A scuba diving instructor is a dream job for those who love to travel. If you are one among the many, then the first step in achieving your dreams is to plan. Plan, regardless of the path you choose. Scuba diving is an active sport that demands good health and physical fitness.
Find the best scuba diving instructor to teach you. Look for the ones who can train divers from scratch. Scuba diving instructor job is fantastic, adventurous, and quite challenging. It requires a series of specific skills. Are you someone who craves a great lifestyle? Then scuba diving instructor is the best choice of career.
You can choose scuba diving instructor as a shift of career or as a sabbatical between the jobs you pursue. This can narrow down your research and options and help you plan better.
As a Scuba Diving Instructor, you can live in the nature bound places in the world and go diving every day. You are not only just diving but responsible for the people you take on a dive trip and their safety. Read below to know how to become a scuba diving instructor.
Steps to Become a Scuba Diving Instructor
A diving instructor begins the training by teaching the scuba diving techniques first in the swimming pool and then in open water. The instructor has to demonstrate necessary scuba skills to the students and accompany them underwater. They should also prepare the student to adapt to emergencies.
Step 1:
The first step in becoming a scuba diving instructor is to become an ‘Open Water Diver.’ You will learn the necessary methods and skills needed for you to become a scuba instructor. Kick start your journey with academic sessions to understand what are the changes that happen to your body when you dive and how to have a safe open water dive.
Step 2:
Once you have completed the open water diver course, you have to move forward to take up PADI advanced open watercourse. This course will cover five open water specialty dives such as deep diver, navigation, and any three other dives of your choice.
Step 3:
After completing these five advanced dives, you can learn a rescue diver course where you will get a chance to assist instructors and divemasters in case of emergencies. The course covers the EFR (Emergency First Responders) course. You will know how to deal with injuries during a dive trip and the dive decompression sickness.
Step 4:
Take up the divemaster course so that you become competent as well as an experienced diver. You can deal with situations that occur in everyday diving life. This is a structured course where you learn additional skills and methods like how to run a dive boat, first dive trips, and much more.
Note: You should have completed at least sixty dives to be certified as a PADI Divemaster.
Step 5:
Take up the Instructor Development Course or IDC. This is the final course that takes about three weeks. It consists of the PADI Assistant Instructors course, the Instructors Development Course (IDC), mock exams, and then final practical exams. You can take up the Instructor Examination or IE after completing the final course. You will be awarded a certificate of completion and are designated an Open Water Scuba Instructor (OWSI) after completing IE.
Scuba Diving Instructor Salary
Once you become a scuba diving instructor, you can be sure of a reasonable income. Many scuba diving jobs are on a commission basis. You get paid for teaching courses to students, and for the dive trips, you lead. Most of the scuba diving instructor jobs are salaried; however, even the tips will make up a significant part of a scuba diving instructor’s salary.
The annual wage of a scuba diving instructor is $108,170, with an hourly fee of $52.01 per year. A professional scuba diver work in commercial fields such as underwater repair, research, photography, instruction, and as a sea explorer.
These commercial scuba divers earn a median salary of $ 59,598. If you are working as a full-time scuba diving instructor in a foreign country, the cost of living will below. You can save a lot on rent and other necessities and have a higher take-home paycheck.
Become a Certified Scuba Diver
How can you become a certified scuba diving instructor? All you have to do is to approach any one of the agencies that certify scuba divers like NAUI, PADI, CMAS, & BSAC. Since 1960, NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors) has been training & introducing the best divers in the world. Both PADI and NAUI demand the applicants to be 18 years of age and more and should possess scuba certification with their gears and should have dived at varying depths and times.
NAUI offers six levels of certifications.
- Introductory programs
- Diver courses
- Specialty courses
- Technical diving courses
- Freediving courses
- NAUI Leadership and Instructor courses
Do you know that PADI OWSI (Open Water Scuba Instructors) and PADI Assistant Instructors are the most sought after scuba diving instructors worldwide? This is because they have completed that sets the standard for other training scuba diving instructors(1).
Living a life as a scuba instructor is incredible. You get to do what you love and live amid the beach, sun, and ocean. But scuba diving instructor as a job is strict as you have a lot of responsibility.
