Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor
2nd Edition
How to Make a Good Living Out of Our Passion for Scuba Diving
Scuba diving instructors – Do we want to make a living doing what we love, without starving in the process?
As dive instructors, we get to introduce people to the magical underwater world. It looks exactly like we are living the dream! But trying to survive on passion alone is like trying to fuel our dive boat with good vibes; it might feel great for a minute, but it will not get us very far.
Right now, we invest the price of a fully equipped commercial food truck into our gear and training, yet the industry often expects us to work for pennies. This handbook is our ultimate navigation chart to fix that.
Drawing on massive, worldwide scuba diving industry data, we will learn exactly how to:
- Step into the Captain’s seat and take total control of our personal brand.
- Ditch the C-card factory and start offering premium, highly profitable scuba coaching.
- Banish the tip jar and confidently charge what our expert dive professional’s time is truly worth.
- Become an underwater storyteller to inspire our scuba students to become lifelong, enthusiastic divers.
We do not have to choose between a successful career or a beautiful life. We can absolutely have both! Let’s zip up our wetsuits, raise the bar, and truly live the dream.
Review: “An important book every current and would-be dive professional should read.”
“This book should be required reading for anyone thinking about becoming a scuba instructor. In fact, even if you’ve been a scuba instructor for over half a century, like me, you still should read it.
It’s a comprehensive and brutally honest discussion of just about every issue imaginable affecting dive professionals, which makes it unlike any other book out there. And although Darcy’s unabashed honesty certainly won’t endear him to some diver training agencies and some other industry elites, this is exactly why the book is such an excellent resource—it tells the truth: To grow, the dive industry needs a completely different business model.
The chapter, “TEACHING FOR SUCCESS” I think is especially masterful. Frankly, I stopped teaching recreational divers and instructors a long time ago, but I still teach course in sustainable tourism and marine environmental education to dive professionals, and portions of this book will become part of my curriculum. Keep ‘em coming, Darcy, we need more like you speaking truth to power.” ~Alex Brylske
Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor
Tired of working “9 to 5” and considering “living the dream” as a scuba diving instructor traveling from one tropical paradise to the next? It’s possible, if you play your cards right. Most instructors don’t because they “wing it”. They dive headfirst before checking the depth of the pool or even if there is water in it!
This book is your companion to success as a dive instructor or divemaster and a valuable reference book for dive store and scuba diving resort owners and managers.
It is focused on providing information, tricks, and advice for scuba divers looking to earn a living in the dive industry. Yet, part-time scuba diving instructors will also find information to make this adventure a better one financially, be much safer, have more fun, and be more fulfilling.
This book is about going beyond being “a” professional to being professional and successful.
It won’t give you an MBA or any other kind of business degree, nor make you a dive instructor! This book is about helping you merge scuba diving, career management, and business management to identify a path leading you to “living the dream” while simultaneously making enough money to live.
It is also about “raising the bar” in the scuba diving industry to put us on a path to growth.
It is best to read this book before starting your scuba diving instructor course, but already certified dive instructors will also find plenty of food for thoughts and ideas for growth post-COVID-19 pandemic.
Have a look at the comprehensive table of contents below.
The 2nd Edition is here!
Print – eBook – Audiobook
YOU CAN READ IT ON DEAD TREES:
WORLDWIDE
Paperback
You could also order it from your local bookstore
with ISBN 978-1-7390198-9-1
Editorial: “The most valuable book you can read.”
“I want to stress must-read. I’m serious when I say that this will be one of the most eye-opening books about being a dive professional that you’ll ever read. And, it will also be the most valuable book you can read as it pertains to the business side of diving – specifically how to make money and enjoy life by being a dive professional.” ~Tec Clark
Review: “Honest insight into the SCUBA industry’s dysfunctional and outdated business model.”
“The SCUBA industry has many disparate stakeholders, resulting in an incredibly fragmented business. As a consequence, the customer experience is inconsistent. This book provides an honest and compelling insight into the business and sets the foundation for much-needed disruption to the model…” ~Lee Byrd
Still unsure? Listen to a podcast episode reviewing Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor.
Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor
2nd Edition
How to Make a Good Living Out of Our Passion for Scuba Diving
Chapter 01: Welcome to the Captain’s Seat
It is time to step out of the passenger seat and take the wheel! We look at the cold, hard numbers behind our scuba diving industry and discover exactly why we must stop acting like hobbyists and start operating like true professionals to build a profitable career.
- Running on Fumes: The Cold, Hard Reality Check
- Ditching the Bare Minimum: Why We Must Raise the Bar
- The “Empty Cylinder”: My Own Training Nightmare
- Career AND Life: Converting the “Or” into an “And”
- A Quick Navigation Warning Before We Jump In!
