Scuba training costs..........

[David P]

The LDS that I help out at charges $495 for OW. This includes books, 2 days of class/pool, gear rental (wetsuit,bc,reg,tank,hood,weights), boat ride to Catalina Island, hotel stay, 2 days of diving, 1 day boat diving, pic... what is not included is personal gear (mask,fins,snorkle,gloves,booties) 2 air fills on first day of diving, whatever student eats/drinks while on the island.

The instructor gets $100
The dive boat gets $100
The hotel gets $100
The Ferry gets $50
Cant forget about pool fees, rental gear, books, electricity, and a whole bunch of other things.

Yeah, not a whole lot of money is made off BOW, hopefully the students will buy full gear setup, but gear
is not pushed

 

[owlbill]

You have to remember that a typical class won't just have 1 student. Using your numbers, if a class had 5 students, that's upwards of 55.00 an hour just for instruction...more if it's not a small outfit.

As a group maybe they pay a total of 55 bucks an hour to the shop. After all the expenses listed in other posts, it does not leave much left. Hell, i will not stop teaching, I do like it. I just would like to see the cost of training begin to reflect what is involved in the background. How much for skydiving? Anyone know, I would like to compare that. Or a bungee jump. Pay for a 30 second ride, divide that by the hour. LOL

Bill

 

[owlbill]

Also, up here, lots of peope dive, but very few seem to want to dive locally often enough to buy all their gear. Why gamble that they "might" buy gear. Sell them the course at a reasonable price for the shop and staff, then offer gear discount. Dont discount both. That is all I would like to see in this industry. Fairness for both sides of the counter, not just a totally consumer driven, price dropping trend.

Anyway, thanks for the input all.

Bill

 

[Ron Brandt]

People don't want to spend the money. Some people balk at the $250-$450 class and then expect to do the check outs for free or have their tropical warm water referral ckeck outs included.....These of course, are the "educated" student that also complains of the cost of textbooks for their Masters degree.....yet have no problem paying for expensive cars,rounds of drinks for their friends or a $10,000 cruise vacation.

These are the same people that send there children off to piano, guitar,violin lessons at $75+ per hour but don't want to spend hardly any money to lean a "sport" that can kill you.

I often see people on here rattling off numbers for lds or instructor profit....these people have never owned and ran a dive business and do not think about rent,cost of gear,compressor..or other bills that add up.

Yes there is money in gear but ther is also the internet.......
Ron

 

[fire_diver]

As a group maybe they pay a total of 55 bucks an hour to the shop. After all the expenses listed in other posts, it does not leave much left. Hell, i will not stop teaching, I do like it. I just would like to see the cost of training begin to reflect what is involved in the background. How much for skydiving? Anyone know, I would like to compare that. Or a bungee jump. Pay for a 30 second ride, divide that by the hour. LOL
Bill

While I have never bungie jumped, I have paid $20 to ride one of those sling shot rides. Yeah, it's a lot of money for the time it takes, but it's fun. It's something I only do maybe once a year. I also don't have to buy any gear to do it.

I agree that the instructor and DM should get a fair wage for training new OW students. But you have to balance that with the economics of today. How many prospective new students will be lost if the price is raised X%? At some point it begins to make less money that it is now.

I understand that this hobby has a very high drop-out rate for beginners. That should be a reason to keep the initial class costs as LOW as possible. Get higher numbers in the door, and the shop will have a higher number of people who stay.

FD

 

[Wayward Son]

This is the traditional business model for dive shops. Sell the OW course fairly cheap & make up for it with gear sales to the graduates. There are & have been some good arguments for changing this & some shops are. mostly they continue to stick with this, though.

 

[Mark_J]

OW courses tend to be treated as advertising costs in the area where I currently live as well as back home in the Northeast. As many have already pointed out, once a student gets involved with diving they can become long time customers of the LDS where they got certified. The risks and rewards are calculated out (by the successful shops anyway) and OW course costs are determined. Don't let an exceptionally inexpensive OW course cost prevent you from investigating the Dive Shop offering the course.

Do your homework on the shop and their instructors, then you can make an educated decision.

 

[wedivebc]

I have 12 students enrolled in my next 2 OW courses. I never have more than 4 students on a tech course. Pretty simple math really

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

...That is all I would like to see in this industry. Fairness for both sides of the counter, not just a totally consumer driven, price dropping trend...

That's where you make your mistake... free markets are ALWAYS consumer driven.

If you want to take it to the next level here is what would need to occur:

• Government regulation of ALL facets of the dive industry
• Reduction of Instructor certifications to a fraction (something like 90-95% less) of what they are today
• Instructor qualification testing every year
• Total crackdown and regulation on every day cost of living items, so people have enough expendable funds to pay for the increased cost of diving in general

Hmm, if the above were all completed, instructors wouldn't need more money for the class... lol

As a business owner and a diver, I am thankful we have the free market system

 

[TheRedHead]

I have 12 students enrolled in my next 2 OW courses. I never have more than 4 students on a tech course. Pretty simple math really

I am even more amazed when divers price shop tech classes.