First look at the "Economics" of a Tech Diving Instructor

[Darcy Kieran]

I actually think it would be cool to get scuba-tutoring. Not as a substitute for formal classes, but more as a supplemental learning.

Agree! Although I would even challenge the need for formal classes in some cases. We are too much focused on "teaching courses" instead of "scuba diving". It's good for dive training agencies but is it really the best for divers, dive leaders, and the industry?

 

[boulderjohn]

Before I started teaching tech, I worked as a regular member of the part-time OW teaching staff for two shops. I assume I made about the same yearly part-time income as each of the other staff members for the most part. When I decided to become a tech instructor, I thought I would be providing a great benefit for the shop, opening up a whole new source of income for them. How naive I was! The shop owner was very worried that the market was so small that he would lose money on it, so he did not invest in the required infrastructure (like equipment inventory) or advertise it. Because he did not do that, he created a self-fulfilling prophecy--by not advertising ti or investing in the infrastructure, he guaranteed that he would have no market. So he didn't lose any money on it. The person who lost money was me.

The dive shop traditionally paid instructors a certain amount per student and/or per dive. That amount was a tiny percentage of the course fee, with the shop taking by far most of it. For an instructor teaching 8 OW students in a nearby weekend pool session, the amount of pay wasn't too bad. For an instructor teaching 1-2 students with a 6.5 hour round trip, it was a tiny percentage of minimum wage. They made me the shop's instructor teaching advanced specialties and tech, and so I rarely had more than two students. My scuba income plummeted.

Here is how it worked for tech instruction:

• Because the shop did not advertise tech, I was the source for all the students. People heard of me, and when they contacted me, I sent them to sign up at the shop.
• I owned all the gear we used for tech instruction.
• I purchased the gases for mixing, driving to the dealer to get the supply tanks and return them when done. I mixed all the gases using my own equipment. The shop reimbursed me for the exact cost of the gases. They did that by billing the students for the gases, with a steep markup which they kept as profit. They saw no reason that I would share in the profit, even though the only thing they did to create it was bill the students.
• I drove to New Mexico for the dives and spent many hours on the academics and the diving. I was paid the same amount per student per dive as I would have gotten if I had been teaching an OW class, except that I would only have 1-2 students. I figure that less than 10% of what the shop earned through my tech instruction went to me.

It didn't take me too long to figure out that working for the shop was providing me precisely zilch in terms of benefit, so I went independent. That was a big step, but it was necessary. Things were much better for me once I did that. I no longer teach OW classes or really anything recreational. I am no longer on a regular schedule for such instruction. I charge less per class than the shop did. As a result, I only teach a relative handful of students per year, but because the shop was not taking more than 90% of the student fees while doing nothing to earn it, I made more money each year than I ever did in the 10 years I worked as a regular instructor for a dive shop.

Unfortunately, the previous administration made some changes to the tax code that blasted me because my business was not in the target area for benefits, meaning I was not a high income corporation. So since then it has not been as good.

 

[SlugLife]

Agree! Although I would even challenge the need for formal classes in some cases. We are too much focused on "teaching courses" instead of "scuba diving". It's good for dive training agencies but is it really the best for divers, dive leaders, and the industry?

Agreed.

As I mentioned in another thread, I think a major problem with dive-training and the dive-industry is the middle-men.

For example, if I take a $400 class, it appears that the dive-agency (PADI, SSI, etc) takes about half, as a charge for the "e-learning materials." The remaining $200 would then be split between the dive-shop, various overhead expenses, and the instructors. In my experience, those e-learning materials are my least-favorite thing about the entire experience, as it's generally VERY boring, to the point I'd probably skip it if it wasn't required or tested. Meanwhile, I can watch youtube videos all day from various scuba professionals and enthusiasts all day no problem. I also recently signed up for Sidemounting.com, and I can watch his videos practically non-stop too. Does tech-diving also tend to have the same issue, where the dive-agency takes half?

If I gave an independent instructor $400 of cash, and we split that up into several weekend tutoring session, and then I practiced the skills on my own in-between each session, I'd imagine I'd get WAY more out of it. I'm aware that teaching several students at once is part of the efficiency of classes, but if an instructor had weekly affordable mini group-classes on random subjects I'd probably attend those too.

