- Messages
- 94,037
- Reaction score
- 92,869
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Lest this turn into another why go pro vs. not go pro thread, I might wax poetic very similarly about my years working in the Swiss Alps - it doesn't answer the core of my question - why do untalented students feel that they CAN (and thusly should) become the instructor? It has to be more than the lifestyle... and can PADI's marketing message really be that strong? If so, those guys are seriously in the wrong business.
I wonder how much of it is socioeconomic? How many candidates are privileged kids who are blowing off a few years after university? Mid-life crisis candidates that suddenly "find" diving? It just seems that there must be something dramatically different about it.
A great deal of it is marketing ... part of instructor training is how to sell continuing education. Depending on the candidate, some take it to greater lengths than others. I know instructors who tell every OW student ... regardless of how well they do ... that they're a "natural", and should consider signing up for classes at least through the divemaster level. Naturally, this is what almost all of them want to hear.
In eight years, I've trained three divemasters. I've talked probably three times that many out of becoming DM's ... because what came out during our interviews was that the DM class doesn't offer what they really wanted it for, which is better skills and a more confident attitude about their diving. I steered them in directions that would better achieve those goals.
Conversely, I know instructors who turn out two or three DM's a month. They make more money at it than I do ... but the majority of their DM's are not even equal in skills to many of my AOW students ... and are not people I would want in the water with somebody I care about.
The motivation is money. The method is a sales pitch that people want to hear. Selling a product to a willing customer is easy. Whether it's the right product for them or not is another matter altogether ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)