Making SCUBA a career

[ahava]

I understand your enthusiasm and how much you love this new world that has been opened to you. But I think you need to go out and experience as much as you can before making such a comitment. Things you love to do aren't so enjoyable when faced with doing them day after day. Not saying this is not a career for you but after reading your profile I think you should just enjoy diving more and maybe get a part time job in a shop to test the waters to see what its all about. Just my 2 cents.

 

[BIG Tiggz]

This topic is very emotional to me. I want to thank you all for your posts. Even for the ones I didn't like.

I do not need anymore food for thought. Thanks

 

[bfw]

Come on. All you divers are in pefect health??? No back or knee problems?

No one with a back problem will last long as an instructor.
My mother, an RN, likes to say every job has its bedpans to clean.
In dive instruction, the "dirty bedpans" consist of a van to be loaded with 20 full tanks, and a couple dozen each of wet BC's and wet wetsuits, typically twice a day or more.
Then there's hauling out the kits of students that freak out, get sick, fatigued, etc., sometimes from a collegiate competition pool where the water is 18" below the deck.

There's the requisite fitness for diving, and then there's the requisite fitness for instructing. You WILL perform strenuous rescues, both in the pool and open water.
You WILL have to literally wrestle panicked students weighing more than you in order to stop them from killing themselves. As an instructor, it's not just the burden of YOUR diving activity, it's the burden of the entire class's.

 

[Damselfish]

Come on. All you divers are in pefect health??? No back or knee problems?

sure, there are people diving with bad backs, knees, whatever. Sometimes, they are helped with gear by a DM, who can't do it if they have the bad back.

 

[Sas]

Tiggz, is surgery the only option? I have a messed up lower back (two bad discs and abnormal curvature) from a car accident in 2006 and spent a while in physio just to be able to not be in pain all the time. These days I do a lot of weight training (x3 a week), heaps of walking and karate just to keep my back strong and I have no hassles with my dive gear. However, I skipped training for just a week a month or so ago and went diving, and ended up having to have some work done again on my back. Now I don't skip my training and my back is fine again for dives. I presume I will have to keep this up for as long as I want to go diving (so.. forever I guess ).

You haven't given that much information about what you have tried in regards to your back apart from surgery - which is usually the last resort. Have you tried getting a training schedule from a professional to strengthen your back? So many people I know with disk problems have them resolved with either a. weight loss or b. doing strengthening training

If you are really keen on taking diving further you might want to explore all options to fix your back. Anyway, apologies if these are things you have considered. I really hope you can get your back fixed though and you can carry on with your diving.