Chapter 02: Setting The Stage For Success
What does it actually take to succeed as a scuba diving instructor? We explore the good, the bad, and the sandy truths of our job. We also look at how stacking extra abilities in our professional deck is exactly like holding a winning poker hand.
- The “Blue Mind” Perks: The Good Side of Teaching Scuba
- Sand in the Wetsuit: The Not-So-Glamorous Truths
- Show Us the Money: Setting Realistic Paycheck Expectations
- Changing Hats: When Instructors Become Tour Guides
- Acting the Part: The True Professional Mindset
- Our Unwritten Foundation: The Personal Prerequisites
- Formula For Success: R=A*(S+K)
- The A.S.K. Quality Project
- The Head, The Hand & The Heart
- Adding Cards to Our Poker Hand: Extra Skills to Master
- The Mirror Check: Do We Truly Have What It Takes?
- Our Ultimate Professional Toolbox
Chapter 03: Diving Into The Dive Industry
The traditional dive shop model is struggling. We break down the massive “six-headed monster” of dive center operations and introduce the innovative Octopus Strategy to help us navigate the changing tides of dive gear sales and scuba training.
- The Six-Headed Monster: The Businesses Inside a Dive Center
- A Drop in the Ocean: Sizing Up Our Industry
- The Outdoor Industry
- The Adventure Travel Industry
- The Cast of Characters: Knowing Our Industry Stakeholders
- Mapping the Territory: Hometown Shops vs. Paradise Resorts
- The Old Playbook: Our Current (and Broken) Business Model
- Shifting Tides: The Trends Changing Our World
- The Octopus Strategy: Redesigning Our Future
- Navigating the Currents: What This Means for Our Careers
Chapter 04: Understanding Our Scuba Customer
Who is actually riding on our dive boats today? And who will tomorrow? We dive into the shift from hardcore scuba addicts to casual vacation divers. By learning exactly who our customers are, we can plug the massive leaky bucket of dive industry dropouts and create enthusiastic fans.
- Customer Experience & Satisfaction
- Creating Raving Fans: From Satisfied to Enthusiastic
- The Expectation Game: Under-Promising & Over-Delivering
- Who is Actually on Our Boat? Profiling the Modern Diver
- Meet “Adventure Aline”: Building Our Customer Persona
- The Vacation Buffet: Core vs. Casual Divers
- Plugging the Leaky Bucket: Fixing Our Dropout Rate
- Rewriting the Baby Boomer Playbook: Serving New Generations
- The Next Generation: Navigating Scuba for Kids
- The Elephant in the Room: Confronting Sexual Harassment
- Ditching the “Shrink It & Pink It” Trap: Services for Women
- The Mirror Effect: Building a Team That Reflects Our Target
Chapter 05: Learning For Success
Earning a shiny plastic instructor card is just the starting line. We look at the true financial investment of our scuba diving careers, how to pick the right dive training agency, and why adding specialized tools gives us a massive edge.
- Mastering Our Dive Skills (Beyond the Plastic Card)
- The Zero to Hero Investment: What It Truly Costs
- The Zero to Hero Timeline: Enjoying the Ride
- Picking Our Alphabet Soup: Which Training Agency?
- The Quest for a True Mentor: Picking the Right Instructor & Dive Center
- Instructor Internships & The “Free Labor” Trap
- Stacking Our Deck: Specialized Diving Skills
- The Tech Diving Edge & The NDL Reality
- Joining the Sidemount Revolution
- The Freediving Secret: Mastering Our Air Consumption
- The Art of Snorkeling: Perfecting Our Surface Skills
- Tankless Diving: The Ultimate Snorkeling Upgrade
Chapter 06: Teaching For Success
We need to shut down the C-card factory! We explore how to shift from a rushed, rigid teacher to a premium scuba coach. We also look at the “10-dive rule” to ensure our students actually have the time to become confident underwater explorers rather than just survivors.
- The C-Card Factory vs. Real Teaching
- Fresh Off the Exam: Our First Steps as a Pro
- The “Master Builder” Blind Spot & The Power of Debriefing
- How To Teach the Open Water Diver Course Alone (Hint: Don’t!)
