Why does every new diver want to be an instructor?

[TSandM]

In my experience, turning a fun hobby into a job tends to drastically reduce the fun factor. This is why I will never do anything in the dive industry professionally.

So true, which is why I never tried to train horses for a living. Part of what makes fun things fun is that you don't HAVE to do them when you don't feel well, or when the weather is lousy, or with people you'd just as soon never have to be in a room with again. There is a reason things which are work are called work, even when, to the outside observer, they look like pure play.

 

[scubadada]

Diving is great fun, wouldn't it be great if you could make a good living doing it? I love diving but am glad my job is something different. At most, I'll volunteer my time when I'm lucky enough not to have to work any longer.

 

[NullNullSem]

Ha... ha... ha. But, yes... I don't think it's as much a "I want to become a dive instructor" phenom as a "I want to LIVE this life".

I did too. Still do. Except, I KNOW I would get "bored" with diving every day -for a living-. I get bored with... everything. Classic Gemini. I have lots of interests and, fortunately, lots of degrees and different experiences. I still want to live in the Caribbean. I really think that most people who experience the diving there AND have that "I want to live there" moment grasp onto the one thing they can conveniently understand -- become a dive instructor.

I started diving four years ago... and haven't dove much since then. But -- since then I've been trying to figure out how to LIVE THERE. As a software engineer I could, technically, work from just about anywhere. The problem is -- I get paid lots and lots of money to work where I am right now. During the Great Repression I actually got laid off -- just after I started diving. I was --ecstatic!. I thought, for sure, I was on my way to a Caribbean Island for a while.... But... then I got an unsolicited job offer a week after getting laid off... with severance pay, etc, etc... yeah, my life sucks... not married, no kids.... And... I still can't break the "golden handcuffs". I grew up poor, "self made", for what it's worth now. I NEVER considered becoming a dive instructor to support my lifestyle, even with a lot of $ in the bank. I did think -- maybe I could clean the underside of boats or something....

I still don't know. I'm a nice enough guy, but people wear me out -- call me introverted. I'm a helluva software engineer . I do see WHY a lot of new divers think that being a dive instructor, of one kind or another, is the way to "make it" -- but I also see why this is a big, BAD, crap shoot. My Instructor (who was absolutely AMAZING in Roatan) had "the life". He, and his GF, are from... some country that spoke some Russian (by... happenstance... I am fluent in Russian). They were nomads... he was on Roatan for a few years. That's what "they" did. He had very few, very little, material needs. The owner of the shop -- well -- great guy -- but obvious where the money to set him up came from.

I've started rambling.... It probably has something to do with the drink in my hand. Oh dear. But, my idea from the outset wasn't to dive for a living. I'd like to start a school teaching industrial automation -- basically, computer science with a bent on manufacturing... in places that... well... could really use it.... But then... I'd have to tell people to pay me for it... and all of that.... Versus just "doing my thing" and collecting a pay check here.

Ok --so dive master it is... I have tattoos...???

 

[scubadada]

Yes, there is the requisite tattoo thing, that's not me

 

[lowviz]

Me neither. Almost got a heel tattoo once, would have said "Property of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School". Could have used the cash at the time, but decided against it.

 

[falcon125]

I think the "Stingray" tatoo is required for a "Dive Master rating" or at the very least an "octopus with a bad attitude" tatoo.
I suppose if you are female you can get away with a "Dolphin & star/moon" tatoo

Without one of those you will not be taken seriously at any dive shop.

 

[h2ogypsy]

Sounds to me like their Instructor did their job correctly; introducing them to a new world! Right on! I am bored with Professionals and Tech-divers that get big heads and think that noone else deserves to feel the way we do about something so amazing as diving and ESPECIALLY sharing that world as an Instructor with others! JUST REMEMBER EVERYONE, WE DID NOT COME OUT OF THE WOMB AS DIVERS; WE ALL STARTED SOMEWHERE AND THAT IS JUST WHAT THEY ARE DOING!

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

Sounds to me like their Instructor did their job correctly; introducing them to a new world! Right on! I am bored with Professionals and Tech-divers that get big heads and think that noone else deserves to feel the way we do about something so amazing as diving and ESPECIALLY sharing that world as an Instructor with others! JUST REMEMBER EVERYONE, WE DID NOT COME OUT OF THE WOMB AS DIVERS; WE ALL STARTED SOMEWHERE AND THAT IS JUST WHAT THEY ARE DOING!

Just as we are bored and tired of new divers that think that they are as adept as someone who has devoted their lives to perfecting skills and techniques in a myriad of environments and equating that to zero to hero status.

 

[NullNullSem]

Well... I do have a rather elaborate tattoo... but the most memorable tattoo I've seen was from a very young DM from CA who had tattoed right above his pubic line "if you're close enough to read this you might as well blow me". I'm not kidding.

Yes... very young, dumb, and full of....

 

[KevWind]

While I certainly am going to take some more instruction AOW and Nitox. I have no desire what so ever to become an instructor / owner/operator or anything resembling employment.