The $99 scuba course question

[boulderjohn]

Very true. If you as an instructor posses good trim and bouyancy, and teach your classes as if that is the standard(which it is), your students will naturally try to emulate your skill set. I'm not saying that all of them will be perfect, but the seed will be planted. During OW classes I don't really teach the frog kick or level trim other than a brief talk during the Classroom portion, but a hefty percentage of my students are emulating my body position and movements within 30 minutes during the pool sessions.

I am nationally certified to coach volleyball and soccer, and in the required training for both programs, the fact that students learn their skills primarily through imitation was hammered into us. It barely matters what you say about a skill--students will imitate what they see. Instructors need to be mindful of what they are doing constantly, and they need to make sure that any assistants they have are constantly looking like divers should look. If a student looks really good in the water, be sure to praise that student in front of the rest of the class--the rest of the class will watch that student, looking for a role model.

 

[tomfcrist]

I am nationally certified to coach volleyball and soccer.

Is there anything you DONT teach John? Lmao.

 

[flyin01]

I have to wonder what will happen to dive training when and if the new minimum wage and crackdowns on " independent contractors " happens. I work with classes because I enjoy diving and spending time with the students. My pay as a DM is a joke compared to my day job and I have no complaints but I can guarantee that if minimum wage was applied to the dive industry $99 classes would be gone.

 

[ams511]

I have to wonder what will happen to dive training when and if the new minimum wage and crackdowns on " independent contractors " happens. I work with classes because I enjoy diving and spending time with the students. My pay as a DM is a joke compared to my day job and I have no complaints but I can guarantee that if minimum wage was applied to the dive industry $99 classes would be gone.

I can not see how a dive master could legally be considered an independent contractor. In general, if you are under the control or direction of another then you are an employee. As a DM I would assume the shop or boat tells you what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. That said I am sure shops and boats try to get away with this. If challenged I am fairly certain the shops would lose.

I have a NAUI DM book, I thought it was pretty poor of them to wait till the very last chapter to mention that a DM card is basically worthless. The book said shops and resorts prefer instructors because they are more versatile and if you want to be a DM you need other skills such as sales or diesel mechanics.

 

[RJP]

You should be making a mint there in New Jersey. According to CNBC the amount of households there over $200,000 is 7.5%.

That number is being dragged down by Newark, Paterson, Camden, Elizabeth, etc.



Here in Hunterdon/Somerset county area (1st/2nd wealthiest in NJ and both in the top 10 in US) it's 18.2%. More than 32% have a household income >$150k.

Sure, the cost of living is higher here than elsewhere. But I was at the gym in Princeton this morning and based on the parking lot at 5am you would have thought it was an Aston-Martin/Porsche/Tesla dealership. (Plus one lowly Audi SUV with a dive flag on the tow hitch.) A full 27% have HHI >$200k. The median income is $148k

The Princeton target audience isn't looking for $99 open water courses.

In Princeton, even the people on the "wrong side of the tracks" have a few bucks in their pocket:

Yet somehow two of the four shops in the local area have gone out of business in the last few years while offering loss-leader training. One of the remaining shops does more ski and surf than scuba. The other probably does more mail order than retail and training combined.

 

[ams511]

Hard to imagine if you do some simple back of the envelope math.

I think you are taking this way too seriously. There is no way possible for a shop to offer a $99 course all-inclusive course. Usually there are extra fees involved.

 

[flyin01]

I can not see how a dive master could legally be considered an independent contractor. In general, if you are under the control or direction of another then you are an employee. As a DM I would assume the shop or boat tells you what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. That said I am sure shops and boats try to get away with this. If challenged I am fairly certain the shops would lose.

I have a NAUI DM book, I thought it was pretty poor of them to wait till the very last chapter to mention that a DM card is basically worthless. The book said shops and resorts prefer instructors because they are more versatile and if you want to be a DM you need other skills such as sales or diesel mechanics.

I am sure some day a lawsuit will confirm this. I just wonder what will happen then.

 

[RJP]

I am sure some day a lawsuit will confirm this. I just wonder what will happen then.

Who is going to sue whom? For what? What law firm is going to take this case on?

You'd have 2-3 DMs here and there suing hundreds of small mom-and-pop retail dive shops for a few hundred dollars each. Impossible to get the DMs certified as a class because there's no common defendant or tort. And even if you could, there's not enough of them for a class-action firm to even put a paralegal on the case for an afternoon. They make their money by finding 10,000,000 people that are each owed $10 an Apple or GM or AT&T and then settling for $6/person and collecting 1/3rd of the $60,000,000 settlement.

 

[redacted]

The problem is obvious. If you can't afford to keep the lines properly painted on your home tennis court, how can you possibly afford scuba certification? And why would you want to scuba dive anyway? If you liked salt water, you would have a place down the shore.

As far as DM being independent contractors, I would expect that would get settled real fast if there were any issues with FICA witholdings. That probably does not come up if nobody is reporting any income.:shocked2:

 

[stuartv]

Hard to imagine if you do some simple back of the envelope math.

All your math fails to take into account that a shop might be taking a loss. It's called a loss leader. They are used to draw people in and make money in other ways. Done correctly, they are clearly sustainable.

Also as ams pointed out, I stipulated clearly that a $99 class included extra costs for the student, paid to the shop.