Tipping, clearly a question of tradition, ethnicity, national origin, etc. No easy answers. But what has been pointed out here, clearly, is the rather poor level of compensation that Instructors receive. Is that a poor career choice? Maybe. Does low pay oblige the consumer to supplement it? Maybe. All these things get back to the traditions of the industry and the feelings of the consumer.
Let me begin by stating that I am now an avowed amateur instructor, I do it for the love of diving and such (and oddly enough, Ive been and continue to be, paid much more than my professional counterparts, but thats another story). Ive never been tipped, Ive never expected tips and frankly Id find being tipped for Diving Instruction demeaning.
But let me shift the focus a little for a moment (ducking to avoid the topic police). For all the waddle-daddle in the diving industry about professional this and professional that
its a truck full of solid waste. While the first definition of profession is: an occupation or career, it is usually taken to mean the second definition of, An occupation, such as law, medicine, or engineering, that requires considerable training and specialized study.
So those folks who took exception to tipping their professional Diving Instructor are confusing the pose of the industry with reality. Your instructor is not very likely to be a professional. Dive instructors, from what I can tell are paid either to work in a shop at little more than standard retail wages (would $10 to $12 be about right in the US?) or are subcontracted on a per student piecework rate that after expenses comes out about the same. Im not the first in this string to observe that they do not have professional backgrounds do not and receive professional wages. By and large they are cannon fodder for the industry with no real career path, just the knowledge that when they burn out in two or three years and go find a real career there is a new crop coming up through the system to replace them. Its a crying shame.
Consider: What do you pay your tennis pro? What do you pay your golf pro? Neither of those have your life (or the life of your loved ones) in their hands, but Im sure that they make at least twice what a dive pro does.
Whom do I tip? I never thought about it before. I always tip my wait staff, cabdriver, boatman, bellman, barber, grocery clerk (if they help me to my car), deliverymen, paperboy, milkman, maybe others. I sometimes tip the guys at the lube center, a gas station attendant (at least in Oregon), counter help and my mechanic. I never tip my doctor, lawyer, dentist, teacher, airplane pilot, postman, or librarian. There is not complete rhyme or reason is there?
Anyway, I do not consume diving instruction services so Ive never faced this question. I think that Id add diving instructors to the list of those whom I tip, if just because it seems to me that the diving industry (which though on occasion I disparage, I do benefit from) has sold them a bill of goods and that makes me feel bad.
