Why does every new diver want to be an instructor?

[Mustard Dave]

When I started diving, it was a bit of a spur of the moment thing. I'd been planning to for a while and had a date in mind to do my OW course in Egypt with a lad I used to work with. I broke my leg, which set things back, and never got around to sorting it. My mate did it though.

I was in Cyprus and one of the staff from the dive school at the hotel came up to us by the pool. I had a quick go in the pool and she began talking about the courses they offered. I thought 'why the hell not?' and put my name down for the PADI Scuba Diver course. When I got home, I went to a local dive school I used to pass on my way to work and signed up for the OW course.

When I did the Scuba Diver course, I remember the DVD I watched. It was quite clear that PADI were all about pushing the next course and the suggestion was there straight away that I could live the dream and become a 'PADI Professional'. I remember thinking it was a bit early to be pushing the DM and IDC.

I did the AOW straight after the OW, again with the local school, and joined their club. I did the Rescue Diver course after about 35 dives and I remember calling the school to see if any club members were diving at the weekend. Most the instructors are part time and all have day jobs but there is one who does it full time. I think he works on a self-employed basis and gets paid for whatever courses he runs. I had noticed on a number of occasions he can be a bit pushy. He asked me how many dives I had done (just over 40 by this point) and then asked, "You've done the Rescue Diver, haven't you?". I told him I had and he then said, "Divemaster?". I was caught by surprise a little and didn't really give him an answer. I made sure I was ready to give him a definitive 'no' next time I saw him.

Where I live, DMs do not get paid a penny. To do the course I would have to pay around £600 (about $950 US at current exchange rates). During the course I would be helping out on their courses. Once certified, I know I would be pestered to do try-dives on Monday evenings, help in the pool on OW courses at weekends or go to the nearest quarry to help out (basically hovering around a platform while the students do skills). All of this I would be doing for free as they do not pay DMs. All this time spent working for free could be better spent doing the sort of diving I want to do.

If I went on to do the IDC, I would have to pay another £850 ($1350 US). Once certified I would be paid by the school but the money is peanuts. I doubt the instructors get minimum wage. I already have a full time job that pays pretty well, so I don't need a minimum wage weekend job to top up my salary. Diving is a leisure activity to me and I'm keen to keep it that way.

Despite that though, I do quite fancy teaching. I am always happy to take out recently qualified divers and find it quite rewarding. I would not do it with PADI though. In the UK we have the British Sub-aqua Club (BSAC). BSAC is a club organisation and if you pay your annual membership, your training is free. BSAC would train me to instructor level (and beyond) for free. In addition to this I could do my boat handling qualifications and VHF license, again for free. This is all of benefit to the club as I can take out other divers on the club RHIBs, which club members can use for free with the right qualification. Basically you get out of BSAC what you put in. The more people you certify, the more club members you get, and when they're ready, they will hopefully be teaching the next lot, and so on...

There are still plenty of people at my club that sign up to the DM course. The school are on a real winner as they get money off the DM candidates and once they are qualified, they get slave labour. I can't for the life of me think why they do it though.

 

[lowviz]

I see it somewhat differently.

Scubaboard loves to talk about scuba diving. (Obviously.) Within this population, I would expect many of the participants (active voices on the board) to be infatuated with the idea of amping it up and becoming an instructor.

No harm, no foul.

Just be aware that this self-selected population may not be an accurate sampling of the entire dive community. I don't see much "instructor envy" on the boats...

@ Mustard Dave,

Posts clashed. Cheers.

Re: "The school are on a real winner" Yes, indeed. Funny that, I worked for a Brit company for years. Credit you guys with seeing corporations as collections of people. Thus "IBM are" rather than the US equivalent of "IBM is".

We tend to equate collections of people to corporations, sad...

 

[jar546]

Don't forget that what people say and what they actually do are two different things. When excited about something new people will often say things like: 1) "I can eat this every day", 2) "I could live here forever", 3) "I can't wait to wake up next to him/her) for the rest of my life" and of course, 4) "I want to earn a living scuba diving as an instructor, how cool would that be?"

