Reasons to be and prerequisites to become a professional SCUBA Diving Instructor
There are many reason to become a professional SCUBA diving instructor - here a few to motivate you, but also to help you in your decision-making process.
First a few sentences from my own personal earliest SCUBA diving time ...
After many years or traveling and working for an international organization - it was time again for a total change in life ... many possibilities when changing your job. I had - like many of you - the following choices
- Mechanical / electronic professional work, what i actually learned many years - out of question !
- Going back to my native country after all the years of exciting adventure and travel while working - boring !
- Something NEW - totally different - a real challenge combining most or all the accumulated experiences from my previous jobs YES ..
i was already a SCUBA diver for a few years with extensive diving experience ... and ocean, water in general always was attractive since earliest childhood. Working with people was infinitely more attractive than and fun than working with machines and death objects. Being in nature - day and night any time any weather something i always loved.
Finding a truly qualified training opportunity that was the only key problem arising. Born in Switzerland - traveling around the world i experienced the key to other countries, to new markets or better jobs is qualification above average !
I found what i needed - a truly professional diving instructor college - the Florida PADI College in Jacksonville - that was in 1979. It was my first good decision to go there - most likely it was the very best of any instructor training college anywhere in the world and one of the very first of its kind by that time.
Years of professional work followed in various countries and a large variety of diving locations / situations many thousands of UW hours / dives with fantastic people from many nations and cultures.
Did i love all my diving years as a professional ?
YES - i loved every single day - every dive, every of my divers - we grow together often like a family, joined again and again in new diving adventures and for no money in this world i would want to miss a single of these beautiful days with all my divers !!
There are but a few other sports or recreational activities with that much proximity - inside and outside between human beings - as we encounter in SCUBA diving as a professional. Since the environment is mostly "strange" and new to novice divers - it's you the instructor or divemaster in charge to gently guide all new divers into a new world while keeping them in full safety. They all depend on you - the professional who plans and executes all dive plans to assure all to have max fun while being safe all the time. Hence a far above average degree of selflessness is a prerequisite for any divemaster or professional SCUBA diving instructor.
So what are the requirements to become a professional SCUBA Diving Instructor ?
- Your love to work with people - living people who love to have fun but sometimes also may have problems, anxieties, fears and emotional stress that is to be solved or healed by you - the diving professional. A professional diving instructor or divemaster is the one to assure full safety, accuracy of dive plan, fun in all divine activities underwater as well as above water.
- Working in nature - being amidst nature, amidst new and may be at first "strange" creatures. Discovering new life, new forms, playing with animals of any kind. Venturing into new terrain - unknown and often untouched until you dive the first time.
- Love - i mean true love for nature - care for nature, to protect, nature, enjoy nature and join nature as an equally important part of all creation.
- You are mechanically inclined and skilled to handle the purely technical aspect of such a job in addition to the instructional or organizational part of your work.
- And as an additional requirement when considering your work abroad in one or several of the exotic dive resort destinations such as Maledives, Philippines, Thailand or other beautiful tourist destinations offering full SCUBA diving services - you may need to be multi-lingual according to the origin of your diving customers. English plus one or several additional languages certainly help to find jobs more easy or be more competitive when applying for an instructor job in remote locations.
Some instructor training agencies may require as little as 50 to 100 logged dives when applying for instructor exam ..
forget such minimal requirements !
A professional needs true professional and widespread education and a truly deep diving background before even thinking of becoming an instructor. At least a year or 2 of most intense recreational diving activity including some dive travel and adventure camps in a variety of situations / locations with a number of different dive buddies is a truly acceptable preparation for your later profession to succeed. Being a professional Diving Instructor is equal in human and professional qualification requirements as being a professional car mechanic, medical doctor, therapist or music teacher !! It's a true, most interesting and most exciting profession - for a long period of time or even a full lifetime ! Hence it needs true professional preparation and full devotion to safety, quality and fun - you as a diving professional are the source and guarantee of fun, safety and adventure to all your diving students and diving customers and you may have a life long lasting impact on all of them.
If you want to have all doors to excellent jobs open then you need far more than 50 or 100 dives .. several 100 dives in a largest possible variety of environmental conditions and dive situations such as:
- fresh water / limited visibility diving
- current diving or river diving
- UW photography
- night diving
- boat diving
- shore / beach diving
- diving in waves
- search and recovery diving
- rescue diving
- and whatever special divine activities are realized in your local area as well as in those possible locations you love to find a job.
Later during my own instructor years i recommenced and required all those who wanted to become a professional diving instructor to first go trough the PADI Master SCUBA Diver training before entering the divemaster course - to allow them to gather a largest possible variety of experiences in various environments. During this preparation time - we went for a year or longer repeated times to various dive camps in fresh water lakes, high altitude lakes, rivers and ocean dives to accumulate a number of qualified intense dive experiences with changing partners and changing dive conditions / locations. I recommend every diver who plays with the idea of becoming a true diving professional to do the same. Be prepared and you will enjoy all your years as a diving professional even more while being a stronger source of fun in a safe fashion to all your divers and later potential diving professionals as well.
Take your time and learn from scratch - spend a few weeks here and there - and may be even a few months or a season as a professional divemaster before entering the Instructor preparation and exam to follow that career on a strong basement of solid experience in practical dive situations under the direct guidance of an older diving professional to learn and benefit as much as possible from his diving experience. It safes you later expenses and frustration as well as assures you know the true requirements of your future profession and to be prepared for such a beautiful vocation.
SCUBA diving professional is something you do with all your heart, soul and body !
Ease of communication with daily or weekly changing new people is needed - there are but a few other professions that require as much direct communication and openness for each other than SCUBA diving. You are the one to help all your divers to open for each others need and safety concerns, to teach them buddy system and diving together side by side, taking care of each other, being concerned for each other and enjoying diving with each other.
There is but one way to teach all above - by living it yourself, by seeing you to enjoy being with your divers,m with others, new persons, new situations ... by seeing you loving all and taking care of all.
Dependability, quality consciousness and safety consciousness as required for such a job, need your full love for humans and nature, to feel well yourself and to be free of emotional stress or unsolved personal problems. You may be like a baby sitter to your divers - watching them all the time while leaving them as much freedom as possible and safe.
Its all about having fun - and you will be the fun provider !
... and all fun you provide is bouncing back to you in smiling happy eyes !!!
If you are enthusiastic about this new and exciting career opportunity - if you are a truly experienced diver and love to become a diving professional ...
A search in the Internet may help you finding additional contact information about where to gain diving experiences and where to finally prepare for your Professional Diving Instructor career. Take your time and prepare carefully. Write or email to several - research the web site of potential diving instructor colleges or facilities, compare and then decide.
search for:
professional diving instructor training
to find divine instructor training colleges and resorts
You may want to refine the above search by adding a country you love to make your instructor training - such as Thailand or Philippines or Florida ... to get lesser number of results but more accurate search results from the web search.
