Future Training

[RJP]

Dive as much as possible
Travel the world
Gas Blending
Tech Diving
Photography
Work on a boat/Live aboard
Help out with people who want to dive or learn
Work in a LDS fiiling tanks/ servicing equipment etc.
Open my own shop one day down the road.

I do every single one of those things - except for the last one at this point. However none of those comprise my PAYING day job.



Get a good job earning enough money to to the things you list above!

[Slonda828]

Thank You.

That post probably contained the most valuable information I have received yet.

I want to do it bad, but I want to be realistic about it and that's why I'm here gaining advice from people who have already traveled this route. I'm now thinking EMT is a solid idea while still being able to continue with my plans.

Thanks again Slonda,
Jerzi

I have been to EMT school. I think that it was one of the most valuable things that I have done in my life. If you want to really mesh it with your love of diving, you could do what I did. Go to SOLO, which is a wilderness and backcountry EMT course. It also prepares you for the national registry exam. Then, once you get some EMT time under your belt, you can go to DAN's dive medic course at Duke University.

Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities : Home tell them that Ron from the Army sent you.

You can get a lot of highspeed jobs in EMS with a WEMT course and national registry certification under your belt. Then you can score a side job on a diving rescue squad or DART local to where you live. Then you will get paid to dive and save people's lives. There's something a little bit more noble about that in my mind compared to lugging tanks around a dive shop for little to no money. Besides, you'll have enough time off to go diving during the week when everyone else is working Plus, then as a rescue diver you will actually know when to use a FROPVD, a NRB, or cannula. Most rescue diver courses do not even teach you what those are, they just make you vomit forth some answers and pronounce you qualified to administer oxygen without even telling you what constitutes adequate breathing in terms of rate, quality, and depth. I can also tell you that being a good EMT is no joke. I spent 8 years in college and a good EMT school will kick your butt if you do not work hard. It's one of the last good gigs out there if you care for people.

BTW, RJP is a seedy marketing guy....I'm just saying.

[Jerzi]

BTW, RJP is a seedy marketing guy....I'm just saying.

Oh, I thought that was just the New Jersey in him.

[RJP]

...seedy marketing guy...

That's redundant, no?

[Slonda828]

Oh, and just so you do not think that I even approach considering myself an expert, remember that free advice is worth what you paid for it. I am not saying that it is not possible to make a living in recreational diving as there are people on this board who do just that. I am saying that it is, in my opinion, not a very common, profitable, or sustainable job in many cases. So please take what I have said in the context in which I presented it, and not as a statement of generality.