How To Become a Dive Professional | Scuba Diving
How Long Does It Take To Become a Scuba Diving Instructor?
A better question would be how long it takes to become a dive instructor good enough to earn a living as a scuba diving professional.
Darcy Kieran is the author of the handbook “Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor: How to Make a Good Living Out of Your Passion for Scuba Diving” and a unique advanced logbook & checklists for scuba divers, divemasters & instructors.
If you take too many shortcuts on the highway from Zero to Hero, you may find yourself, quickly thereafter, on the back roads from Hero to Zero!
You started scuba diving, and you got the bug. You love it! Now you wonder about becoming a dive instructor, and one of your questions is: How long does it take to become a scuba diving instructor?
The short answer to that is that it will take you at least six months from the date of your entry-level open-water diver certification to get your scuba diving instructor credentials.
We will summarize, first, why it takes six months, and then we will give you the proper answer to the real question: How long should it take to become a good scuba diving instructor who can earn a living as a dive professional and who is proud of what he/she does?
There are many prerequisites to become a scuba diving instructor, including:
- a minimum of 100 logged dives
- up-to-date training in first aid and CPR
- be medically fit to dive
There is also a series of scuba diving courses you need to take before registering into your dive instructor training course.
Let’s look at the PADI curriculum of dive courses as an example. Other dive training agencies have a similar hierarchy of courses even if the name of each course may slightly differ.
- PADI Open Water Diver Course: this leads to your entry-level scuba diving certification. It requires a few pool sessions and at least four open water dives. It can be done in as little as three days, but that would be a crash course.
- PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Course: this introduces you to different types of diving you haven’t done in the entry-level open water course. It comes with a requirement of at least 5 dives.
- PADI Rescue Diver Course: the title says it all! You learn to take care of you and your dive buddies. It is not a pro-level course. It is still a recreational scuba diving course. And a bit like in the case of the open water diver course, you could get that done in a few days, but a crash course may not be the best way to learn, especially if you want to become a dive professional.
- PADI Divemaster: it’s your first level of dive professional credentials. It can be done in a week, although many scuba divers do it gradually over a much longer period of time.
Regardless of how much time you spend on these courses listed as prerequisites to your scuba diving instructor training, they can all be easily done within six months. So why does it take at least six months to become a scuba diving instructor?
Within the prerequisites to the instructor development course, dive training agencies include a minimum time period since your entry level open water diver certification: six months. They also have a requirement of 100 dives, which is a lot more than the number of dives you will do as part of the required courses.
Therefore, if your goal is to become a dive instructor, do not worry about the time it takes to do the courses listed as prerequisites. Get these courses done, of course! But focus on everything else you should grasp to become a good dive instructor.
Focus on mastering skills — not on checking off a list of courses to get done. Focus on learning, not on passing courses. That way, the fact that you have completed the instructor course will become irrelevant to you. The question will be whether you have learned and mastered enough to be a safe dive instructor capable of providing an exceptional customer experience.
That is the approach you should maintain inside your dive instructor course as well.
In everything you do in the scuba diving instructor course, close your eyes and imagine doing it alone with your own students. That way, you will catch on to details you would miss if you only focused on what you need to succeed at the final dive instructor exam.
Complete guide to success: Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor: How to make a good living out of your passion for scuba diving.So, how long should it take me to become a good scuba diving instructor who can earn a living as a dive pro?
Once I started to dive, I was so into it that I rushed up the ladder. In my non-diving career, I was already providing training and coaching. I authored a book on public speaking. I trained and coached salespeople at my full-time job. So, I knew I enjoyed coaching and training. And I fell in love with the underwater world. So I went “all in”. It worked for me even though I rushed it, so it is possible to do it in a flash.
Yet, if I were to do it again, I would slow it down. After becoming a dive instructor, I had to catch up on skills I hadn’t practiced enough before becoming a dive instructor. Spending time with role model instructors helped me a lot afterward. But I would have felt better in my first year as a dive instructor if I had taken more time to get there.
That being said, I do not suggest you go to the other extreme and add years to your career plans. To a certain extent, time is actually not the most essential factor.
The people you dive with, the dive conditions in which you dive, your instructors on the various courses, and your instructor trainer all have a more significant impact than simply waiting one more year.
I had that discussion quite a few times with other dive professionals who advocate a longer timeline to become a dive instructor. The fact that you have been a diver for ten years doesn’t make you a good diver, especially if you always dived in the same environment with the same divers and with nobody as a good role model for you. On the other hand, a diver could have made fantastic progress in six months with a kick-ass mentor and instructor.
Otherwise, you should spend time acquiring specialized skills like night diving. An instructor candidate can get to the instructor exam without having ever done a night dive. Or drift dive. And then, be thrown in the water for the first time at night, in the current, with client-divers. Ridiculous! It’s on you to make sure you have the required skills to be a diving professional. It’s your career!
You can judge how good (or not) your skills are by being honest with yourself. And then, you should get them validated by diving with a role model for whatever skills you are trying to master.
Another excellent way to evaluate yourself is by asking a friend to videotape you underwater while you demonstrate skills. You’ll be amazed at what you will notice when you see yourself doing it.
As an instructor trainer, I always added skill training sessions in the pool in all my dive instructor courses because most candidates came with abysmal diving skills. Many of them could not hover! So, you wouldn’t be worse than anybody else. But you want to be a professional scuba diving instructor, not a clown, right?
Have a look at a list of essential scuba diving skills all dive instructors should master that I prepared for already certified scuba diving instructors. In the six months leading to the start of your dive instructor course, work on these skills. You won’t regret it!
Suggested reading: a complete guide to success as a scuba diving instructor.
Also from Darcy Kieran:
- Logbook: Advanced Scuba Diving Logbook with Checklists for certified scuba divers, divemasters & dive instructors.
- Handbook: Advanced Guide to SPF Scuba Diving for Scuba Divers, Divemasters & Dive Instructors: Develop Better Scuba Diving Skills, Dive Safer, Save Money & Have More Fun!
- Handbook: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Scuba Diving: How to Increase Safety, Save Money & Have More Fun!
- Logbook: STARTER Scuba Diving Logbook with Checklists while getting your open water diver certification!
- Reference book: Scuba Diving Industry Market Reports, Data & Statistics.
Side note: During your surface intervals, have a look at my novels with a scuba diving twist, starting with “Mystery of The Blue Dragon” and “Shadows on Ocean Drive.”
You could help the dive industry by taking part in ongoing dive industry surveys. You will also find results from our past scuba diving market studies here.
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What now? Have a look at the complete Scubanomics Table of Contents.
