Randolphscott:
Hello my Dive Instructor Friends.
I recently had an excellent re-introduction to scuba courtesy of three great people, and am wondering if anyone in training ever offers gratitude w/ a tip?
R
Back to the OP's question, the short answer is
yes! The long answer is that not every training situation is the same so there are also plenty of students who should not feel bad that both they and their instructors never considered a tip. Everywhere is different, my experience is from the Florida Keys and Hawaii.
I worked for a shop that trained the BYU Hawaii dive club. The instructors and DM's knew we'd be lucky if we got a Subway sandwich out of
that OW class. The next class might be kid(s) staying with family at the Turtle Bay Resort and a quality experience might result in dad's Benjamin Handshake upon graduation.
I now work at a beach resort and most training classes are paid for by people accustomed to giving extra when they recieve extra. Unless the student is a complete buffoon I can both enlighten and entertain them, as well as recommend the other must do's of Maui. Generous gratuity for services rendered is the norm.
With regard to guided diving, both from shore and charter boats, $10 per tank per person is a
general minimum guideline. A non-guided cattle boat might only be $5ptpp, and always acknowledege extra help some extra way. Do you know the most common way a dive operator becomes a million-aire, they started with a few million. The high costs of operating many dive businesses results in lower wages than the local cost of living, so most
dive professionals must have another income to make ends meet.
An independant instructor/guide is like a bar owner/bartender, tips are rare, even when deserved.
We do it because we love to do it but most would love to get a little more green out of the deal.
