Scuba Instructor?

[dwieck]

I taught for four or five years part time. I did it because I liked diving and teaching. I quit because I went to medical school - that didnt allow much time for anything else especially teaching diving part time. I wish I could have kept my instructors certification even if it was just to help out with somebody elses classes. I enjoyed teaching
Dennis

 

[Rogersea]

I have been a SCUBA Instructor for 25+ years, I still enjoy introducing people to diving. I first became an Instructor while I was in the US Navy stationed on Guam. My primary motivation was to help pay for the hobby. I found I really enjoyed teaching and plan to do it until I dont like it any more. I currently teach and live in the tropics and am loving life. I am a PADI Instructor and am pretty happy with the organization.

 

[downunder diver]

I became a Instructor in 03 after 11 years of diving. I taught full time for 3 years but now only work as a independent after some time off, with other aspects of my life taking over for a bit.

I plan on keeping the teaching as a hobby now rather than a full time career, but love teaching none the less. Now is time for me to progress onto the tech path and to learn new or more advanced techniques and enjoy being the student again.

 

[Dr Wu]

I fell for the entire PADI "take it to the next step" marketing campaign.

Five years from OW to Instructor.

While I still find ocasional fulfillment in teaching a newbie I prefer instructing experienced divers on a more technical level.

Holding the hand of some stockbroker that is only getting a card because their boy/girlfriend insists they get certified before the honeymoon dosent hold a candle to violently ripping a mask off a wreck diving student who made the mistake of entering a U-boat with a bad buddy.


I don't enjoy the role of being a "friend" as much as I love playing the part of the bad buddy.

 

[jlbdiver]

I'd like to think I'll teach more when I retire maybe associated with some dive operation in a warm part of the world. Take groups out and do some guided stuff, etc. I plan on getting a Course Director rating in time for retirement that way maybe I'll work part time at a larger dive location and run training for them. We will see.

 

[pieohpah]

I'm an Assistant Instructor (PADI) and I just enjoyed the courses. However, to go from Assistant Instructor to full blown Instructor is quite expensive... and apart from that I didn't want to ruin the diving experience by having it as a job.

 

[kanonfodr]

I've done some mentoring here and there when dive buddies have questions about stuff, but full-on teaching kinda scares me. Living and diving here in Vacation-land, I see lots of divers that aren't necessarily doing it for the same reasons I am, and I don't want to teach people who I ultimately won't want to be in the water with.

If I were to take up instruction, I would probably be an independent instructor as I have little care for churning out masses of divers and instead would prefer to turn out 2-3 excellent divers a month, if that many. But I've got to get a lot more varied experience and training before I feel I could be an instructor that I would personally want to train under.

Peace,
Greg

 

[Rhone Man]

What Blackwood said. When I was a freshly minted DM at the age of 19, a bunch of my friends did the IDC and enquired if I wanted to join them. I though about it, and said no. As much as I enjoy diving, and as much as I like to encourage newer divers, for some reason I have never really felt any kind of pull to teach newbies.

If you could leapfrog and go straight to teaching more advanced divers on more complex courses, that might interest me. When I suggest this to people they laugh, but I am not sure I see why. University professors sure as hell don't have to teach Kindergarten first.