SCUBA INSTRUCTOR SALARIES - Updated job list for 2023... PLUS my salary with YouTube

today's video is all about money if you've been around for a while you know that the very first video on this channel was about scuba salaries it was poorly made it doesn't sound great and you know a lot has changed in the scuba industry since 2019 given the world events but unfortunately a lot has stayed the same so I wanted to redo that video and my goal with sharing this is to show the wide range of ways that you can be involved as a scuba professional so this is a longer video and it's really targeted at people who are considering this as a real investment in something that they want to do and at the end I'll even be sharing real numbers about how much I make from these videos on YouTube now I know that I'm gonna get the joke what's the difference between a scuba instructor and a large pizza a large pizza can feed a family of four okay I get it scuba instructors and dive Masters don't make very much money in the scuba industry tree we need to be a lot more transparent with our salaries because if we're not willing to talk about it nothing's going to change vominus [Music] everybody's favorite topic money as a reference all of the money estimates will be in United States dollar unfortunately salaries are quite low across the industry in general and the real way to make this kind of Lifestyle work is to cut your cost of living this may look like sharing the cost of living with roommates living in a country where rent and goods are inexpensive or doing something crazy and living in a van [Music] in my opinion the places where this is easier to accomplish are Central America and Southeast Asia that's because the cost of living is quite low and there's a high volume of scuba diving tourists dive shops are notoriously bad at paying their employees a livable wage there are a few reasons for this one is that the industry in general is very unprofessional and to be honest a lot of shop owners are tools I don't know a better way of putting that if you've worked in the industry tree you know yeah the other side of it could be a genuine misunderstanding or underestimating of the true cost of their operation tourists are constantly looking for the best deal to go diving and some shops will bend over backwards trying to get the client offering discounts and things which they can't really afford this ends up shooting them in the foot because they can't cover their costs and their salary and the profit margin that they wanted and unfortunately a lot of owners see salaries as a place where they have some play in order to recover a little bit of profit when really they just didn't price their goods correctly in the beginning this is why so many dive Masters and instructors end up relying on client tips it's not a good system let's look at the different jobs associated with dive shops you could work solely as a retail employee within a dive shop you'll typically earn about minimum wage for wherever the that shop is you may get a few dollars more an hour but probably not much more than that some places will offer you commission off of equipment that you sell so that could help supplement your salary and in most places you'll get a deep discount on equipment that you want to buy as well as air fills so this could be a good option for people that are just starting out as divers and they want to make their hobby a little bit more affordable by working maybe a part-time job working on a dive boat there are a few different positions on dive boats depending on where your boat is located some countries for example in Indonesia crew jobs are saved for the locals it's sort of a you know job Protection Program but in other places you could work as a dive boat host or a cook or be the Dive Master on board and these types of positions usually have the same day rate which could be anywhere around 200 to 250 dollars per day another path you could consider if it interests you is to become a Captain there are a lot of fees that go into to getting your captain's license but if it interests you that could be a way to go now we're getting into the more standard positions Dive Master if you love diving and you have the time I highly recommend to absolutely everyone that they do the Dive Master course even if you don't ever want to work in the industry ever it's one of those courses that is so much fun you get to do a lot of diving depending on where you do it you learn a ton and you become a much safer diver during the course you can decide if it's something that you want to do if you pursue it you can enjoy it while you get paid to dive you know it's pretty cool working as a Dive Master is a lot of fun but it's also a ton of work so it may be something that you decide to do for a short time in your life or as you know a side job but it may not be a sustainable position for you full-time and long term more realistically it won't and the reason for that is actually because it's a really physically demanding position you may may not know it now but maybe you're susceptible to ear infections and being in the water every single day just aggravates that it's also just physically tiring to be in the water that much and if you're having a tough time nourishing yourself feeding yourself well getting plenty of rest you could be sick a lot too and a lot of times you won't know that until you get started so that's why it's good to know where you can grow after Dive Master a lot of times people start out as dive Masters and they move up the ranks because it's kind of necessary to make the money that you need to survive and also to have a lifestyle that you are able to maintain salaries can work in a few different ways you could have a fixed monthly salary a fixed daily salary or a per tank rate daily rates could be around 200 to 250 dollars in places like Australia and the United States whereas in other parts of the world it could be a hundred dollars or less you could also be paid per tank which can range widely from 7 dollars to forty dollars depending on where you are in the world your responsibilities include guiding people teaching Refreshers you could be doing DSD introductions and of course you'll be moving and setting up equipment as well as monitoring safety on Dives and on the boats salary can also include commissions