- The 10-Dive Rule: Creating Explorers, Not Survivors
- The “Advanced” Illusion: Bursting the False Confidence Bubble
- The Coaching Shift: Charging for Time, Not Plastic
- Making Deposits in the Bank of Experience
- Finding the Flow
- The C-Card is Earned, Not Bought
- The “Tea-Bagging” Trap: Fixing the Discover Scuba Diving
- The Dry Run: Nailing the Prep Session
- Flipping the Classroom: Making eLearning Work for Us
Chapter 07: Coaching For Success
Teaching the theory of diving is easy, but managing a student’s nervous brain underwater is a whole different beast. We explore how to handle panic, spot cognitive overload, and use the pool’s “training wheels” to build real comfort before hitting the ocean.
- Defusing the Time Bomb: Handling Panic and Bad Experiences
- The Darth Vader Reality: Banning the “Breathe Normally” Myth
- The Mammalian Reflex: Taming the Mask Clearing Monster
- The Training Wheels vs. Hovering Off the Pool Floor
- The 1% Brainpower Limit: Spotting Cognitive Overload
- Banning the Bicycle Kick
- Slowing Down the Speedboat: The Three Speeds of Diving
- Beyond the Physical: Training the Space Between Their Ears
- Battling the Elements: Mastering Our Teaching Environment
- Boat Snacks & Bonding: The Magic of the Surface Interval
- Seeing the Future: The Superpower of Visualization
- Ditching the Relics: Teaching with Dive Computers
- The Buoyancy Blueprint: The True Value of a Logbook
- Sealing the Hull: Reversing Our Massive Dropout Rate
Chapter 08: Gearing Up For Success
As professionals, our scuba diving equipment is so much more than just life support; it is our daily uniform! We look at why keeping our dive gear simple is the best approach, what essential safety tools we actually need to carry, and why trying to teach a student in terrible rental gear is exactly like teaching them to ride a broken bicycle with a missing wheel.
- The Ultimate Billboard: Wearing Our Store Uniform
- Ditching the Christmas Tree: Keeping Our Gear Simple
- Muscle Memory: Standardizing Our DIR Setup
- Beyond the Basics: Our Essential Tools of the Trade
- Bringing the Firehose: The Ultimate Value of an O2 Kit
- Taming the Sausage: Mastering Our DSMB Deployments
- The Spare Mask Trick & Our Packing Checklist
- Lost in Digits: Escaping the Electronic Compass Trap
- Shivering Instructors: Rethinking Our Exposure Protection
- Train How We Dive: Our Pool Gear Reality Check
- The Broken Bicycle: Evaluating Their Gear & Our Rental Fleet
- The Snorkel Dilemma: To Wear or Not to Wear?
Chapter 09: Safety For Life
We introduce our non-negotiable SPF framework: Safety, Performance & Fun. We discuss how to escape the toxic blame game, spot the tiny red flags before they turn into a train wreck, and build a culture of safety on our dive boats.
- The SPF Framework: Our Sunscreen Against Bad Experiences
- More Than Just Rules: Building a True Culture of Safety
- Fixing the Swamp: Escaping the Blame Game with a Just Culture
- Breaking the Silence: Refusing Impossible Standards
- The Buck Stops Here
- Beyond the Paperwork: The Truth About Liability Releases
- The Backyard Doctor: The “Implied Student” Trap
- Teaching Defensively & The Expert Witness Test
- Russian Roulette: Escaping the Normalization of Deviance
- The Meerkat Watch: Mastering Situational Awareness
- Stopping the Train Wreck: Spotting Error Precursors
- The God Complex: When We Think We Are Invincible
- Peer & Mentor Pressure
- Active Followership: Ditching the “Assumed Coordination”
- The Forced Babysitter: Avoiding the “Insta-Buddy” Trap
- The Solo Mindset: Our Need for Extreme Self-Reliance
- Say No When No is The Answer
- The Empty Bucket: Spotting Performance Influencing Factors (PIFs)
Chapter 10: Preparedness For Life
A great safety mindset means nothing without the right physical tools. We explore why using checklists and standard operating procedures (SOPs) is like having a perfect baking recipe, ensuring every single scuba diver returns to the dock safely.
- Our Pre-Flight Blueprint: The Power of Checklists
- Dynamic Rehearsal: Building True Muscle Memory
- Our Recipe for Success: Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
- Plan Your Dive & Dive Your Plan
- The Pre-Dive Briefing & The “Low Air” Lifesaver
- Beyond the Dusty Binder: Building a Living Emergency Action Plan (EAP)
- Surface Safety & Boat Traffic
- The Ultimate Safety Net: Bulletproof Rosters & Recall Systems
- DAN & The Bends
- Checking the Green Box: Why We Must Verify The Oxygen First Aid
- Testing the Air: Defeating the Silent Killer
- The Dry Fortress: Debunking the Water Basin Myth
- The Shared Bathing Suit: Rethinking Wetsuit Hygiene
- Building Our Football Team: Managing Assistants
- Tuning Up the Engine Room: Our Own Health and Fitness
Chapter 11: Our Marketing Skills For Success
Because scuba diving industry brands can be completely unreliable compasses, we must become our own lighthouses! We explore how to build a strong personal brand, find our perfect niche, and confidently ditch the discount bin to price our services like true professionals.
