Padi instructor for kitty replenishement!

[arbanais]

Hi
I have read a budget related post about using your not so common skills to refill Kitty kitty.
I am a padi divemaster and planning to upgrade to scuba instructor soon.
Has anyone some firts hand advices on how to turn these skils into a money maker :
- working as a diver with my diving skils
- instructing diving
I also wonder what are the best locations for these activities and where foreign employees would be welcomed and working permits not to hard to get?
Thank you for your answsers!
Philipp

[DDabs]

Bottom cleaning jobs for sure

[JPA Cate]

You know, arbanais, I don't know. We've met commercial divers, PADI instructors, and so on, and most of them donate their skills where needed, and take one diving, or help one clear a fouled anchor, so we haven't heard where/if such opportunities lie. Most of the low budget cruisers do their own, of course.

Good luck with it.

Ann

Ann

[robert sailor]

Like everything in life there are always exceptions to the rules but in my experience divers like to dive too much and dive instructors often work for peanuts in exotic areas.

[UNCIVILIZED]

A good friend of mine went on walkabout with his son for a while, & wound up working as a diving instructor in Thailand. Both teaching students, & taking people on underwater tours.

So you might try looking into diving schools in various places.
And were I to do such, I'd want a couple of full sets of my personal gear. The simpler & less flashy the better, but utterly reliable. At least until I had a good feel for what the school had, or was available locally.

[Pete7]

My take on it is the diving instructor and ski instructor world is flooded with young Americans travelling the world working for free as interns until they earn the qualifications then peanuts in return for bed and board.

[reed1v]

Huge supply, not much demand, so not a money maker. You could try to get a job with an oil rig maintenance firm

[bletso]

My experience as a TDI Trimix instructor and an SDI OW instructor. I have observed that when on staff with most dive shops is that the hours are long, the pay poor and customers generally a PITA. About the tenth time you HAVE to make a dive whilst sick or you feel conditions less than ideal, it will get old quick. Remember, your name and number are on record if a student screws up, even years down the road!!

Your best bet is with private teaching and word of mouth advertising. Pick your students and remember that not everyone should become a diver. You will not get rich, but you will limit your liability exposure. As a side but also important, pick a certifying agency that does not require affiliation with a particular dive shop as many of them do. BTW, I have taught under several organisations over the years, IDEA, NAUI, MDEA, SDI, TDI. I gave up teaching about 3 years ago as the rewards just weren't there anymore. The world is changing and the dive industry is to say the least shrinking as the supply / demand market forces re-allign themselves. The 70's, 80's and even to mid 90's were the heyday for diving, at least here in the states. There are several thousand fewer dive shops than just 10 years ago!

[reed1v]

Besides, who really needs to dive nowadays. My grandkids use a remote submersible drone to see what is under the water.

[alansmith]

Good luck to you Stephen. Like the above advice...if you are lucky u might find someplace that needs a dive instructor. But the pay, IMO, could never be considered enough to replenish the kitty. Spoke with the dive instructor in Freeport Bahamas for awhile at my hotel. Young British gentleman and he was multitasking between sailboat rentals, kayaks, dive gear, and lining up people for the 1 pm dive class. He was pretty haggard looking by the end of the day. Resort type settings ...ie, the hotel had all inclusive privileges should be avoided at all costs to your mental and physical well being...unless, and I say this tongue in cheek...unless you like a good flogging. Smile

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by bletso

My experience as a TDI Trimix instructor and an SDI OW instructor. I have observed that when on staff with most dive shops is that the hours are long, the pay poor and customers generally a PITA. About the tenth time you HAVE to make a dive whilst sick or you feel conditions less than ideal, it will get old quick. Remember, your name and number are on record if a student screws up, even years down the road!!

Your best bet is with private teaching and word of mouth advertising. Pick your students and remember that not everyone should become a diver. You will not get rich, but you will limit your liability exposure. As a side but also important, pick a certifying agency that does not require affiliation with a particular dive shop as many of them do. BTW, I have taught under several organisations over the years, IDEA, NAUI, MDEA, SDI, TDI. I gave up teaching about 3 years ago as the rewards just weren't there anymore. The world is changing and the dive industry is to say the least shrinking as the supply / demand market forces re-allign themselves. The 70's, 80's and even to mid 90's were the heyday for diving, at least here in the states. There are several thousand fewer dive shops than just 10 years ago!

Originally Posted by alansmith

Good luck to you Stephen. Like the above advice...if you are lucky u might find someplace that needs a dive instructor. But the pay, IMO, could never be considered enough to replenish the kitty. Spoke with the dive instructor in Freeport Bahamas for awhile at my hotel. Young British gentleman and he was multitasking between sailboat rentals, kayaks, dive gear, and lining up people for the 1 pm dive class. He was pretty haggard looking by the end of the day. Resort type settings ...ie, the hotel had all inclusive privileges should be avoided at all costs to your mental and physical well being...unless, and I say this tongue in cheek...unless you like a good flogging. Smile

I quoted both these guys. This is the straight scoop. I'm a mossback meself; I've made a bunch cleaning bottoms, and doing inspections, but private teaching? Not so much. When I started, I had classes of 20 every other week. It's not like that any more. My shop used to run 5 boats. Now it can barely support two. And that's here in the Graveyard of the Atlantic, arguably among the best dives sites in the world with clear warm water, BIG sharks all at 100' depths. I've been everywhere else, this is the place. For diving not teaching. You'll end up doing daily resort courses with one idiot after another. On the plus side there's a lot of sex involved.

[NorthCoastJoe]

I was a dive instructor, not worth it. Maybe you can get lucky someplace. I made more money as a whitewater guide, and they don't get paid much. Water jobs are fun but not moneymakers.

[Kenomac]

The last few times I hired a dive shop to take me scuba diving, I was the only one who showed up on dive day. It was great for me, but I wondered how the place was even making gas money. The next year... Closed.

Two months ago aboard a cruise ship with 3,100 passengers, I signed up four months early for the only scuba excursion, to be sure there was enough space. Again, down in Cabo San Luca.... I was the only one who signed up. I essentially got a semi private underwater tour except for an idiot family of four from a local hotel who were unable to submerge and descend. Turns out they hadn't been diving in many years, and even back then it was just a few times. So we wasted 30 minutes with those fools, but the second dive was nice, because they sat it out in the dive boat, so it was just three divers, two guides and I on a boat set up for 20 clients.

The industry seems to be changing.

Regarding hull cleaning, there's not much of that done here in the Med since most boats are hauled out each year after only 3-4 months. Last season, I only needed to do our boat once.

[wedivebc]

The trick to dive instruction is to specialize. Lots of OWSIs in the world but not many trimix rebreather instructors. High demand for tech diving. I make $1500 per student for a CCR class.

[Perstarebob]

I done it for years , owned my own business on St. John . Plenty of masters and instructors working for minimum . Its a fun life if ya can live on what you will make . Do not let these guys discourage you , if all you are trying to do is feed the kitty it might work out .