Is there an instructor crisis?

[Marie13]

The Madison, WI dive shop my cave/CCR instructor owns had their own instructor class last summer. 3-4 new PADI OW instructors. Mostly younger folks. They also have a new TDI AN/DP instructor who already was an OW instructor. These are all people who have a full time job doing something else and teach on weekends for the love of it. Shop has a couple of other OW instructors. This shop has a very strong local diving community that they really support. They do things like clean-up dives and such, too. No one instructor seems to be overloaded.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

I think it deeper than just a decline instructors.

I believe that historically you had a kind of pyramid scheme effect working. Lot of new young'uns coming through and a certain percentage of all new folk wanted to progress to instructor.

I'd be interested to see, but I'll bet a pack of peanut butter crackers and a coke, that the number of active divers worldwide is in pretty steady decline. And that of the active ones out there, the mean/median/average age (whichever you choose) is steadily moving up the scale. Same in the ham radio hobby.

Diving is an expensive hobby. Cost wise, it ranks right up there with flying and shooting. (How the hell did I end up with all three?) It takes time and effort to build skill. It seems that newer generations have little patience, compared to prior generations, for things that take time and dedication. Back in the 60s and 70s, couldn't wait for summer. Very little in the way of clothes, often no shoes, out the door right after breakfast, probably running or bike riding or involved in physical pay until the street lights came on. I don't see that anymore. Discussed with a neighbor (granted it's a limited sample) re: how his kids spend their days. They wanted to stay in the air conditioning, eating and either watching streaming movies or playing video game boxes or typing on their twitface accounts rather than interacting in social and physically active pursuits. Social media is not social interaction.

Is the bulk of the dive corps moving like a pig through a python towards the distal end of the snake's alimentary channel?

I am toying with the idea of getting a DM cert, not because I want to work in the show or lead dives in the last part of my 50's into my 60's, but to have an exclusive card and presumably recognition of skills/proficiency. Personal satisfaction accomplishment. Lot of folks I meet seem to assume I am one simply because of greying hair, how I carry myself and the knowledge I dog and seek out to understand the nitty gritty details of my interests. May as well check the box so when asked I can say "yep". And the training program can't hurt my set of acquired dive skills.

But no, I don't ever really see myself moving past that to instructing...

 

[TMHeimer]

The shop here where I used to DM now has 28 instructors and 18 DMs. Now, there are only 2 shops in the area unless you go like 100+ miles or more. Also, from my time there I don't recall anyone who did it full time. Well, it ain't Florida. Mostly weekend courses. An instructor may do 4-5 OW courses a season. A number of MSDTs who do advanced courses, rescue, the whole works. I doubt there are many, probably none who don't have full time "day jobs".

 

[Marie13]

From what I can see online, there seems to be no shortage of young things with little diving experience who want to run off to somewhere warm and be an instructor for a year or two.

 

[Underwater Tourist]

What’s happening in the instructor world?
I hear there is a lack of people becoming instructors and the ones still doing it are starting to retire. My LDS used to have 10-12 instructors on their list or resources back 20 years ago. Now there is one and she’s 65 and wants to retire.

My guess it is because of the demand side.

The current generation of divers, who got trained 20 years ago, grew up watching Jacques Cousteau's tv-series and movies, which inspired a lot of people to pick up scuba. Naturally, that resulted in a healthy demand for scuba instructors which is why your LDS was able to keep so many.

Fast forward to today, and there is nothing similar to JC's filmography to get people into such an expensive hobby as scuba diving.

What will eventually happen?

I would say that JC "inflated" the industry above its "natural" size. Now we deflate with all the consequences of a shrinking industry: prices go up, businesses close, etc.

 

[SlugLife]

I enjoy teaching & talking scuba perhaps too much. However, I have no plans or interest in becoming an instructor.

If students paid little for a class, and the class paid peanuts, that'd be fine. The problem is classes are expensive, but very little of that goes to the instructor themselves. The dive-agency (training materials), dive-shop, and insurance all take a cut. You also have to take a number of pricey courses to become an instructor, which further limits the market and profitability of becoming one. Add in expenses (gas, time, materials, etc) and the instructor is earning "cheap beer money."

Specifically, the biggest problem I see in there is the amount the dive-agency charges for the instructional materials. From what I've seen, for OW and AOW, the cost is typically about 40% to 50% of the course price itself. And having seen those materials, I suppose they do the job, but they're mind-numbingly boring.

Maybe if there was a sort of "open source" effort, cutting out the middle-man, that might be a better and faster way to ensure a bigger percentage of the money is going into instructor's pockets. I'd imagine there would also be no shortage of people willing to create, review, and update materials afterall a lot of us basically do the same thing for free here on SB daily anyway.

 

[TMHeimer]

I think it deeper than just a decline instructors.