The reality is that 1) Eating the same thing every day gets old quick, 2) Too much of a the same thing becomes boring and eventually we need variety, 3) Very few and far between still say that after 10 years or so and 4) Once someone gets 100 dives under their belt they realize how much fun it is not being responsible for others and by then the awe is gone and you are just happy to dive, not to mention that most who get certified never dive again after certification. The process for getting the training you need starts to wear on you and people often question themselves. They may think it and say it but the reality of it is that it never really becomes a reality most of the time.

But for those that stick with it because they want it, my hat is off and I commend them. We all have the right to try whatever it is we want to. We just may find out, however, that we don't really like it after all.

 

[drrich2]

People who get into a hobby & enjoy it want to achieve a degree of mastery. In the PADI system, Instructor looks like the top achievement, and one would assume that you would achieve a high level of scuba knowledge & skill if you reached that status.

I think a lot of people pursue Dive Master for the same reason, with no intention to formally teach.

If you achieved instructor, you wouldn't necessarily have to work as one, though you'd have the option.

People often seek to master a craft beyond their evident needs. How many rec. divers aspire to Master Scuba Diver (whether PADI, SSI or NAUI), even though they don't plan dives beyond what OW & AOW (& maybe Nitrox) would be needed for?

On this forum, how many people take an interest in GUE Fundamentals for the same reason, the desire to become a very good diver, though they may not be all that intrigued by DIR, DIR-style team diving, etc...?

Richard.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[TMHeimer]

[QUOTE=Mustard Dave;6617808
Where I live, DMs do not get paid a penny. To do the course I would have to pay around £600 (about $950 US at current exchange rates). During the course I would be helping out on their courses. Once certified, I know I would be pestered to do try-dives on Monday evenings, help in the pool on OW courses at weekends or go to the nearest quarry to help out (basically hovering around a platform while the students do skills). All of this I would be doing for free as they do not pay DMs. All this time spent working for free could be better spent doing the sort of diving I want to do.

************************************************************

Yes it could. I just HATE that. Divemasters are considered (referred to as---) Pros. "Pros" means "Paid". Period. But all you SB guys know my feelings on that. Professionals get paid, period. If you work for free, you are NOT a "Pro"--and you may be 3 times as good a DM as me. And I say that as a very new DM, who makes $300 per OW class. And that's about MINIMUM WAGE in Canada if you figure the hours.

 

[Quero]

Yesterday I got my teeth cleaned. On my wife's last visist she told the hygienist that I was a diver. The hygienist became certified last summer and has only made a few post cert dives so yesterday she was asking me lots of questions about diving. One of her questions was "have you ever thought about becoming an instructor?". I don't think that's a usual question between people talking about skiing or golfing or other activities but it isn't unusual in the diving world.

Maybe you just sounded like you knew a lot about something that requires classroom learning as well as technique (which is more the case in golf and skiing--at least I never set foot in a classroom or read a student manual when I was taking lessons). Maybe she was letting you know that you have a knack for explaining stuff?

 

[TMHeimer]

People who get into a hobby & enjoy it want to achieve a degree of mastery. In the PADI system, Instructor looks like the top achievement, and one would assume that you would achieve a high level of scuba knowledge & skill if you reached that status.

I think a lot of people pursue Dive Master for the same reason, with no intention to formally teach.

If you achieved instructor, you wouldn't necessarily have to work as one, though you'd have the option.

People often seek to master a craft beyond their evident needs. How many rec. divers aspire to Master Scuba Diver (whether PADI, SSI or NAUI), even though they don't plan dives beyond what OW & AOW (& maybe Nitrox) would be needed for?

On this forum, how many people take an interest in GUE Fundamentals for the same reason, the desire to become a very good diver, though they may not be all that intrigued by DIR, DIR-style team diving, etc...?

Richard.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Yes, agree 100%. I got MSD as a means of achievement. I have no issue with those achieving DM or Instructor for educational/personal reasons without having intentions to teach. But, as you probably agree, if you work as a pro, you should be paid.

