how much do profestional divers make?

[Louie]

about how much an hour does a divemaster or a similar position make?

Depends on where you are and who you work for.

For example, if you work on a posh resort or liveaboard - you can make reasonable tips.

But there are those places where dive pros are dime a dozen and DMs will find it difficult to find even menial work. I noticed this in Northern Australia where instructors clean toilets and scrub floors. DMs work for the privilege of free dives - yep, a bad deal but there's enough takers to keep the industry going.

My last place of work (Thailand), the going rate for DMs were about $15.00 Cdn per day.

Don't ring up your local dive shop and ask them: they'll just try to sell you the IDC.

 

[sharky60]

Exactly how dangerous is underwater welding?

Fairly dangerous, think about it, your doing underwater construction in usually little to no visability. You usually have to make the dive regardless of weather conditions because a ship sinking or not may depend on it. It's hard work and not as glamorous as it sounds.

The main dangers are physical health, you can work long hours with lots of decompression. This makes you old really fast. In the old days they used to just bend you and throw you into a decompression chamber. I'm sure nowdays it's a lot safer than it was 20 years ago when I was thinking about doing it, but it's still a hard physically demanding job.

At that time they paid $28/hr. and you got paid for a full day as long as you got in water at least up to your waist. In other words, if for some reason the dive got canceled early on you still got paid for the full day. Lots of overtime and double time and half for holiday work. Pretty good gig, but the physical toll on your body may or may not be worth it.

I was going to become a Navy hard hat diver and the training included 2 1/2 years of welding school and 2 years of hard hat training. I went to Pearl Harbor to take the test and got to dive the MKXII hard hat system. I decided that I didn't want to make a career out of the Navy, so I didn't follow through with it.

There are several hard hat schools througout the country, I don't think their programs are as long as the Navy's but they also may not be as involved either.

 

[Ron Brandt]

about how much an hour does a divemaster or a similar position make?

Divemasters and instructors for the most part do it for love of the sport. Personally,I have made very good tips doing some freelance work while on vacation. I do not get paid from the LDS owner that I personally work with. He is the only full time owner/instructor in the city. There are some good perks though.

He personally does commercial work,and a group of use often assist. He gets paid VERY Well ! Most is work is on intake systems for dams farm yards and golf courses.. Vehicle recovery also(under ice) pays extreamly well.

Most people perceive welding as the primary commercial task but that is far from the truth. Most is actually nuts and bolts work as well as salvage operations.

Ron

 

[Ron Brandt]

Divemasters and instructors for the most part do it for love of the sport. Personally,I have made very good tips doing some freelance work while on vacation. I do not get paid from the LDS owner that I personally work with. He is the only full time owner/instructor in the city. There are some good perks though.

He personally does commercial work,and a group of use often assist. He gets paid VERY Well ! Most is work is on intake systems for dams farm yards and golf courses.. Vehicle recovery also(under ice) pays extreamly well.

Most people perceive welding as the primary commercial task but that is far from the truth. Most is actually nuts and bolts work as well as salvage operations.

Ron

I forgot to mention that a friend of mine in Coz pays his DM's and boat captains very well compaired to the average wage earner there plus tips.

Ron

 

[Shawn95]

To sum it up, not ONE of the 27 instructors at this LDS actually make a FT living through just instruction, however 8 are FT in the Diving Industry.

Maybe thats because there are 27 instructors. We have the same issue in our shop with about 9 instructors.

 

[Scuba65]

My older brother is a u/w welder for the navy. He loves his job..even though he doesn't do it that much u/w anymore since he's getting too old he say's. but, he still does it and he likes it alot. ya, it can be dangerous. and i don't know how much he makes either.

 

[papps953]

I ran into a guy in his mid 30's who was getting out of it. He told me many of the people he started with were dead from accidents on the job.

Bill

 

[mike_s]

I'm not exactly sure what an INSTUCTOR makes, but at our LDS here are some numbers.

So out of 27 *professionals* at this LDS

8 work FT (or own) the LDS on TOP of teaching. So not ONE is JUST Instructing as they all have other FT responsibilities.
19 Have FT jobs outside of the diving industry.

To sum it up, not ONE of the 27 instructors at this LDS actually make a FT living through just instruction, however 8 are FT in the Diving Industry.

To be fair, we are land Locked.

Colorado (being a non ocean state) has a shop large enough to
employ 27 instructors/dive-professionals? wow....

If I had to guess, would this be A-1 scuba?

 

[tedtim]

Divemasters and instructors for the most part do it for love of the sport. Personally,I have made very good tips doing some freelance work while on vacation. I do not get paid from the LDS owner that I personally work with. He is the only full time owner/instructor in the city. There are some good perks though.

Ron

I too do the DM work because I enjoy it. It also allows me to go back to the basics of the skills rather than just go diving. So, in a way working with an instructor on a course is a skills refresher.

My LDS does offer some perks. They offer equivalent credit at the store for the amount it costs for the insurance and a much better price on equipment. Aslo, as a DM for a course I don't have to pay for the charter.

 

[Ron Brandt]

I too do the DM work because I enjoy it. It also allows me to go back to the basics of the skills rather than just go diving. So, in a way working with an instructor on a course is a skills refresher.

My LDS does offer some perks. They offer equivalent credit at the store for the amount it costs for the insurance and a much better price on equipment. Aslo, as a DM for a course I don't have to pay for the charter.

I wish I could get my insurance paid for.....

If you are a real DM with a number you are entitled to "Key Man Pricing" most if not all manufactures offer this and is NOT a store perk !! You have earned this.

Ron