- The Broken Compass: Navigating Unreliable Industry Brands
- Being the Lighthouse: Building Our Personal Brand
- Planting Our Dive Flag: Does Location Still Matter?
- Ditching the Discount Bin: How to Price Like a Pro
- The Big Fish in a Small Pond: Finding Our Niche
- The Boomerang Effect: Why Repeat Divers Are Pure Gold
- The Hometown Advantage: Building Confidence Before We Fly
- The Avengers of Adventure: Building an Outdoor Alliance
Chapter 12: Our Communication & Selling Skills for Success
Selling does not have to be sleazy. We learn the art of shutting up, how to use the “jawfish trick” of awkward silence to get clients talking, and how to successfully flip an unhappy scuba diver into a loyal, lifelong friend through great communication.
- The Art of Shutting Up: Rule Number One is Holding Our Breath
- The Jawfish Trick: Mastering the Awkward Silence
- Our Recipe for Success: The No-Sleaze Selling Steps
- Practicing in the Shallows: Consultative Selling & Role-Play
- Don’t Get Caught Empty-Handed: The Power of Product Knowledge
- Selling Smoke Alarms: Pitching Prevention Instead of Panic
- Calming the Storm: How to Flip an Unhappy Diver
- The “What & Why” Rule: Upgrading All Our Communications
- The Power of the High-Five: Meaningful Positive Reinforcement
- Ditching the Alphabet Soup: Speaking Human Instead of Scuba
- The Anti-Ghosting Protocol: Just Answer the Phone!
- Meeting Them Where They Live: Respecting Preferred Channels
- Planting Our Digital Dive Flag: Conquering Websites and Algorithms
Chapter 13: Environmental Skills For Success
The coral reef is our actual workplace, and protecting it is our business. We learn how to stop acting like underwater traffic cops and become true environmental storytellers, deeply connecting our scuba divers to the magic of the ocean.
- Protecting Our Office: Why the Reef IS Our Business
- Winking in the Dark: Fixing the Environmental Disconnect
- Waiting on Slow Turtles: Demanding True Environmental Leadership
- Ditching the Traffic Cop Routine: Our Ultimate Environmental Playbook
- The Underwater Storyteller: Moving from Educator to Interpreter
- The Black Coral Trap: Why True Ecotourism Includes the People
- The Seatbelt Dilemma: Blaming Gloves vs. Fixing Buoyancy
- Shark Feeding & Photography
- The Invisible Footprint: Mastering Our On-Site Behavior
- Beyond the Waterline: Greening Our Gear & Surface Habits
- Just Scratching the Surface: Our Lifelong Environmental Mission
Chapter 14: Our Business Skills for Success
How do we actually make a living? We look at squeezing every drop of profit from our physical assets, discovering hidden gold, and understanding why we absolutely must banish the unpredictable tip jar.
- Squeezing Every Drop: Maximizing Our Skills and Assets
- Sunken Treasure: Striking Gold in the Second-Hand Market
- Doing the Math: Discovering the True Cost of Our Time
- The Paperwork Trap: Employee vs. Independent Contractor
- Charting Our Course: What to Negotiate With Your Employer
- Dropping Anchor: Finding the Perfect Dive Center to Call Home
- The Tip Jar Dilemma: Why We Cannot Rely on Leftovers
- Buying the Whole Boat: Should We Open Our Own Dive Center?
- Beyond the Wetsuit: Exploring Other Jobs in the Industry
- Just the Tip of the Iceberg: Our Ongoing Business Journey
Chapter 15: Our Career – What’s next?
It is time to chart our final course! We look at how to embrace new tools like AI, the value of attending trade shows completely outside our scuba diving industry, and how to confidently convert the “or” into an “and” — having both a successful career AND a beautiful life.
Appendices
- Appendix A: The Scuba Diver Creed
- Appendix B: The Divemaster & Scuba Instructor Creed
- Appendix C: The Hard Data on Our Dive Instructor Careers
- Appendix D: Terminology
The 2nd Edition is here!
Print – eBook – Audiobook
YOU CAN READ IT ON DEAD TREES:
WORLDWIDE
Paperback
You could also order it from your local bookstore
with ISBN 978-1-7390198-9-1.
