So you want to be a Dive Master / Instructor

[pnevai]

No this is not a advertisement for some ITC (Instructors Training Course) but rather a set of guidelines for you to do some self evaluation and to introduce you to the realities of that path you are considering.

One of the most important questions you have to ask yourself is WHY?

If you answer yes to the following questions, perhaps you should reconsider your choice, as being a dive professional may adrdress some of these motivations they tend to be self centered and being a dive professional first and foremeost is about the student NOT the person doing the instruction.

1. I want to get more dive time in.
2. I want to keep the enthusiasm going and share it
3. I can use the discounts on gear and dive trip discounts
4. I would like to work at something that commands the attention and respect a dive professional gets and it seems like fun.
5. Number four is followed by this one. I want to take my training to the highest level and perhaps pay the way by returning instructor or DM service in exchange.
6. I want a job where I can kick back on some tropical beach, get and mingle with bikini clad babes and get paid for it (Or some other monetary or job related reason).

I am sure that there are others but in my experience these are some of the more common reasons people decide to take dive professional training. And as they are mainly self centered they are the wrong reasons to do so. Unless you are taking the class ONLY for your own personal advancement and you never intend to make a living training people to dive, are these reasons good enough to become a dive professional.

So I am sorry if I let steam out of some of the dive professional candidates out there. You may ask why the above reasons are not good enough to become a Dive Professional? The reson is simple, as they are primarily self centered, sooner or later the glamour, and the novelty wear off, and then then your instruction and your students will suffer. Being a dive professional is about the student, not the instructor and as diving is a potentially dangerous activity it is unacceptable for the students training to suffer because the instructor is begining to loose interest or thier heart is not in it anymore.

Being a dive professional is WORK, many thimes HARD WORK, long hours and lost weekends as most OW Students work week days, and as pay for dive professionals is typically quite low you will have to have your own full time day job as well. In the beginning this demand is offset by enthusiasm and excitement that comes from being the head honcho, but as I said this can wear off after the first 6 months to a year, and when your enthusiasm starts to wane your commitment to your instruction will start to slip and that puts the students at risk.

Plus there are some people who just do not have the personality type to be good instructors.

You need to be a excellent communicator and comfortable as a public speaker.

You need to be very very patient and empathic

You need to be the type of person who thinks that nothing is beneath him / her. As a dive professional you will be a gofer, waiter, handyman, laundry boy, and a dozen of other menial tasks. You will put up with difficult sometimes arrogant people and you will say "yessir".

So in addition to the above you have to be cool headed, thick skinned, tolerant and be a real people person. If you do not fit into the above, your life as a dive professional will be very short indeed.

The traits I have touched upon above are infinitely more important than the number of dives under the belt or hours underwater. A person can have hundreds of hours and thousands of dives, be a litteral Mike Nelson, Jaques Cousteu and still be a horrible teacher. Much lies in a perons personality, motivations, mental attitude and ability.

For this to be a long term rewarding experience for you and your potential students. You have to be.

Outgoing and personable, have the patience of a saint and be able to shrug off people with bad attitudes without alienating them. You must be the consumate people person, a excellent communicator with a deep passion for diving and the need to share it with anyone and everyone for little money.

With the understanding that it is many times hard, thankless work that even at best has mediocre pay. (Unless you are a private tutor to multi billionaires, but don't hold your breath)

After all of the above, you will realize that you need to be adept in the water and will make sure you have your adaquate hours UW to be the most effective for your students.

Any Questions?

[pnevai]

So now your maybe wondering gee maybe being a dive professional is not cut out for me. What to I do satisfy this need to keep up the enthusiasm, or to share?

Well how about going for your Master Diver certification and when on a dive trip talk to the DM and ask to be buddied up with newby divers. This way you can lead a UW tour and show them all the stuff you learned by pointing out critters they may have missed or never knew existed. You can help them with a bouyancy problem or other minor issue and help make thier experience as good as you can.

You can volunteer to be a safety diver for trips or OW classes, or if you do take your dive pro courses volunteer to DM or assist when ever the urge hits you. Join a local diveing club and lead trips or club events, there are a bunch of things you can do and a wealthe of good information you can pass along without ever teaching a single class and everyone lives happily ever after.

[cummings66]

Regarding #2, if I don't want to share my love of diving with new divers then why would I even consider being a pro?

IME people that love something want to share it, they often do that by becoming an instructor. Those that don't care about it and treat it as a job are typically boring burned out instructors not worth going to.

In your opinion what reason should a diver have in order to become a pro?

