a buddy .....just an instructor.... just someone ENJOYING... THEIR ... HOBBY.

And I get to do all of that for round-about the same amount of money it costs.

R..
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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