Part Time Dive Master, Is there such a thing?

[Ankush Mittal]

I know of some part time DM. However, the dive season is seasonal, and their main job focuses on the other seasons, and they live near the boat so no transportation, and their duties are primarily helping folks on and off the boats before, during and after the dives, also setting the anchor, and once in a while serving as a DM for hire. One in mind is a school principal and mainly DMs in the summer and weekends in late spring and early fall. Note that while folks are in the water if there is another DM on top and captain watching for divers in trouble he might be able to do a 20-30 minute dive looking around. Also during the SI, the DMs will sometimes do a short dive. On these boats all tips go to the DMs. The captain/owner/shop owner does not take any of the tips. He is actually a bit of an exception. Most of the active DM I now, even the part time ones, all are also instructors. Makes them more useful to the shops.

Makes sense, but from what I understand the way Dive Shops operate in the west is very different than the way they operate in the more typical tourist destinations of Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and others where neither are there enough Local DMs, but also that their aren't nearly enough good local DMs who speak English. But thanks for the info

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Do you see the words "What or who is a Dive Master?" or "What are the duties of a Dive Master?" written anywhere in the question I asked?

An internet tough guy? Awesome dude! There used to be so many internet tough guys on scubaboard a decade ago. Then they realized that diving community is small and everyone happens to be on scubaboard! Folks would often run into each other in resorts, liveaboards dive dive shows and if you were a d!ck on these boards then it was embarrassing when you met the same person in real life. That is when this board started to become a more polite place.

Still, once in a blue moon some new guy walks in here not realizing the above dynamic. He asks a question that has been beaten to death and also acts TOUGH! Everything about the question and the tone of the questioner suggests only one thing.

The guy is new!

Welcome to scubaboard and welcome to the world of diving!

 

[Ankush Mittal]

An internet tough guy? Awesome dude! There used to be so many internet tough guys on scubaboard a decade ago. Then they realized that diving community is small and everyone happens to be on scubaboard! Folks would often run into each other in resorts, liveaboards dive dive shows and if you were a d!ck on these boards then it was embarrassing when you met the same person in real life. That is when this board started to become a more polite place.

Still, once in a blue moon some new guy walks in here not realizing the above dynamic. He asks a question that has been beaten to death and also acts TOUGH! Everything about the question and the tone of the questioner suggests only one thing.

The guy is new!

Welcome to scubaboard and welcome to the world of diving!

Aww, congratulations! You want a cookie?

 

[Blasto]

I know for a fact that DMs earn about THB 30,000 a month in Thailand, which is slightly less than USD 1000, which is enough for a decent accommodation and food in Thailand.

If you get an offer like that, that's good and will accomplish your goal (still won't beat watching TV at home financially, though - you can bet your air it's high season earnings, so tickets and housing will add up). The numbers I've heard more often were closer to 250-300 THB/dive, which would call for 100-120 dives. That's difficult to score as a junior DM - most tourists just do the 2 day dives, that's where the peak is, off-peak dives will more likely get handled by locals and instructors.

Keep in mind that your primary competition at that earnings level won't be freshly pumped-out gap year DMs (who just wanted the class experience), but locals with often a few thousand dives.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Makes sense, but from what I understand the way Dive Shops operate in the west is very different than the way they operate in the more typical tourist destinations of Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and others where neither are there enough Local DMs, but also that their aren't nearly enough good local DMs who speak English. But thanks for the info

Thailand, maybe--I haven't dived in Phuket, etc.--but in Indonesia and Malaysia I saw only local DMs. That's where my statement above came from. You can read the list of places I have dived, and in many if not most of them the DMs were locals. It sounds like you're very familiar with Thailand, though, so I certainly limit my comments to places I'm familiar with. It's my understanding that Thailand is known as a place where lots of young adventurous divers go to take the DM course, so it seems reasonable that those newly minted DMs might stay on for a few months after their courses. However, some, I would imagine, go straight into the instructor development course. To reiterate my comment above, I would think you would need to become an instructor if you want to earn enough to live on.

 

[Ankush Mittal]

If you get an offer like that, that's good and will accomplish your goal (still won't beat watching TV at home financially, though - you can bet your air it's high season earnings, so tickets and housing will add up). The numbers I've heard more often were closer to 250-300 THB/dive, which would call for 100-120 dives. That's difficult to score as a junior DM - most tourists just do the 2 day dives, that's where the peak is, off-peak dives will more likely get handled by locals and instructors.

Keep in mind that your primary competition at that earnings level won't be freshly pumped-out gap year DMs (who just wanted the class experience), but locals with often a few thousand dives.

"bet your air" haha thats a good one, I'm going to use that more often.

I actually had a very detailed conversation with two European DMs in Samaui about the salaries.

But, ya from what I can understand going into IDC would make more sense.

 

[Ankush Mittal]

Thailand, maybe--I haven't dived in Phuket, etc.--but in Indonesia and Malaysia I saw only local DMs. That's where my statement above came from. You can read the list of places I have dived, and in many if not most of them the DMs were locals. It sounds like you're very familiar with Thailand, though, so I certainly limit my comments to places I'm familiar with. It's my understanding that Thailand is known as a place where lots of young adventurous divers go to take the DM course, so it seems reasonable that those newly minted DMs might stay on for a few months after their courses. However, some, I would imagine, go straight into the instructor development course. To reiterate my comment above, I would think you would need to become an instructor if you want to earn enough to live on.

My maximum dives have been in Thailand and hence the lack of information. Looking back I realize the foreigners at Indonesia and Malaysia I talked to our Instructors. So the final consensus would be to use DM only has a stepping stone toward IDC.

Thanks for the advice

 

[smellzlikefish]

You might be able to get work, but no matter what, you will always be the fresh DM with less experience than all of your coworkers. Your services will almost certainly be substandard by comparison, so your guests will be shown fewer cryptic animals, have a poorer overall experience, and have a guide that is less capable in an emergency. You are going for a zero to hero plan, which relies on gaining lots of diving experience really quickly once you become a professional. As soon as you are certified, it will be time to go home and hang up the gear for 8-10 months. By the time you get back in the water, you will practically need a refresher of your own, except you also hope to guide people at the same time.

 

[HantsDiver]

If you get an offer like that, that's good and will accomplish your goal (still won't beat watching TV at home financially, though - you can bet your air it's high season earnings, so tickets and housing will add up). The numbers I've heard more often were closer to 250-300 THB/dive, which would call for 100-120 dives. That's difficult to score as a junior DM - most tourists just do the 2 day dives, that's where the peak is, off-peak dives will more likely get handled by locals and instructors.

Keep in mind that your primary competition at that earnings level won't be freshly pumped-out gap year DMs (who just wanted the class experience), but locals with often a few thousand dives.

In thailand it's usually 100baht a tank. Which means if you lead two people on one dive it's 200 baht. If you go out on the morning boat with 4 people and they each do 2 dives you will get 800 baht. Sometimes slightly more for night dives - but they will sometimes have fun divers tag along with AOW night dive is numbers allow. Guiding the morning and afternoon is not unusual.

Earning 30k baht a month isn't that hard if you are willing to take nearly no time off and dive the same sites repeatedly. And if you are there in high season. In low season you have no chance.

 

[Cap335]

The question will be what would set you apart from other people basically trying the same thing, do you do gear repair, boat repair, compressor repair. You won't have the experience to get a shop to hire you based on dive skills but most tropical dive shops can use help on repairs and maintenance. Have you considered the Seashells It is closer to home so you should know more of the marine life