[MSilvia]

Originally Posted by pnevai

1. I want to get more dive time in.
2. I want to keep the enthusiasm going and share it
3. I can use the discounts on gear and dive trip discounts
4. I would like to work at something that commands the attention and respect a dive professional gets and it seems like fun.
5. Number four is followed by this one. I want to take my training to the highest level and perhaps pay the way by returning instructor or DM service in exchange.
6. I want a job where I can kick back on some tropical beach, get and mingle with bikini clad babes and get paid for it (Or some other monetary or job related reason).

I am sure that there are others but in my experience these are some of the more common reasons people decide to take dive professional training. And as they are mainly self centered they are the wrong reasons to do so.

Any Questions?

As someone who decided to avoid becoming a dive professional despite loving both diving and teaching, I find it hard to believe that anyone would take a DM class for the reasons you outlined. Those are many of the very same reasons I decided NOT to.

1. If you want to spend more time diving, why would you sign up for something that would ensure that a much smaller percentage of your time will be spent diving for your own enjoyment, as opposed to supervising students in the pool, leading LDS group shore dives, or taking tourists on the same dive you've already done hundreds of times before? The secret to diving more is simply to go dive more.
2. If you want to keep your enthusiasm up, why turn diving into a job you have to do? As for sharing your enthusiasm, you can be a mentor, buddy, or club officer without spending money on professional training and insurance.
3. If you're trying to save money on gear, subtract the money you spend for pro training and annual insurance from the amount your gear is being discounted by and see how much you're really saving.
4. If you don't command respect now, how much do you think taking a DM class will change that? Ask yourself again when you're schlepping tanks for a pool full of students.
5. If high level training that will really extend your dive options is what you're after, why not consider advanced nitrox, deco procedures, gas blending, trimix, intro cave, wreck penetration, rebreathers, DPV piloting, or any one of a host of other more advanced options that, perhaps sadly, the vast majority of dive instructors have never been exposed to. DM, AI, and Instructor are among the highest levels of PADI training, but that isn't the only available path.

[cummings66]

To be honest you have to ask yourself if the gear discounts and beach bunnies are worth the time and effort you have to put in to it.

I turned it down because I like to dive and I don't want to give up all my Summer weekends to help teach. I want to help out as a buddy, so I tell the dive shops to send the new divers my way and I'll take them out and have fun.

The only thing I can see that would happen as a DM or instructor is my dive count would go up faster, but the fun count would go down because even though I enjoy helping people I still want to have fun on my terms.

DM/Inst is not in the cards for me. I'm having too much fun without it.

Not to say they don't have fun, but it's after class if you have enough energy or it's in the Winter. My dive buddies during the Winter are often DM's who want to get in all the fun diving they can before school starts, so to speak. They do a lot of night dives during the Summer because it's fun and after class.

It really takes a special person to instruct, and it's not because they want to have more fun because quite often it's the reverse. I appreciate the DM's and Instructors, they're doing a job I would not do. Some of my absolute best buddies are DM's and Instructors, going out with two of them tomorrow if it doesn't ice up that bad.

[in_cavediver]

I'd like to add another perspective, the individual looking for an avocation they enjoy and the opportunity to pass on information. As an independent instructor, you can control the commitment and timing as well as the type of classes/students you want to teach.

I one day plan to get the OWSI card. I have the DM and spent a couple years assisting classes but that ended in 2003. I'd like to think for the motivated students who want to truly learn to dive, they'd enjoy a class from me and I'd enjoy sharing my knowledge/experience. Heck, I almost do this now for a lot of friends via a mentor experience. I guess it helps that I have tec/cave training and actively do those dives, have played with a CCR and scooter and other 'advanced' idea's/toys/skills.

For those who seek to be underwater tourists, I personally am not interested in teaching that. There is nothing wrong with that objective, it just isn't something I would want to invest my time in. There are many shops around me who cater to just that need. Why would I want to compete.

Give me someone who truly wants to improve their diving and now were talking.

[msprzeor]

Originally Posted by in_cavediver

I'd like to add another perspective, the individual looking for an avocation they enjoy and the opportunity to pass on information. As an independent instructor, you can control the commitment and timing as well as the type of classes/students you want to teach.

You said it- that's what my husband and I are planning to do. We plan teach when we are ready. We're both OWSI now, and have a few small classes lined up, but we don't plan on letting the teaching take away from our enjoyment. The minute it does, we'll stop teaching for a while. It's nice not to have requirements on when/who/how much we have to teach.

Originally Posted by in_cavediver

For those who seek to be underwater tourists, I personally am not interested in teaching that. There is nothing wrong with that objective, it just isn't something I would want to invest my time in. There are many shops around me who cater to just that need. Why would I want to compete.

Give me someone who truly wants to improve their diving and now were talking.

We are hoping to teach both sets of divers. Provided we make sure the tourists are safe divers and fluid with skills, we'll teach that set too. I don't feel we'll do the weekend special $99 class, but with our after school group, we have a built in group to market the vacation set to.