 

[lowviz]

Maybe you just sounded like you knew a lot about something that requires classroom learning as well as technique...//...

...//... Maybe she was letting you know that you have a knack for explaining stuff?

Maybe you missed a "Maybe":

Maybe she keyed into the fact that you actually care about others, not just your imagined status.

But no matter, I wouldn't expect you to see that one, Q. -being so focussed on helping your newbies progress, as you are, it is an understandable blindness...

It is, however, something I'm quite attuned to when "chatting up" a prospective instructor.

 

[Edward3c]

…
Despite that though, I do quite fancy teaching. I am always happy to take out recently qualified divers and find it quite rewarding. I would not do it with PADI though. In the UK we have the British Sub-aqua Club (BSAC). BSAC is a club organisation and if you pay your annual membership, your training is free. BSAC would train me to instructor level (and beyond) for free. In addition to this I could do my boat handling qualifications and VHF license, again for free. This is all of benefit to the club as I can take out other divers on the club RHIBs, which club members can use for free with the right qualification. Basically you get out of BSAC what you put in. The more people you certify, the more club members you get, and when they're ready, they will hopefully be teaching the next lot, and so on...
…

I’m afraid you paint too rosy a picture.

Your quite right that diver training in a BSAC Branch (club) is free – providing the BSAC and branch fees are paid. Anything from £60 to £250 in total a year.

So to say becoming an instructor with BSAC is free is misleading. Instructor training isn’t done in branch but on nationally run events which have a fee:

• Instructor Foundation Course = £144 for 2 days (includes the Instructor Manual).
• Open Water Instructor Course = £66 for 1 day.
• Practical Exam = £61 1 day.
• Theory Exam = £39 1 day.

Successful completion of the above events qualifies an individual as a BSAC Open Water Instructor total £310.

Kind regards

 

[Diver0001]

I’m afraid you paint too rosy a picture.

Here's a question for you.

In the Netherlands we have the NOB, which is a CMAS variant, and they use a club based system as well. I know that CMAS, and therefore the NOB have changed their format in recent years to offer training at a quicker tempo but in the past getting certified could be quite problematic.

I've had quite a few students who crossed over from NOB to PADI because of how long it took for them to get trained. One of them told me that he had been waiting for 2 years(!) to get his AOW check out dives because in his club there was one instructor who did all of that and he never seemed to have time. The reason the instructor kept giving for re-scheduling it was that "we only dive shallow so you don't need that for diving in Dutch waters".

Another student came in at the OW level after becoming frustrated with 6 months of mandatory snorkeling practice before his club would let him use a scuba apparatus in the pool. He asked me how long it would take before he could use the scuba gear if he crossed over. I told him if he signed up on the spot I would take him on scuba in the pool the same day. His mouth fell open.

Those are two examples, but I've had multiple students cross over because of these kinds of excesses, which I am sure are exceptions, but nevertheless do happen. At the time when I had a steady influx of NOB cross-overs it took an average of 9-12 months to get trained to the OW level in most clubs. In terms of club contributions people were starting to realize that while the PADI course costs something like 350 Euros, A year of paying 25 Euros a month wasn't "free" either and the PADI course took 6 weeks instead of a year to complete.

Naturally the NOB clubs were saying that since their course was a lot longer it was more thorough but if you looked carefully at what divers were taught, there was one skill (a controlled buoyant lift) in their OW course that the PADI system doesn't teach until Rescue. Seeing the results (watching newly certified NOB divers) I could hardly tell the difference once they were in open water and the whole thing convinced me that spending *too* long in the pool is not good because students develop bad habits in the pool, like dragging fins through the silt. If you take them to open water early then they see what their finning does and can learn more easily, in my experience, to improve it. In the pool, however, you never notice if your finning would be causing silt because there is no possibility of that in the pool.

Before I digress too much, I was curious about your observations of the results (and time lines) for training via BSAC and PADI in your area.

R..