Don't Touch Me Eel
Registered
Hi everyone! First post!
Over the past few weeks I've been doing intensive reading of ScubaBoard because I'm strongly considering a change of career. The consensus seems to be "don't become an instructor if you want to make money." I was very passionate about SCUBA when I was a teenager, but then life sort of got in the way and I went to college in order to drop out and ended up in a well paying construction trade in NYC. I had considered going commercial before the trade opportunity had presented itself and since it paid well, I took it. However, after spending the past 3 months in a coastal West African city surrounded by water with no dive infrastructure and a filthy local ocean, I started getting all sorts of ideas about getting back into diving, to the point of contacting an outfit that did a semi-zero to hero program in a location I've never dived but would like to, but there's also practical matters
So there's no money in recreational instruction! It made me think back to the commercial path, at 31 it seems I'm a bit old to start but not too old, but reading through the commercial forum someone had made a post along the lines of "low oil prices have hit the industry hard." Also that there is/was a very high washout rate for new commercial divers.
Over the past few weeks I've been doing intensive reading of ScubaBoard because I'm strongly considering a change of career. The consensus seems to be "don't become an instructor if you want to make money." I was very passionate about SCUBA when I was a teenager, but then life sort of got in the way and I went to college in order to drop out and ended up in a well paying construction trade in NYC. I had considered going commercial before the trade opportunity had presented itself and since it paid well, I took it. However, after spending the past 3 months in a coastal West African city surrounded by water with no dive infrastructure and a filthy local ocean, I started getting all sorts of ideas about getting back into diving, to the point of contacting an outfit that did a semi-zero to hero program in a location I've never dived but would like to, but there's also practical matters
So there's no money in recreational instruction! It made me think back to the commercial path, at 31 it seems I'm a bit old to start but not too old, but reading through the commercial forum someone had made a post along the lines of "low oil prices have hit the industry hard." Also that there is/was a very high washout rate for new commercial divers.
- 31, unmarried, no kids, some passive income
- want to be in/on the ocean, would like to teach and eventually skipper if possible depending on location(s)
- would walk away from solid income to pursue a passion (NYC is not really my idea of a good time)
- open to commercial due to employment/educational/sea time opportunities
- don't drink/party/live a simple lifestyle
- haven't dived in 15 years