for things like Refreshers and then customer tips go on top of all of that that means that monthly earnings are highly variable and they depend on the season as well there's typically a high season where you're working a ton and you're making a decent amount of money and then there's a low season or a couple of low Seasons dive shops could even close during that season so you may have to go work somewhere else or use that time to travel which has its pros and cons because it means that you can work in different places you can take longer trips and as long as you've budgeted your money it can be a very exciting lifestyle in the U.S as a Dive Master faster you can make anywhere from Seventeen hundred dollars a month to about thirty five hundred dollars a month depending on the season and your clients now with the high cost of living in the states especially in places where there is a lot of diving like California and Florida that's a little bit tough but people do make it work typically at some point in a dive Master's career you're going to consider becoming an instructor and I want to say here now not everyone is meant to be an instructor I feel like too many of us just tell our students go through all the courses become an instructor and not everyone is made to be an instructor that's just the truth of it so here are some things to consider before signing up for your IDC make sure you actually like teaching okay test this out by teaching Refreshers become a DSD leader and teach some true beginners assist courses work with students demonstrate skills really see what being being an instructor is all about before you get it in your brain and you spend the money to do it also consider where you want to work in some places like certain parts of Australia dive Masters and instructors don't actually get paid any differently that being said in the majority of places around the world an instructor will make a higher salary simply because you're teaching courses and you get commission off of those courses you have a wider range of how you can make money as an instructor another note about idc's it really doesn't matter where you do it but what does matter is your course director or whoever is teaching the course a lot of the IDC can actually be taught by people who are IDC staff instructors so you want to know what the situation is going to be who is going to be your Mentor because the experience of your course director and your staff instructors are going to directly impact how much you learn from your course and finally if the place where you do your training has wildly different conditions from where you end up working in your first job that's perfectly fine just take the time when you get to your work location to co-teach with other instructors or even just dive fun dive and get to know the place and ask all the questions about the logistics of teaching students in that location now we're up to instructor as an instructor you'll be certified to teach all of the recreational levels within your certifying organization the same rules for Dive Master salary apply here only now you get a wider range of commissions you are going to start out teaching all of the beginners which has always been kind of funny to me because really the more experienced instructors should be teaching the brand new divers but that never seems to be the case in dive shops ideally I would give my brand new instructors the advanced courses you know you have certified divers who have in theory proven that they won't drown themselves underwater like give those people to the brand new instructors have them work on their teaching skills and then move them to the beginners but that's never usually the case I always see brand new instructors going out with dsds and open Waters and they're just kind of like good luck as you get more experience as an instructor and maybe tag on some Specialties you'll have a wider range of how you can make money here's an example of how this kind of work can be sustainable an instructor living in Mexico making a salary of around 1500 to 2 000 a month can live very comfortably because their cost of living is only maybe 700 to a thousand dollars a month when you look at a salary that's only twenty four thousand dollars a year with you know say like an American mindset you go oh my gosh that's absolutely impossible but you know you you look at that cost of living and rent isn't even half of the salary which I gotta say salaries in California and rent you're paying half or more than half just to exist in a space and have a roof over your head so you know that may not be so bad just saying as an instructor you can continue to level up in your training and get into things like teaching technical diving or instructor development courses but before you dive in you need to do a calculation of cost of investment versus return training and Equipment costs would be tax deductible but you know that still may not turn into like a viable business option if you're not going to be able to have students for what you want to teach for example I'm an IDC staff instructor and if I wanted to be a course director I would need to consider the huge price tag that comes with the course director training versus how many students I anticipate teaching every year course directors make between 40 and 60 percent of the IDC cost depending on the contract that they have with their IDC Center that calculation has never worked out for me so that's why I haven't pursued it at all speaking of taxes when you're a working professional the tools of your trade become a tax write-off that means when you need new equipment or you have to travel to teach you keep a record of that and you report it in your taxes every year remember we're dealing with the law here so you better have a real business need if you're going to go and buy a you know kiss rebreather just saying as a dive professional you can work as an independent contractor or as a shop employee if you're working abroad you want to work as a shop employee because that will give you the access to a work visa and even if you're not working in a foreign country working for a shop does have its benefits if you're just starting out you will have more access to clients if you work for an established dive shop you'll also have supportive staff and people that you can