Earning a Living

[Phil Griffiths]

Ive just recently left university and thought i might try making a living from my diving (for a little while at least). Ive been diving from the age of 14 and think of myself as a fairly competant sport diver.

Is becoming an instuctor the only avenue i could explore to earning a living through diving, or is there something else i could try?

If it is the only (or the best) thing i could do what would the timescale and cost be to get me to a qualifaction standard that dive centres would employ me?

Any guidance people could offer me on earning a living through diving would be greatly appreciated.

[claire]

You could try instruction or commercial diving. To do the latter you would need an HSE qualification which could take from 3-10 weeks depending on what you decided you want to be qualified to do (The basic 3 week part IV course would cover you for research diving, the full 10 week course goes up to saturation diving for oil rigs etc.). Cost not cheap! - ?3000+. The Underwater centre in Fort William does these courses and may provide info on the sort of work you could get with the qualifications.
If you decide to go the instructor route you can pay for your qualifications (expensive but relatively quick) or a dive school may take you on for an internship whilst you qualify - minimal wage/or just board and lodging in return for a qualification and your work. Has the advantage of getting plenty of experience whilst you qualify. Sometimes these internships are advertised but otherwise its worth emailing and asking.
Although there are BSAC schools the majority of work is in PADI schools so you would need to get a PADI instructor or divemaster qualification to have the best chance of finding work.
If you're not sure what you want to do the "Our World Underwater" internship might be worth applying for. Sponsored by Rolex, the idea is for the intern to have a go at a variety of underwater careers - very competitive though (see link).
Good luck in your job hunt.

[Howard Mason]

Phil it will cost you a darn sight more than 3 grand to get commercially qualified , when I looked into it several years ago , it was around 6 grand for your HSE 1 which took approx 9 weeks , to get your "sat ticket" you had to have a years commercial diving under your belt or 250 hours logged on working dives before you were elegible to begin the "sat" course. The price quoted for "sat" was 12 grand , I can't remember how long it took , none of these prices included accomodation or food or any day to day living expenses, plus once your qualified what you gonna do when your on the seabed , remember in the commercial world diving is only a vechicle to get you to your work site, so you need a skill which do not come cheaply , and there's some saftey courses you must pay for and attend before you don your Kirby morgan . The people at Fort William are great to talk to and can give you proper quotes and tell you the best way to go about it , I think they have a link on this site. Any way stick with it , my cousin did and he now enjoys the spoils , so best of luck.

[Andy Nye]

Ive just recently left university and thought i might try making a living from my diving (for a little while at least). Ive been diving from the age of 14 and think of myself as a fairly competant sport diver.

**** Thats a start and if you really enjoy diving in NIL VIZ and can dive on your own,, you would enjoy the HSE course far better ****

Is becoming an instuctor the only avenue i could explore to earning a living through diving, or is there something else i could try?

**** MARINE BIOLOGIST, they are crying out for them in OZ,having said that , the money is CR*P. But will get you rolling dives in your logbook. ****

Any guidance people could offer me on earning a living through diving would be greatly appreciated.

**** Divers are not getting the work nowadays because it is cheaper to use a ROV ( Why not go on a ROV Course and get a pilots ticket ), i know you won't get wet, but the work is more available. ****


ANdy,
Commercial pt 1 diver

hope this helps, feel free to e:mail off forum if you require more in depth details

[Phil Griffiths]

Thanks for that advice guys, at the moment im looking more towards becoming a instructor since in the past i have really enjoyed teaching people things. if anyone can put me in touch with some schools that could give me advice on finding work, qualifications, or some sort of internship (preferably in the Uk, and Preferably on the south coast, although anywhere would be good)it would be very much appreciated.

[Steve Walker]

**** MARINE BIOLOGIST, they are crying out for them in OZ,having said that , the money is CR*P. But will get you rolling dives in your logbook. ****


If only! A Marine Biology BSc degree in itself won't open many doors for a diving career. If you go on to do a Marine Biology PhD you _might_ get a chance to do some diving, although the majority of MB research _does not_ entail any diving.

The ones who end up doing PhD projects where there _is_ a lot of diving involved tend to become very jaded about it, I know a girl who worked out in Fiji studying reef fish and two others who worked on a three-year project in the Red Sea - all of them ended up with a "so what?" feeling about diving.

TBH I think you'd be better off going into commercial instructing e.g.PADI, SDI/TDI etc if you want to get some kind of living out of diving, even then I doubt you're going to earn all that much in relation to the outlay and input (much like science really...).
HTH and good luck
Steve (PhD in a Marine Biology type topic)

[Phil Griffiths]

I realise i'm not gonna live the high life with classy suits and fast cars, just wanna try my hand at earning some cash doing something i love, if only for a little while.

