New diver seriously considering pro.

[Bjarki Christian Gram]

Hi. I am a young man 24 years old. I was introduced to diving by some friends about 18 months ago (spring 2011). I immediately fell in love with diving, and I took an OW course and dove alot with my friends that summer. I then took my AOW certificate and a Deep Diving specialty course this spring during a south American backpacking trip.

My situation is this:
I am currently finishing my masters degree in economics, and I am considering diving professionally afterwards. I live in Copenhagen on a students salary and have no car (and Denmark is a relatively boring place to dive). My only access to diving is during the summer vacation/winter holidays when I go home to visit my parents in the Faroe Islands. My friends there have some gear I can borrow and we dive a lot when I am there.

I love diving and I love the diving community, but when you are a student living in a place like Copenhagen, the diving world seems very far off and inaccessible. Anyways, my question is this.

Is it possible to get into diving on some sort of an apprentice deal? Seeing as I am only able to dive during the summer, I have very little experience (Total of 32 dives, however I feel very comfortable diving, and have tried some difficult conditions like strong current/heavy surf), so obviously I would need some more experience, but I'm thinking I could get the experience while learning as a part of an apprenticeship/internship?
There would of course be a financial issue as well. If I were to live in a Caribbean/central American country, I could live of my savings for a while, however covering both rent and living expenses would be difficult. Do dive shops offer any hospitality / salary for rent for people doing internships? or do you just have to figure that out yourself?

I think in short, my question is this. How do people, who are not from dive-popular regions, get into professional diving? How do they financially handle it? How do they get around the need-experience-to-work/need-work-to-gain-experience problem?

Thanks a lot for your answers
Bjarki Gram

 

[DA Aquamaster]

You're getting a masters degree in economics and want to be a DM? It's a bit of a waste.

The reality is that in most places DMs work in exchange for a ride on the boat, or at best it's a very, very low paid "profession". In that regard my advise is use your degree to get a job in an area with the kind of diving you like, then dive as a hobby. Eventually, if it's what you really want a business opportunity will present itself.

In any event, since the income is low, and you want to remain flexible and able to move, avoid adult expenses and entanglements like car and house payments, long term girlfriends, kids, etc, at least until you are established where you want to be.

 

[pasley]

Two ways to make money diving -
Commercial Diver - working as under water welder etc in the worst imaginable conditions. Pay is low, but can be high and increases relative to the danger and bad conditions. Expect to do years as apprentice making minimal wage. Average pay is under $50,000 (US) per year. You would need a commercial dive ticket for this and it is expensive. Your degree will make you more money.
SCUBA Professional - The lowest level that allows you to get paid is Dive Master (DM). DM requires a minimum of 50 dives and certification as a DM plus insurance. DM training will cost $500-$1,500 US dollars plus insurance of $375(US) or more per year. DM pay is low, and there is of course a whole lot of DM's wanting to live in paradise so internships while you work on your DM would be doubtfull. Pay - (according to friends of mine who did it,) the pay is minimal. Worked long hours doing not only DM work, but maintenance, cleaning up and working as boat crew all for little to no pay. Tropical paradise operations often promise much and when you get there don't deliver and use you as cheap labor because you have no options and don't have the money to leave. My friend was promised X$ per month and got less than that, and had to work more hours than promised and had to borrow money to get plane fare to get out of there. In short, you pay will be equal to or less than you rent and food if you don't live fancy. Teaching does not pay better and many dive sites in paradise (pick your warm water tropical dive site) often hire Instructors who double as DM when instruction is not needed. This is not a career, but job you do when you have no house payment, wife, serious girlfriend or kids. Perhaps when you are young for a short time or retired.

So, bottom line. Nothing wrong with taking a year to travel and enjoy life. You will not make enough money to save anything but you will have fun. Then it is time to go someplace and use your degree. (Note, taking a year off can work aginst you with future employers, or for you). Working in your degree will get you more money and give you to income to go to the exoctic places and dive as well as put some in savings for your old age. Working as a DM will barely feed you today and allow you to put nothing aside for tomorrow.

 

[elan]

Here all the instructors including store owners in most cases have a real job.

You woikd probably barely survive...

Just get you degree, find a real job and enjoy diving going to different places.

 

[DCBC]

Bjarki,

As already mentioned, your choices are recreational or commercial diving. There isn't much money in the recreational field and if you were entering commercial diving, you would be better to prepare yourself with a construction background (Rigger/Welder) prior to taking the commercial dive program. If you wanted to do this, you would be working, so income would be generated to pay for the training.

Another path for you would be to keep diving as a hobby while you complete your education. I suppose you need to keep in-mind how you will apply this training to whatever field you will eventually pursue. I don't believe that any education is wasted, but a MA (Econ) may not be the best choice if you want to dive for a living. Obviously if you find yourself starting a dive shop, knowledge of economics is valuable, but perhaps the cost/time benefit isn't worth it to attain a Master level degree.

Good luck with your future!

