Podcast Episode: The Economics of Being a Dive Instructor
Scuba Diving Instructor: Income, Costs & Financial Realities
This conversation delves into the financial realities of being a scuba diving instructor, examining income trends, investment costs, and the various factors that influence earnings. It highlights the challenges faced by scuba diving instructors, including low wages, market saturation, and systemic issues within the diving industry. The discussion reveals a stark contrast between the romanticized view of the profession and the harsh economic realities, emphasizing the need for instructors to often rely on passion rather than financial viability.
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Some of The Takeaways
- The average income for recreational instructors has decreased from $9,000 in 2019 to $8,300 in 2024.
- Technical diving instructors earn more but also saw a decline in income, from $29,900 to $27,600.
- Recreational instructors taught more students but earned less per student, indicating a squeeze on prices.
- Technical instructors, despite teaching fewer students, increased their income per student significantly.
- The upfront investment for recreational instructors is around $32,500, while for technical instructors, it’s about $112,600.
- Full-time recreational instructors earn around $22,900, which is close to the poverty line.
- Female instructors earn significantly less than male instructors, with a gap of over $5,000.
- Location plays a crucial role in earnings, with some regions seeing significant income growth while others decline.
- Many instructors feel undervalued and struggle to make a sustainable living.
Some of The Sections in This Episode
00:00 The Dream Job Dilemma
03:00 Income Trends and Realities
05:57 Investment vs. Earnings
08:57 Factors Influencing Instructor Earnings
11:57 The Impact of Experience and Independence
14:55 Challenges and Frustrations in the Industry
17:57 The Broken Business Model of Dive Instruction
18:44 Conclusion and Future Considerations
Sound Bites
- “So okay, let’s put that full-time recreational instructor number, say $23,000, into perspective. If you compare that to the U.S. poverty line for one person, which is around $15,000, it seems possible to make a living, barely, maybe, but you are sailing pretty close to the wind there.”
- “There seems to be significant downward pressure on instructor income overall, and it feels like it can only be related to an oversupply of instructors, particularly newer ones flooding the market.”
- “So that’s also nearly an 8 % drop. It’s interesting that the percentage is similar across both groups. But here’s where it gets maybe a bit more nuanced. Did this drop in income happen because they taught fewer students, or is something else going on?”
- “Interestingly, the survey showed instructor trainers actually saw a larger income drop than regular instructors.”
- “Instructors talked a lot about constantly battling other instructors or dive schools who are competing solely on price, driving everything down.”
- “If you connect all these dots, the low pay, the high volume of instructors, the costs, many instructors feel the system is set up so that the dive training agencies make their money through sheer volume.”
- “Some scuba diving instructors explicitly described the dive industry or parts of it as feeling like an MLM scam, you know, multi-level marketing, where only the organizations at the top, the dive training agencies, really make decent money.”
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