How to become a Diving Instructor

Posted on Aug 4th, 2011 in Divemaster, diving, gap year Thailand, Scuba diving instructor, Work and Travel

For those interested in becoming a Scuba diving instructor that go for it and take themselves through the process of getting qualified to teach people how to dive, it can genuinely be a life transforming decision. I personally know quite a few dive instructors, who work all over the world in disgusting destinations like the Seychelles, Philippines, Maldives, Thailand, Australia and Bahamas, judging by their facebook photos and status updates commuting to work and neon strip lighting in offices is a thing of the past: essentially they have tipped the work life balance firmly in their favour! Bear in mind these are just people I know personally, there are plenty of other dive instructors in equally amazing places.

Some considerations before beginning your training.

If the above makes you want to hand in your notice immediately and done your scuba gear – good! It should! But there are some considerations you need to seriously consider before taking the long road to the IDC (the PADI Scuba Diving Instructor Development Course).

Firstly make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. Being a Scuba diving instructor is about having a really cool job, a rewarding job – not financially (more on that in a bit) but in that it is not only fun, but many of the Instructor I know say they get alot of pleasure out of the actually teaching process – for instance when students are nervous about diving but help them over come their fears and get them qualified. It is a job that deals with people, in their most vulnerable state, it is about taking responsibility for peoples safety and ultimately inspiring a passion in what is a really cool sport.
So if you feel you are not a people person, or you lack confidence to lead people, may be this is not for you. If you want a job that enables you to deal with people everyday in which you play the pivotal role in developing their abilities then it is for you.

What you can earn as a Scuba Diving Instructor

Financially a scuba instructor will earn a ok wage, many even manage to save up money to buy flights onto the next destination when they want to see another part of the world, but no one gets mega rich being an instructor. You will however make lots of friends, live in amazing places and really enjoy life.
Essentially what your instructor qualifications enable you to do is to live abroad – often the dive shop will pay your accommodation too, and constantly have an income stream, rather than blowing all your money on travelling. You will earn per customer and the busier a dive resort is the more you will earn. If you want more of an idea about what you can earn you can talk to our own resident Xtreme Gap Scuba Instructor Jazz, she runs the Dutch office but was an instructor for 5 years.

So how do you become an instructor!

You will need to complete the following courses in this order and have a 6 month time period between completing your open water course to sitting your IDC. There is no shorter way round this I am afraid, but what an amazing 6 months you will have!

Recreational Diving Courses

• Open Water Course (2.5 days), 4 dives, teaches you how to Scuba dive to a maximum of 18 meters
• Advanced Open Water Course, 5 dives including specialities, further develops your skills you can now dive to 30 metres
• Rescue Diver and Emergency first response, teaches you how to help divers in distress and administer first aid. You need this before you can complete your Divemaster.

Once you have competed these 3 courses in that order you then move up to professional level qualifications – this means after your Divemaster (below) you can actually start to work in the industry.

Divemaster.

This is a longer course where you dive alot and learn much more advanced theory behind diving, the course teaches you how to lead or guide dives and you will complete a minimum of 60 dives. Usually you will do a lot more (I complete my Divemaster with 250 dives). The Divemaster is a great course, lots of fun and can be used as well as a filler – to keep you busy, in a really fun way (while still learning at the same time) until your 6 months has passed so you can then take your IDC. During your Divemaster you dive as much as you want, every day, you assist instructors on courses and you take guests of the dive resort out for dives.

Finally you will move onto your:

IDC this is the course that qualifies you to teach, an subsequently earn in diving. The course is usually 2 weeks long and you will have a PADI course director teach you the curriculum and do your assessments. All going well, you will come away with your qualification and start a new life with a big smile on your face.

So how much will it cost to get by instructor qualifications?

There are some factors that effect the price of becoming a scuba diving instructor.

The length of time you need to take before your IDC (if you already have your open water course – you can go straight through the courses to IDC with out having to wait 6 months)
Do you have any Scuba gear? If not you will need it, and this can cost about €1000 all in – including a dive computer.
Lifestyle whilst training, make no mistake you will be training where there are constantly holiday makers up for having a party! If you get sucked into drinking every night, you will spend a lot more!

What are your options.

We recommend you do one of two things:

Get an Open water qualification in the UK first while you are saving up for your IDC and then go and your Advanced Open Water to Instructor in One Go over a period of 12 weeks. This option is better if money is tighter.
Then this is the option we would recommend: take 6 months to do all the courses abroad, this will cost more ultimately but, you will gain alot more diving experience, it is much more fun than learning to dive in the UK ( I have done that as well, in 3 degrees in a quarry pit with zero visibility).
I would especially recommend this option, because if you are spending 6 months on Koh Tao for instance – it gives you plenty of time to network with the dive shop owners and greatly increases your chance of landing work straight away.

So onto costs:

The following costs are for your courses, training fees, materials, and transfers to Koh Tao with the Xtreme Gap Zero to hero course.

Firstly you need to complete your Open water to Divemaster this is done over 12 weeks and cost can be seen here:
Then you need a further 2.5 months accommodation, which is approximately £800 at our heavily discounted preferential rates here.
Finally you need to then complete your IDC Scuba Diving Qualification which costs this all inclusive rate so do not add this onto the above costs.

Other expenses to take into account

Equipment

You will need dive equipment, this is available for purchase in Thailand check the Dive supply website (this is where you will be getting the equipment if you choose to buy it in Thailand) , and you get a 10% discount on retail rates as you book through us, you could also get second hand equipment as well, but considering you are starting a career in diving, you may prefer new equipment that will last. Budget approx€1000/£1000.

You will need a dive computer too check Suunto who are the biggest manufactuer of Dive Computers. A tough dependable model is the Zoop, but you may choose to go for something more fashionable like a D4 these are much more expensive though.

Flights

You will need flights to Thailand flights vary depending on the time of year. check skyscanner.net, Air Asia, or contact xtreme-gap@flightcentre.co.uk for a quote.

Visa Run Costs.

If you are taking 6 months to do your IDC, you will need to do a visa run to Malaysia after 90 days, this takes 2 days or so and you can either fly to Penang or go overland. Costs are probably about £70. Regarding visas we will assist you with getting an education visa that allows you to stay in Thailand for 6 months – usually you get 28 days on arrival.

Living expenses.

Living is cheap in Thailand, a curry will cost you £2, a beer £1.50 in a bar if you budget £10 a day you can live comfortably. £500 a month you can live like a king.

So taking an average lets say £400 per month on living costs.

You will probably want to rent or buy a motor bike to get around (buying a second hand one will cost you a couple of hundred and you can sell it at the end of 6 months).

Option to work during the course

Although this is not guaranteed, this is often quite common place. Once you have completed enough dives on the Divemaster section of the course, you may be offered a job as a DM if there is a requirement, this means you just need to sign off early (your registrations forms get sent to PADI) and you can start working at the dive school (or any Dive school in Koh Tao – there are 38 so your chances are good if looking for work).

Please note though if you sign off, you will no longer have access to unlimited diving as part of the DM course but you will be diving as part of your work every day, and you will have responsibilities to the dive school like helping out manning the shop and greeting guests. Expect to earn £70 per week as a Dm plus tips. This is not arranged through us, but it is worth mentioning as this can help you if you are on a tighter budget.