 

[boulderjohn]

Summary:

Why did I become a tech instructor? I was a certified trimix diver, but for 10 months of the year, I had no way to do any tech diving. The only reasonably close site was in New Mexico. It was on private property, and the site required the supervision of an approved tech instructor. I did not have any potential buddies. There was no local infrastructure, so no tech divers to dive with. So I decided that if I wanted to dive myself, I had to create both the infrastructure and the dive companions. I became an approved instructor for the dive site, and I trained and certified the divers who dive there with me. The changes in tax laws hurt me, so it is no longer as profitable as it was before, but I do it for one simple reason--it allows me to do the kind of diving I love to do. If I had not done that, it would not have happened. My being an instructor is a necessary expense that allows me to continue diving.

 

[markmud]

• Trying to produce good divers while recreational students typically just want to get finished as quickly as possible.

• Students don’t want to commit to a class that is long enough to produce a competent diver.

Hello Darcy,

I enjoyed reading your article! It was very informative; however, you confirmed what I, and some in my peer group, have thought all along. Which is:

• Training agencies should stop pushing teaching as a “job.” It’s a hobby, or maybe a way for dive bums to stretch out their avoidance of getting a real job for a bit longer.

• Being a dive instructor makes no economic sense. One must love the idea of sharing the underwater world with others. You might earn some beer (rum) money. That’s about it.

• Mostly unsustainable as a full-time job. Buyer’s market for employers.

The Economics of Being a Tech Diving Instructor

SlugMug beat me to the opening points that I wanted to start with in my first post on this thread. For me, SlugMug's quotes from your article are not really in-line with my thinking and expectations from dive training (in the beginning of my avocational journey anyways), but they point to a bigger problem which is a flawed marketing strategy.

I was sold by the slick marketing and glossy pictures in the training literature. I assumed that I would be certified as an OW diver and would be considered a qualified OW diver from that point forward (I understood the depth limitations and thought that the limitations placed on OW divers was valid). However, I did not think I would be treated as a "child" by dive "professionals" for years to come.

There is no clear line of demarcation where a recreational diver graduates from being an apprentice diver and becomes a journeyman diver.

I was told the usual line: Put Another Dollar In if you want to dive deeper that 60 feet. You need a solo cert for that—except we don't allow solo at our facility. Put Another Dollar In for a dive below 100 feet. I would have preferred the truth straight out: You need to accomplish all of "this" before you are considered a JOURNYEMAN diver.

I started getting respect as a diver once I had exceeded 100 dives and had accomplished my first comprehensive SCUBA training course, which was Tech 40. Except for Solo, all the others were, well, crap. I would pay real money for the training I got with Tech 40 and Solo!

My perception was the problem—the slick marketing sold me—I wish I had understood what Instructor Barry was trying to tell us during OW—Barry was restricted from telling me what I needed to hear, I needed to hear it in black and white terms.

I know, I know, Mark you are babbling again...

My point:

This industry and instructors as a whole, will never get my respect or top dollar until there is some honesty in the marketing and training schedule. I would have been fine with being told that all dive certs below a technical cert or "pro" cert are considered apprentice certifications. "Once you have completed a DM or Technical certification program, and have at least 100 dives in various locations and conditions, will you be considered a journeyman recreational SCUBA diver. OK, I am good with that.

Disclaimer: There are many super qualified instructors who are amazing instructors and at least one of them is on this thread. I am writing about the big picture here; not about individuals.

The marketing is the problem. I was sold one thing and then given something else. The problems that instructors face are all downstream from the cert mill marketing program. Tech instructors have a difficult time breaking away from the stigma created by the marketing that is geared toward newbs in the early stages of their training.

cheers,
m
PS: I dive with dive ops and with groups usually. Instructor Rick told me early on that there are no Scuba police u/w. Dive to your training and be careful and you will do fine. I don't dive that way very often. Diving on your own does not "require" a cert card or respect. I understand this.

 

[SlugLife]

It didn't take me too long to figure out that working for the shop was providing me precisely zilch in terms of benefit, so I went independent. That was a big step, but it was necessary. Things were much better for me once I did that. I no longer teach OW classes or really anything recreational. I am no longer on a regular schedule for such instruction. I charge less per class than the shop did. As a result, I only teach a relative handful of students per year, but because the shop was not taking more than 90% of the student fees while doing nothing to earn it, I made more money each year than I ever did in the 10 years I worked as a regular instructor for a dive shop.

Thanks for sharing the story, that was an interesting read. I have noticed that local dive shops don't advertise their tech-diving classes on their website, but seem to offer them, which seems absurd to me. I'm glad going independent has improved things greatly for you.