[Andy Wade]

First you start with 2 Million pounds, set up and run a dive school for a few years, and hey presto, you'll have a Million pounds!
Unfortunately it's a Million less than you started with....;-)

Joking apart though,
The general word is that you can't make any serious money from diving, you might make a 'diving living' teaching at a school, but it will probably just be free diving and maybe board and lodgings if you're lucky.
If you're young, free and single, then go for it before life saddles you with jobs, mortgages etc.
Some people have done the 'Dive Instructor for a living' bit and had great fun working abroad, but as I understand it, you'll also need to speak at least one other language to get a job overseas with a dive school.
If this is what you want then maybe the PADI way is for you as they have more establishments abroad than anyone else.
Terry H has done something similar to this IIRC.

Hope this helps.


.

[TerryH]

If this is what you want then maybe the PADI way is for you as they have more establishments abroad than anyone else.
Terry H has done something similar to this IIRC.


Sort of.
Well as my name has been mentioned I suppose 'd better respond.

Ok three basic facts.

1. The only person to make money (most of the time) out of
diving is the center/shop owner.
2. Instructors get paid more, but have to pay more to get there.
They spend there lives at 6m or the swimming pool.
3. Divemasters have all the fun. They get to guide and dive.
Drive the boat etc. Yes it's hard work, but if you love diving
with basic responsibilities (mostly dealing with already
trained divers). Then it's the best.

So IMO you want to go for PADI Divemaster Internship.
Good outfits run like this. You actually pay for the course.
This makes you a customer and you have all the rights
associated with that (obviously depends on the country).
Once finished many schools (by pre-arrangement) will take you
on and you can work back your DM fee.
Make yourself invaluble and although you wont get much pay you
will get accomodation and just enough to keep in beer.

Do this for a few months and then you can decide if .....
a) You want to be an Instructor
and
b) If the school is going to help you do it.

While I can understand the attraction of diving for a living.
The reality is not as nice as you may think. Give it a chance
yes, but IMO do it in stages. Set your sights on PADI DM now
and once completed only then think of Instructor.

HTH
TerryH

[Andy Nye]

Ok three basic facts.

1. The only person to make money (most of the time) out of
diving is the center/shop owner.

*** This is ture in all jobs,,,But saying that, i'm 39 own my own house, 2 cars and a 750cc bike...choose my jobs when i want *** so i made money.

2. Instructors get paid more, but have to pay more to get there.
They spend there lives at 6m or the swimming pool.

*** Some commercial divers choose to sit at 6 mts all day as well & make mega money ***.

3. Divemasters have all the fun.*** All divers should be having fun ***
They get to guide and dive.Drive the boat etc. Yes it's hard work, but if you love diving with basic responsibilities (mostly dealing with already trained divers). Then it's the best.

Andy

[Phil Griffiths]

Thanks for all the sound advice guys. If you all think working to Divemaster is the best plan, can anyone give me some sort of guidance on what steps to take, bearing in mind im currently a BSAC Sports Diver, ive been looking at some courses on the net but i am not totally sure which PADI courses i have to start at to work up to Divemaster.

Also can anyone put me intouch with some schools that run internships, as trying to search for them on the web is like looking for a needle in a field of haystacks.

[TerryH]

Well you have two choices.

Sports + 20 will get you on a PADI Rescue course, but that will
also mean you will have to do Emergency First Response (EFR).

After that you are onto the Divemaster course/Internship.

So go along to a PADI outfit and ask for a combined
Rescue/Divemaster course/Internship.

or

BSAC Dive Leader gets you on the Divemaster course.

So dont know where you are with your own club or if you have
any dive leader stuff done, but this is probably the cheapest
(but not neccessarily the quickest) route.

If you want to speed it up look into doing the BSAC run
O2 & PRM SDC's. These will get big chunks of Dive Leader signed
up.

As for internships, well get emailing. Look for BSAC/PADI
schools first as these will know more of what you have been
doing and may even give you brownie points.

Go to the BSAC & PADI websites for URL's.

Send a very, very brief note, asking for a basic yes/no about
internships. If the awnser is yes then you can expand on it.

I can only reccommend one outfit (I know others, just not happy
reccommending them). www.calipso-diving.com
(did my PADI AI with them).

HTH
TerryH

[Phil Griffiths]

thanks Terry, will go take a look at that site, and get onto my D.O about doing my dive leader.