ask questions to as well as shop amenities like maybe a pool if you want to work on your own the first thing that you need is to be certified through an organization that allows you to work as an independent instructor there are several organizations that allow this including Paddy nowi and gue if you're going to go that route I recommend setting up an LLC or having something in place that will protect you as a business instead of just a person the next thing and these rules can be applied to owning a dive shop as well you need to figure out your cost of operation you're going to need to know the cost of rental equipment renting out the pool for confined water sessions getting out to open water whether you can Shore dive or boat dive there are costs involved in every single aspect of the training so you need to sit down and calculate those things and don't forget to include your ongoing costs like your instructor fees your insurance and that includes your personal insurance as well as your liability insurance as well as equipment repair and maintenance then you need to decide how much you want to make per day per student whatever your metric work is and set the price plus some extra as wiggle room because there are always and I mean always hidden costs and speaking of dive shops I'm just gonna say a little bit about owning one because Open Water divers seem to think that it's like a cash cow and so you get into the industry and you're like oh yeah I'm gonna open a dive shop and I gotta tell you from experience it takes a lot of initial investment and the return is very slow when opening a dive shop you have to understand the market you have to figure out your costs and determine your goals in general profit margins are going to be higher for any kind of diving that doesn't require a boat owning a boat is very expensive just putting that out there because people look at boat ownership as a dream and after owning a boat I really understand that joke of the happiest days of a boat owner's life are the day they buy the boat and the day they sell the boat so do with that what you will other places where you have profit for dive shop owners will be in equipment sales but that is really tough these days with online shopping you will be able to mark up your product quite a lot and so there is room for profit there but I mean it's tough competing with Amazon I think there are a lot of divers that still appreciate and support local dive shops but it is what it is another place where you can make money as a shop or as an individual I'm attempting this for the first time next year is by selling Expeditions Expeditions require a lot of upfront hours to plan and organize however if you build a good relationship with another dive shop this could be a very lucrative thing for you offering not only a variety for your clientele to be able to dive in different places but also a pretty good money maker if you make it very clear what is refundable and non-refundable you know for for flaky clients and things like that as with anything this kind of trip requires a minimum number of divers to not only cover costs but then give you the profits that you're looking for so it takes some time to figure out but it is a nice option for dive shops and individual leaders I'm going to cover a few less talked about positions in the dive industry and the first one is commercial diving I personally do not have experience with commercial diving I don't know anyone that is a commercial diver but what I do know about the industry is that it's challenging it can be tough on the body and it does pay quite well if you yourself are a commercial diver and feel comfortable sharing details of salaries and things that you can expect from that kind of Route I'd love to see that in the comments another option is Public Safety diver now for the most part this position is volunteer based but if you happen to work in a sheriff's department that includes it as your job you could be making your regular salary by doing this kind of Public Safety diving the training is quite interesting because you do learn how to jump out of helicopters with your scuba gear and all kinds of crazy things but you have to be ready for what this job really entails which is looking for dead bodies not for me if I'm being totally honest but it might suit you you can also work for a certifying organization or an equipment company this type of work will take you away from the water but you'll still be involved in the industry and typically be making a decent wage it could be an option for people wanting to remain involved in the industry but maybe looking to develop into different fields like marketing program development or quality assurance you could also treat this as sort of a long-term goal after working as a Dive Master or an instructor for a while in this industry we really have to consider what long-term goals we have and especially as we get older we have to prepare for that underwater photographer and videographer there's a really cool opportunity for you to sell your content on sites like Shutterstock the cool thing about this is that it essentially becomes passive income for you the only thing is that there's a lot of work that goes into putting your photos and videos on these sites and setting them up so that they actually get found by people so dive into some YouTube University to to figure out if it's something that you're interested in you can also sell your services by working for dive shops that want to sell videos to their students I just want to put this out there that that type of work typically doesn't pay much but it's a nice way to maybe get started if you're particularly skilled at your craft you could get into real professional gigs your rates are going to be highly variable depending on your skill the equipment that you have and your clients budget some photographers use a set rate for a two to three hour session and within this rate you want to include your time in the shoot as well as all of your time in post creating the final product also within each of your rates you want to include your set cost of the use of your equipment and your editing tools again if you're just starting out you're probably not going to make a ton of money with this but in this market and the way that things are going it's a desired skill