Being a dive instructor makes no economic sense. One must love the idea of sharing the underwater world with others. You might earn some beer (rum) money. That’s about it.

I'm mostly in agreement with our post, but want to push back on this specific point. I used to work as an artist, and this type of thinking is super-common in that industry. Many in the industry get used and abused for a long time because of that. Many employers know that well, and exploit the **** out of it. Even when you're experienced, and finally earning decent money, you still get constantly approached by people expecting you to work for insulting wages or worse, zero wages and meaningless perks like "publicity" which you can't pay rent with, nor do they actually deliver that publicity.

I strongly agree with both of these statements at the same time:

• Scuba Instructors should be realistic that this is probably not a career, and not going to make them much money.
• Scuba Instructors should not be okay with being paid beer-money, for the hours they do work, while other people make bank off their hard work.

I think a lot of this goes back to what I said about middle-men. When SSI, PADI, etc charge $200 for e-learning materials, I mean sure those materials have some value, but not HALF the value the student pays. But I'm starting to repeat my earlier post (it's hard to resist the rant).

Back to the topic of artists being abused, most artists stop engaging all of the work-for-free and similar nonsense once they instant they finally break through to a reasonable wage or job. And then you work your way up, as you build a stronger reputation and portfolio. Even working as a Software Engineer (I career-hopped), the same thing still applied. I more than doubled my salary in a matter of a few years, by getting solid references, improving my resume, and improving my skillset. Maybe instructors need to do the same thing, by treating the middle-men as training wheels, and only a temporary thing until you can finally move onto their own thing.

Now I still think the vast majority of instructors won't be able to find 2000-hours of work per year, and earn full-time wages as scuba-instructors, but that doesn't mean you have to resign yourself to pitiful beer money, while [agency] gets $200 per person for access to some boring videos. Afterall, if you need beer-money that bad, it would be a hell of a lot easier to quit drinking.

The last thing I'll say is, if there are independent instructors locally, I've found very few when looking for them. From the last time I looked, I found one that was VERY expensive, and a few more whose websites were dead and/or lacked proper contact info.

 

[boulderjohn]

The last thing I'll say is, if there are independent instructors locally, I've found very few when looking for them. From the last time I looked, I found one that was VERY expensive, and a few more whose websites were dead and/or lacked proper contact info.

For open water diving, the ability to earn a living as an independent instructor varies greatly from location to location, mostly determined by the availability of local diving. There are tremendous overhead costs associated with dive instruction, and in most cases, instruction is only one part of an inter-related grouping of services, including gear sales, air fills, and travel. In my area, travel is the primary source of income. Instruction comes close to breaking even. The philosophy of the dive shops where I worked is that the purpose of instruction is to create the divers who will buy gear and go on trips. An independent instructor who does not sell gear and arrange trips cannot hope to make a living.

In some areas, though, things are a bit different. If I were living in Florida, for example, I think I could make a bit more of a go of it. In South Florida, where I go for the winters, there are dive shops and boat charters that cater to independent instructors. I would not have to have a large inventory of gear for every sized prospective student; a student could rent gear at a discount at a local shop. Dive charters would not charge me when I brought students, and my students would go at a discount. In my local area in Colorado, every operator is a competitor, and they are not going to give an independent instructor any competitive advantage.

 

[CptTightPants21]

Unfortunately, the previous administration made some changes to the tax code that blasted me because my business was not in the target area for benefits, meaning I was not a high income corporation. So since then it has not been as good.

Can you go into more detail on this? What changes in the tax code had an effect on scuba?

 

[boulderjohn]

Can you go into more detail on this? What changes in the tax code had an effect on scuba?

It had nothing to do with scuba. It had to do with standard business practices, especially expense deductions.

 

[Cert1967]

Can you go into more detail on this? What changes in the tax code had an effect on scuba?

Its all about IRS 'losses' for small biz - pass thru - entities. If your SCUBA biz was/is a pass-thru entity the issue of NOLs is important.

I suspect that instructors who outfit a vehicle with equipment and gasses, travel long distances, - only to teach a limited number of students would generate a loss. In this situation the issue is how the tax loss is handled.

Instructor tires of little or no profit for lots of hard work and sells their capital equipment? That's another set of restrictive rules.

Google is your friend - the links below may give you insight.

How Business Losses Affect Your Tax Return

Excess business losses | Internal Revenue Service​