You mean the IDCs, or the OW classes?
It has got to start with the IDC, and then slowly permeate the OW classes.
Until PADI mandates neutral -- rather than allows or even recommends -- nothing much will change.
Questions on becoming a Dive Instructor (Plan sanity check)
- Thread starter MacDuyver
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It has got to start with the IDC, and then slowly permeate the OW classes.
Until PADI mandates neutral -- rather than allows or even recommends -- nothing much will change.
Do you realize unless you teach prolifically, you are going to lose money.
If you teach for a shop in the PNW, you are going to be paid peanuts.
If you are going to be an independent instructor, you need to find a niche and have the background for it.
My advice is to defer becoming a dive pro. The industry is a giant ponzi scheme. Save your money and dive for fun.
The CDs in the PNW are ... not great. One got up and moved permanently to Mexico after his school had killed a number of students (around six over ten years or so if my memory serves me).
You don't have the experience to know if you want to do this and also to do it well.
If you teach for a shop in the PNW, you are going to be paid peanuts.
If you are going to be an independent instructor, you need to find a niche and have the background for it.
My advice is to defer becoming a dive pro. The industry is a giant ponzi scheme. Save your money and dive for fun.
The CDs in the PNW are ... not great. One got up and moved permanently to Mexico after his school had killed a number of students (around six over ten years or so if my memory serves me).
You don't have the experience to know if you want to do this and also to do it well.
Really?
Unfortunately yes. There's at least one other (Tariq something taking an AOW class): Home | Seattle Scuba Info. I can't remember names for others, so let me reduce that number to 4, which is still 4 too many.
What a shame!
Funny and sad at the same time.
Why? Why do you have a burning desire to become an instructor? Why not just be a diver?
OTF
Coney Island Whitefish Biologist
Would you want to learn from an instructor who had only been diving 100 times before? I wouldn't. Like others have said you need to log more dives before teaching. Sure you could do it on paper. But without more experience to draw on you'll be a crappy teacher unable to handle questions or situations beyond the very basic.
Now, I know nothing about skydiving, but if you wanted to teach something hardcore ASAP it sounds like that would be an easier place to climb the educational ranks quickly given your stated military experience. Consider doing that for a year or two to scratch the teaching itch while you build up your dive count.
How many dives have you done that aren't logged? Lots of people don't log dives at all, if you actually have done a couple hundred hours underwater but only logged a few that's a different story.
Now, I know nothing about skydiving, but if you wanted to teach something hardcore ASAP it sounds like that would be an easier place to climb the educational ranks quickly given your stated military experience. Consider doing that for a year or two to scratch the teaching itch while you build up your dive count.
I provide here my past experience becoming an instructor, switching to "pro" field, and then giving up.
I started in a club environment, very cheap OW course, then free assistant instructor and instructor course. Instructors were not paid, and I worked in this no-profit environment (CMAS) for 5 years.
Then I switched to "pro" instructor, working in holidays resorts in small Mediterranean islands and at Maldives.
Did this for 5 years, but the responsibility was enormous.
After a couple of potentially deadly accidents occurred to customers under my supervision, I realised that the responsibility was really too much, and I gave up.
So, before starting this path, I suggest that you evaluate what follows:
1) do you want to become a professional instructor, getting your monthly income from this activity, or do you want to teach "just for fun" and personal satisfaction, having already another job?
2) If the second case above is yours, have you evaluated entering a no-profit club, and teaching for free, as it is common with CMAS or BSAC?
3) If instead the first case is yours, and you plan to become a "pro", do you foresee you working for a shop, or creating your own training center - personal endeavour, or working at holidays resorts in warm tropical countries? These are three very different "pro" versions, and I experienced only the third one (which is truly a fantastic life, when you are young)...
4) How do you bear the responsibility for the life of your students/customers? Have you had some previous experience of being responsible for the life of other people? (it appears You had, being a skydiving instructor already)...
I started in a club environment, very cheap OW course, then free assistant instructor and instructor course. Instructors were not paid, and I worked in this no-profit environment (CMAS) for 5 years.
Then I switched to "pro" instructor, working in holidays resorts in small Mediterranean islands and at Maldives.
Did this for 5 years, but the responsibility was enormous.
After a couple of potentially deadly accidents occurred to customers under my supervision, I realised that the responsibility was really too much, and I gave up.
So, before starting this path, I suggest that you evaluate what follows:
1) do you want to become a professional instructor, getting your monthly income from this activity, or do you want to teach "just for fun" and personal satisfaction, having already another job?
2) If the second case above is yours, have you evaluated entering a no-profit club, and teaching for free, as it is common with CMAS or BSAC?
3) If instead the first case is yours, and you plan to become a "pro", do you foresee you working for a shop, or creating your own training center - personal endeavour, or working at holidays resorts in warm tropical countries? These are three very different "pro" versions, and I experienced only the third one (which is truly a fantastic life, when you are young)...
4) How do you bear the responsibility for the life of your students/customers? Have you had some previous experience of being responsible for the life of other people? (it appears You had, being a skydiving instructor already)...
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