How much to become a PADI Diving instructor?

I have recently obtained my PADI Open Water Divers certification in the Maldives and have completed 7 open water dives. I have booked a course to do my Dry Suit certification in the UK this week and would love to persue this as a possible career.

The short answer is, a lot!

You don’t just need to have your Advanced OW Diver, Rescue Diver (including a first aid course – the PADI offering is called EFR) and Divemaster certificates to start the IDC, and 100 logged dives to be certified as an OWSI (not 50 as Alex said – this is for the Master Scuba Diver rating, which is something else).

You should also have a full set of diving equipment (including all required accessories, e.g. gauges, emergency signallers, cutters, slates etc.) and PADI teaching materials (i.e. all manuals up to Divemaster, Encyclopaedia of Recreational Diving + