Tipping instructor?

[Tom Winters]

Oh yeah, when I taught, I never got tipped. I got tipped bigtime as a dive guide though. Staggering amounts some weeks.

 

[Brandon]

As I said earlier - it varies from location to location. In Alaska it may very well be that DMs don't get paid a cent, while Instructors get paid, and the DMs deserve tips and the Instructors don't (especially for the type of performance you mentioned for your AOW class). In much of the commercial dive world, everyone on the boat does get paid. Come to Hawaii, dive for four days. As a "certified" diver you'll probably shell out 400-450 bucks and expect the tour to meet certain standards, as a student you'll probably shell out 400-450 bucks and expect the class to meet certain standards, everyone gets paid, it's all the same... yet apparently, according to some on this board, the Instructor (who probably worked harder than the other crew) doesn't deserve tips while the other crew does?

I understand things are different in other areas, I mentioned that it the first post. I highly doubt most instructors in Hawaii are hopping into the water with their class, finishing the skills, then getting back out as soon as they're completed. From what I've seen during my trips to Maui, most instructors are pulling double duty, making sure that the skills get covered, but also leaving some time to have fun underwater exploring the reefs. Those instructors do deserve to be tipped.

I can't agree that my professional educator model is flawed, and I think you've misunderstood my argument.

Let me clarify:

To the extent that a dive instructor takes his student into the water, and teaches the basic skills, and ends the dive when these requirements are met, the instructor is functioning in the same way that a professor does. They have material to teach, and they teach it, nothing more. Discussion about their professional qualifications is irrelevant to this discussion.

An instructor functioning in this capacity (like my AOW instructor) is simply an educator, and is fufilling the basic requirements. This is what you paid your course fees for, and like the professor, tradition does not dictate tipping in this situation.

Things change when the instructor conducts his dives as both training and recreational dives. Perhaps the first 5-10 minutes of the dive is spent practicing skills, while the next 30 minutes is spent enjoying the underwater world. This instructor fufilled his requirements as an educator in the first 10 minutes, and choose to continue on more in the role of the divemaster for the remainder of the dive.

This instructor deserves to be tipped. The instructor has crossed the gap from educator to service employee, and has provided an additional service beyond what they were contracted to provide.

Hope that makes my position more clear. Understood in this manner, geography and compensation practices are much less relevant to the task being performed.

-Brandon.

 

[Bratface]

Professionals don't expect tips, and in my profession, we are not allowed to accept them.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Professionals don't expect tips, and in my profession, we are not allowed to accept them.

Well then ... you're obviously not a Congressman ... :browsmile

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Mr.X]

I have been tipped only once in my history as an instructor. I had finished an ice diving course and a student left a tip with one of the other divers before he flew home. Personally, I feel weird about it as I carry the mentality of public servant everywhere I go. I think tipping dive folks (boat drivers, guides) who need to urgently earn a living (in hardscrabble countries) is OK. My two cents. X

 

[Bratface]

Well then ... you're obviously not a Congressman ... :browsmile

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

No, not at all. Corporate politics are maddening enough .:smileysto

 

[Scuba Brad]

Congressmen don't wait for tips they ask for them................and expect them.

Happy Diving

 

[HarryWhisman]

if I get my car serviced I don't tip the machanic.

When I get my car serviced I get the feeling the tip is built in.

 

[tiburon72157]

tipping an instructor? dm? somebody must have ingested some salt water...and now the hallucinations are beginning.

 

[Jim Ernst]

but not much. I have a friend who is an excellent instructor, and not long ago was making $50 per student with a dive shop that was charging $250 per student. A class was considered anything over 3 people. So with a class of 4, he made $200 before taxes - a min. of 30 hrs of work (8 3hr. classes + checkout dives). He had a three hour drive to the checkout dive site - so taking $25 (yeah, right) out for gas, he would make under $6 an hour at most.

I guess I'm saying that just because you're paying money, it doesn't mean your instructor is getting it (unless it's private or the owner). A lot of instructors live on tips, and I never would have known it had I not done his taxes!

you have a very valid point!! but also dm quite offten SPEND thier money to help teach the class, so i am kinda in the middle here as a dm and as an assistant instructor-instructor candidate!! lol kinda a catch 22 for me. oh well it matters not as i do it because i enjoy it!!