How to become a Divemaster or Dive Instructor

How to become a Divemaster or Dive Instructor

How to become a Divemaster or Dive instructor

Being a Divemaster or Dive Instructor are both great ways to earn a living while traveling. A Divemaster or Dive instructor can basically get work in any country they want, provided there are dive sites and tourists.

A Divemaster doesn’t actually earn money, but is usually able to live anywhere they want cost-free while diving for free. A Dive Instructor on the other hand usually makes a small bit of money in addition to living expenses.

What’s the difference between a divemaster and a dive instructor?

A divemaster is someone who takes certified divers out on dives. It’s their job to know the dive sites and be able to help a diver out of a troubled situation if one should arise. A dive instructor is someone who actually teaches courses and can certify new divers.


How much can a Divemaster or Dive instructor earn?

A Divemaster doesn’t earn much money. For example, in Gili (an island near Bali), a divemaster earns about $2 per tank. In other words, if they take out 4 people, they’d just earn $8. Sometimes you’ll also get free accommodation. In other words, being a divemaster isn’t really a career where you can earn money, but you can live on an island for basically free and dive for free all day.

A dive instructor does make money. At the same island near Bali, Gili, the Open Water PADI course is $350, of which $90 would go to the dive instructor. Normally classes are 3 days long and have between 2 people and 6 people. So a dive instructor usually earns between $180 to $540 for 3 days of work.

A Divemaster doesn’t get much money from the dive shop, but they can make a decent bit of change by offering underwater photography services. All you need is a decent underwater camera and you can charge anywhere from $5 to $10 per dive. At 4 divers, that’s an extra $20 to $40 per dive, which can quickly add up if you’re doing a few dives a day.


What about on a monthly basis? How much could a Dive Instructor earn?

It really depends on your location and the season. In locations like the U.S., Australia, and Europe, the pay is naturally much higher. If you work in Thailand, you can earn about $1,500 a month. In Gili, it’s about the same, but living expenses are higher so you can save less. Timing matters as well. In high season, every dive shop in Gili will be booked out and every instructor will have a full batch of students. You can earn over $1,000 in one week. In low season, you can sometimes go days or even weeks without teaching a class.

If you want to be a diver on an oil rig, you can make ridiculous money, around $1,000 per dive. You can easily make $10,000 to $30,000 a month as an oil rig diver. Basically, what you do is go under the ship and repair things that mechanical bots can’t repair.


What’s the process of becoming a Divemaster or Dive Instructor?

scuba diving, become a dive instructor

To become a divemaster, you first need to get your Open Water certification and your Advanced certification. You need some sort of first aid training, which doesn’t have to be provided by a PADI dive shop. Finally, you need to take the Rescue diver courseOnce you have your rescue diver course, you can then start the Divemaster course.

Assuming you passed the divemaster course, you then have the option of doing the Dive instructor course. The course is about two and a half weeks long and is more about teaching than diving. How to give a presentation, make sure your students are getting the material, etc. After taking the course, you then need to go to a PADI exam. If you pass the exam, you’ll be a fully certified dive instructor.


How long does the whole process take and how much does it cost?

Becoming a divemaster can take around two months. Including your Open Water course, all your dives and all the courses it’ll cost about $2,500. If you want to become an instructor, the training course and the exam will cost another $2,500.

If you’re really sure you want to become a dive instructor, the whole process can take around 3-4 months. Expect to spend about $5,000 to $6,000 for everything, as you do have to pay for your plane ticket to the PADI exam (there are a few around the world, but you’ll often have to fly to one near you.


Is it easy to find work once you’re a certified Divemaster or Dive Instructor?

It really depends on your experience, as well as the season. If you just get your certification and don’t actually get any experience, other dive shops will be reluctant to hire you. That’s why it’s important that you stick around where you got certified and get at least a few months of experience under your belt. It also matters when the last time you taught. If you got your certification but haven’t taught in years, dive shops will also be reluctant to take you on.

That said, if you’re an active dive instructor with a lot of experience, you will be able to find work anywhere in the world. Of course, it’s easier to find work in high season when instructors are in demand rather than a low season when dive shops are full of idle instructors.

In conclusion, as you can see being a divemaster or dive instructor you won’t earn maybe a ton of money, but it’s a very flexible career to pay for your travels, especially if you love diving. It costs about $4,500 and 3-4 months to go from beginner to dive instructor. In Southeast Asia, you can expect to earn around $1,500 a month; in other parts of the world, you can expect to earn a lot more.

Elvina Mirsaitova
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