 

[fjpatrum]

My suggestion, as a newb diver who has no intention of going pro, would be to get a day job and dive for fun on the side. Alternatively, get a day job be a dive pro as a way to supplement your own diving costs. Very very few people make a good living (IE a lot of money) diving as recreational dive pros. Some actually have a good life as a dive pro, but few make money enough to retire on unless they make it through some other career path. Commercial divers, as I understand it, can make very good money but that's a whole different type of diving and not like anything you've done so far, I'm sure. It's the difference of being a hobby ultra-light pilot and an astronaut, as far as I can tell.

 

[mselenaous]

Welcome to ScubaBoard.

"Living the Dream!" Going Pro! is often discussed on Scubaboard. Here are some of those discussions:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ad...7176-why-cant-you-make-living-instructor.html
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/232102-going-pro.html

What I've learned so far is:
1-If it is worth pursuing, don't be mediocre or achieving only "minimum standards". That means getting a long pedigree of highly respected instructors on your various certification cards along thee way. Remember: it's about what your instructor (or you as an instructor) has to offer, not the Agency. Your experience is what fills in the gaps and enriches the class for your students.
2. You can never learn it all. Your training should never end (formal or informal). Find diving mentors and instructional mentors along the way. (Loads of them here on ScubaBoard).
3. This path will not be fast or easy. Expect to put in alot more effort than expected and tackle alot of frustration along the way.
4. This path is not cheap. The training and gear only get more expensive the better & more experienced you get at your chosen career. Your employers will expect you to dive their "brands" and the latest/greatest and pay for it (even at a discount, it's still adds up). And the revenues do NOT support the lifestyle, so you will need to bring other skills to the table such as diesel mechanic, Captain's license, retail sales and management, accounting, etc.

Best of luck to you.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Oddly enough, even though I am pretty negative on the subject, I've subsidized much of my diving over the years as a "dive professional" (I always try not to laugh at the term, but it's really really hard not to) by avoiding DM and dive instruction like the plague.

1) I've worked as an inland commercial diver through dive shops working directly for a shop, having customers referred to me by a shop and using a shop as a means to get government contracts, either directly or as a sub contractor.

2) I've also worked pretty steadily (until the last 6 months) as a reg tech with one or more shops at any given time.

The first is a great paying job when it pays, it's just not real steady but is usually lots of fun if you like a challenge. I used to charge $200 to show up including the first hour in the water and a $100 per hour after that at one end of the pay range - and work with a marina in exchange for slip fees on the other extreme of the pay range (not great pay but loads of fun, generated a lot of good will, and got me some very nice slips). As in offshore commercial diving, you need to have some basic skills prior to trying to do them in the water. Then it's mostly a matter of taking those rigging and construction skills into an under water zero viz environment and applying them. At times it also requires some brains and creativity - for example developing a plan and approach to remove the scale from a head gate that is preventing the gate from closing - meaning it's still partially open - ready, willing and able to suck you through it while you work on it.

The second occupation is a great weekend, evening job as most techs are not full time techs but rather do double duty for the shop as shop manager, DM, instructor, salesperson, tank monkey, gas blender, etc - or - they are techs that just do it on the side and/or for multiple shops. Doing reg repair has subsidized nearly all my diving and equipment purchases for the last 15 years. However being really good at it means really understanding how things work, rather than just being able to use tools and follow procedures in a manual.

Both 1 and 2 usually pay a lot better than DMing, and you have a lot more freedom to choose your own hours, work conditions, etc - leaving you room for a real job that will pay the rent and put food on the table.

But one way or the other, the reality is that going "pro" in the recreational scuba industry usually means either having several different revenue streams or it means having a real job on the side.

As I stated earlier, finish the degree and use it to get you to a location you want to be in and to support you while you develop some realistic opportunities as a diver. Eventually, I got tired of the inland commercial thing with it's cold water, zero viz and occasional "oh ****" moments as well as the local diving and took advantage of my degree to improve my real job by relocating to an area with much better pay that was also closer to better and much more varied diving that did not require flying everywhere. Consequently, I use my masters degree to pull down about $100,000 a year and use all 4 weeks of leave per year on dive trips. The frequency of diving is lower, but the quality of diving is a lot better,

 

[Rich Keller]

With a masters in economics you would be better off working in the sport diving field with a dive equipment manufacture or large volume supplier.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Unfortunately, the foregoing posts are honest, brutally honest in some cases, as to the reality of making a living as a dive professional. It is competitive, and it is hard. If a person is debt free and responsibility free, is willing to work for cheap and live a lifestyle commensurate with a modest income, you can survive. If you have capital to invest, and business expertise and can hook up with people established in the scuba industry, you can make a pretty good living as a shop owner or part owner. You will need quite a while to get there. Now, all that being acknowledged, if I was 24 and single, instead of 60 and used to a nice house and a professional's income, I would go be a dive bum in some tropical place until I tired of it or had another opportunity I could not refuse. You're 24. You can be a little crazy at this point in your life, or a lot crazy. My vote- Go for it! There will never be a better time than now while you have the freedom to follow you dream. Really. Go. Now.
DivemasterDennis