especially if you're good at it and the way that you can make a career career of it is by making those contacts the dive industry is so small so networking is really your friend in this type of position we're finally down to I think the strangest position on this list which is influencer influencing is such a strange world but it's really growing in the scuba industry I think anyone who's interested in working as a dive professional in any kind of capacity should be active on social media you can do this with your phone a GoPro and a low budget or totally free editing software you really don't need to spend tons of money to get started I recommend using your name as your handle on the social media platforms and buy the matching domain just in case you may not end up building a website but at least you have the domain that matches your public profile you should also be building your email list even if you don't know what you're going to do with it yet then get out there and play with content you never know what's going to hit with the public so just give it a go but my biggest recommendation is to be authentic building a personal brand is more like a marathon than a Sprint and you're never going to make it if you're being somebody else for the likes you will 100 burn out and be done also just a common misconception from people looking at influencers is that it is a lot of work to create content on the internet and the payback is so slow so that being said I'm gonna share the details of what I make with this YouTube channel as of right now I have 9752 subscribers here on YouTube with that number of subscribers and the amount of watch time that I get which right now is around 3 000 hours a month I get about 150 to 170 dollars from AdSense every single month the way this works is every time one of you watches or clicks on an ad within one of my videos I get paid that means if you're watching a video from a YouTube Uber that you want to support it really does help to just let the ads run whenever they come up and I know that it's a pain because some of them are like two minutes long and it's it's a little ridiculous but letting whatever ads you can run their full course it does help us now AdSense isn't a very reliable source of income and for small YouTubers it's not a very big one either but the nice thing about it is that it does become passive income right now I make money on videos that I posted two years ago so that's pretty cool those of us that are on this platform and trying to make a living have to rely more on brand deals and platforms like patreon that's why I started my patreon community this summer right now I have 43 subscribers and I'm so so grateful to every single one of them thank you thank you thank you with 43 subscribers I make around 550 a month so that has helped me a lot in this journey I personally don't have a lot lot of experience with brand deals and that's primarily because the diving industry is like light years behind everybody else and has not focused on influencer strategy it's hard to get a brand to actually pay a YouTuber money from my experience Brands don't quite appreciate the value that comes with this type of marketing at least not at my small YouTuber status level that's why I've focused my energy on patreon and nurturing that Community there because you guys are my people I would imagine that the guys at dive talk and other large YouTubers are making a decent living off of this stuff and they're probably able to comfortably live in places like the US and Europe without any problems and so doing some kind of combination where you're teaching scuba diving but also in this weird online space it could be viable and that's actually my plan for my next step in my career I've paid my instructor fees so my plan is to continue doing YouTube but add in courses in person and I think that's going to be really fun because I'm gonna do it as I travel around to different places so you know wherever you are in the United States or Mexico maybe Canada I could be coming to a city near you you and we could do some training together that being said to get to even my level which is low right on YouTube I've been doing this for two three years now it takes a lot of time and effort to get to this point unless you do happen to hit that sweet spot of virality I I haven't gotten there I I've had a few videos do quite well but I haven't had that like viral moment there's part of me that's like I wish that I would but then at the same time I've had just this really great Slow Burn and I've been like accumulating the right people you know because the internet can be a really scary place especially for a woman and I haven't had the same experiences that my female colleagues have had that have you know bigger platforms so I'm really grateful for that in a way and going back to authenticity I'm an awkward weirdo living in a van like I can't be anybody else I just I'm a weirdo that likes to teach and so this is what I do and you're here watching it because you appreciate that and I really am super grateful for it I'm sure that I missed stuff so if you know of other positions that you can have in the industry and you want to share salaries and rates and just all kinds we can nerd out together and have this sort of transparency conversation together leave them in the comments and we'll just kind of flow with it otherwise you know I'm always happy to answer questions there and you can help out this channel by subscribing or joining patreon scuba diving is a strange and wonderful industry as much as I have suffered in the industry I am fighting my way back into it so that has to say something about it I think that's it we're ending this okay love you bye

Channel: Azul Unlimited

Views: 10,372

Keywords: scuba salaries, scuba instructor salary, divemaster salary, dive instructor salary, scuba diving instructor salary, how much do scuba instructors make, dive instructor jobs, scuba diving jobs, scuba diving salary, scuba diving instructor course, scuba jobs, scuba salary, how much money do scuba diving instructors make, padi idc course, career change at 30, career change at 40, best jobs in the world, dive shop jobs, scuba diving business, scuba diving business plan

Id: epSf2hVbhgQ

Length: 26min 9sec (1569 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 13 2022