I believe that historically you had a kind of pyramid scheme effect working. Lot of new young'uns coming through and a certain percentage of all new folk wanted to progress to instructor.

I'd be interested to see, but I'll bet a pack of peanut butter crackers and a coke, that the number of active divers worldwide is in pretty steady decline. And that of the active ones out there, the mean/median/average age (whichever you choose) is steadily moving up the scale. Same in the ham radio hobby.

Diving is an expensive hobby. Cost wise, it ranks right up there with flying and shooting. (How the hell did I end up with all three?) It takes time and effort to build skill. It seems that newer generations have little patience, compared to prior generations, for things that take time and dedication. Back in the 60s and 70s, couldn't wait for summer. Very little in the way of clothes, often no shoes, out the door right after breakfast, probably running or bike riding or involved in physical pay until the street lights came on. I don't see that anymore. Discussed with a neighbor (granted it's a limited sample) re: how his kids spend their days. They wanted to stay in the air conditioning, eating and either watching streaming movies or playing video game boxes or typing on their twitface accounts rather than interacting in social and physically active pursuits. Social media is not social interaction.

Is the bulk of the dive corps moving like a pig through a python towards the distal end of the snake's alimentary channel?

I am toying with the idea of getting a DM cert, not because I want to work in the show or lead dives in the last part of my 50's into my 60's, but to have an exclusive card and presumably recognition of skills/proficiency. Personal satisfaction accomplishment. Lot of folks I meet seem to assume I am one simply because of greying hair, how I carry myself and the knowledge I dog and seek out to understand the nitty gritty details of my interests. May as well check the box so when asked I can say "yep". And the training program can't hurt my set of acquired dive skills.

But no, I don't ever really see myself moving past that to instructing...

Good point about kids' lack of outdoors activities and time spent on social media. Minus the social media, I heard folks say that back in the '80s regarding kids and the emerging video games. "Participaction" was introduced in the '70s in Canada to get kids back to being active.
But having said that, I'm sure you're right in that it's worse today.
Interesting though-- In my 4 seasons DMing OW courses (2012-15) here I would say the vast majority of students were teens and early 20s. There was the odd oldtimer.

 

[drrich2]

Good point about kids' lack of outdoors activities and time spent on social media. Minus the social media, I heard folks say that back in the '80s regarding kids and the emerging video games. "Participaction" was introduced in the '70s in Canada to get kids back to being active.

I don't wanna go too far off on a tangent, but this got me thinking about a dynamic in U.S. society that might contribute indirectly. When I was a kid in the suburbs (till near age 9), I recall roaming the neighborhood blocks from home alone on a bicycle, in the street and on the sidewalks. After moving to a very rural area, I roamed the woods and a creek alone. This style of parenting is now called 'free range kids' - back then there was no term for it, that was just life.

Our 10-year old 4th grade daughter, on the other hand, is growing up in an age of 'play dates,' seldom venturing out of the home (much less yard) without adult supervision, and that seems common in the U.S. today. More of a 'helicopter parenting' style.

Granted, there were problems with the free range style. A stranger once tried to coax me into his car to give me a ride; had I not persistently refused, I might've made it onto one of those milk cartoons missing kids' faces were often put on. Unsupervised kids sometimes do terrible things to animals, and sometimes pretty bad things to other kids. I don't have a lot of romantic nostalgia about it; it just seems like many modern kids are over-dependent on adults providing structure and support.

When generations grow up helicopter-style, does that impact their interest in somewhat adventurous sports like scuba diving, that often involve distant travel? To, you know...those 'shark infested waters...'

 

[broncobowsher]

Looks like I am not the first to state the pyramid scheme collapsing. When your employee is your best customer there is something wrong.

I knew I never wanted to be an instructor, so I never fell into that rabbit hole.

 

[lostsheep]

What’s happening in the instructor world?
I hear there is a lack of people becoming instructors and the ones still doing it are starting to retire. My LDS used to have 10-12 instructors on their list or resources back 20 years ago. Now there is one and she’s 65 and wants to retire. They cannot find anyone that want’s to do it.
Is this a regional home town problem only and not at resorts? Do resorts still have more instructors they know what to do with who are willing to work dirt cheap or is this changing too?
I’m not seeing many if any young bloods coming into the instructor or even DM side.
People are telling me all sorts of doom and gloom stories about how the industry is going to cave in if there are no instructors.
If the local shops can’t find instructors then does that mean they just get into selling gear and trips and they will have to hope that people get certs somewhere else on vacation?
I can see how the increased cost of basic living, plus the cost of becoming an instructor, plus the cost of insurance, plus the low pay make it almost impossible to do, and that’s why nobody’s doing it.
What does this mean for the industry.
What will eventually happen?

My local (South Bay) shop seems to have a shortage of dive pros too; for us in NorCal our cost of living makes it a lot harder to justify working for chump-change.