Survey Results: Scuba Diving Instructors Revenues & Pay (2nd edition)

Please Share Any Additional Thoughts You Have On the “Economics” of Being a Dive Instructor

These observations are from the 2025 survey respondents who are recreational scuba diving instructors. You may find answers from tech diving instructors on the InDEPTH Magazine website.

• Lots of very good divers out there, but only a few of them are good business people.
• I realized in 2024 that the dive industry is an MLM scam. You pay a ridiculous amount of money to get into the business where they promise you great pay and a life of travel and adventure, you have to continue to pay a fee every year regardless of how much business you do, and the person above you (the training agency) is the only one that actually makes decent money. If you sell enough of the low level goods you earn the right to purchase a higher level course so you can then sell higher priced goods and maybe even convince some poor schmuck to work for you so they can make pennies while you make nickels and the training agency makes dollars.
• The instructor development market has not recovered after COVID. Prices for flights, accommodations, etc., are high. PADI prices for materials and examinations are extremely high. The prospects for earnings are low. People simply can not afford to become an instructor. PADI’s strategy is to ‘divide and rule’ by creating more and more course directors and IDC centers. Competition keeps the margins for dive centers at a minimum, whilst they’re still getting their fees. I wish other training organisations would ‘up their game’ to increase competition between training agencies. 2024 was a very difficult year for me. Not sure if I can keep this up much longer.
• As long as the diving associations alone move beyond any labor law line of the various countries, nothing will change in the industry. The diving associations alone promote working conditions that would send employers packing in other industries.
• I love to teach and share all things diving, and my main struggle is that you can’t teach what needs to be taught, given current industry standards. I would like to make all courses longer with more detail. You can’t teach everything, and experience is the best teacher, but I feel we don’t provide enough initial learning and teaching time, as everyone believes time is money. I feel we are cheating our new divers of valuable experience while with an instructor. On the retail side of things, we are way too isolated, closed off, secluded, and not accessible to all forms of sales and marketing to a potential new and fresh customer base. Most people don’t understand or even know that diving is a great sport and how easy it is to get into. It is my belief that given today’s online buying that a physical shop/brick and Morter is not necessary to become a dealer and should be open and free to those who qualify with or without a location. This would help our industry grow in a more organic way and provide better opportunities.
• The dive shops rely on the dive instructors’ “love for diving” to determine the low hourly rate they pay. I have worked full and part-time in the industry and never felt I could support myself on the one job.
• It would be lovely if the industry pushed the value of training, instead of just training at a value price.
• It’s a great hobby and a very enjoyable way to share a passion, but I wouldn’t want to be a full-time instructor.
• Dive stores do not charge enough for classes, and PADI training tools are too expensive. SDI is not as easy to work with as NAUI for independent instructors. From my experience, NAUI is the easiest to deal with via the internet for purchasing training and merchandise for teaching. PADI and SDI are Dive Shop/Resort oriented. Equipment manufacturers do not want independent instructors certified in repairing their equipment.
• An instructor will never be a millionaire
• It is nearly impossible to be worthwhile in the SF Bay Area or any other metropolitan area with a higher cost of living, because your pricing cannot remotely compete with that of low-cost tropical locations.
• Dive instructors affiliated with a store should be remunerated not just for theoretical classes, confined and open-water classes, but also for student enrollment and gear sales. It should not be a charitable service to the store owners.
• It is tough to earn a viable living just as a dive instructor – you need to have other skills to be able to have sustainable employment.
• Uneconomical
• Dive shop pays in credit in store (equipment)
• In a non-resort location with diving only part of the year, being a scuba instructor is not a viable career path.
• Do not think you will make money in the dive industry full-time in non-resort areas. Worked full time in the dive industry for 4 years, went back to another industry to afford to live.
• The diving industry in Europe is sponsored by and burdens social security systems. Diving instructors work for six months and then claim unemployment benefits.
• Having worked in Germany; diving as a full-time job is not feasible to make a living.
• 90% of instructors are cheap slaves. Most money goes to the agencies that do shit. It’s ridiculous how they still work… If you don’t own a base in a tourist site or a liveaboard, it’s not worth considering it a job and that saying “working” for a paid 5-star dive center. So f* the industry!
• It’s either non-profitable at all, or the dive prices on the planet have to go up to pay better salaries. We haven’t even talked about 3rd world countries that only clean or carry tanks, and the joke of salaries they get.
• You need to be very dedicated and passionate to being a dive instructor
• As a part-time instructor, it’s more about the tax shelter and the enjoyment of teaching. It’s hard to explain the tax shelter if you’re not making enough to create space to use it, though. It’s harder if you work for a shop, then it’s about the perks of the job vice actual income, and that’s not enough for a lot of folks these days.
• Hard to make savings for the future.
• Others benefits than just income should be considered, paid annual leave, coverage when being dick, health insirance, etc.
• Tips make the difference between me just covering my rent and having some money left over or to save up. Divers seem to assume that, because diving is an expensive hobby that the staff are well-paid. Many also admit they’ve never even considered tipping their dive staff. Better education on this topic is definitely necessary. It’s a service industry: tips are essential. Primarily because the pay is so poor (and has only increased by $1 since I first came out here to work back in 2012).
• It’s impossible to live off teaching this great sport. I have to supplement my income with a 9-5 job on top of my teaching.
• It’s a lot of work; it costs far too much to be an instructor for not even close to enough money.
• Not paid enough for the risks, too many instructors on the market not good divers enough drowning the market, thx particualrly to PADI… a dive instructor should first be a very good and skilled diver.
• The cost to become a pro is high, and not enough is done to nurture new instructors with business planning, tax, etc. As an industry, it needs way more mentoring in this space
• Lots of very good divers out there, but only a few of them are good business people.
• I only do private classes where I can take my time teaching a course. When I got certified more than 20 years ago, the confined water sessions were spread across either seven weeknights or 4 weekends, with the sessions split between pool and classroom. With e-learning, I think a lot is lost. I usually do more than the required certification dives with students and make sure they are comfortable. I like to train divers as if they were to eventually become my dive buddy.
• It’s fun, but mostly done for me for tax write-offs and to fund my fun diving.
• Manufacturers need to lower prices or increase the minimum advertised price. The margins get lower and lower each year, and the whole industry suffers for it.
• You need enough other income to afford being an instructor.
• I’ll pay for a quality instructor anytime.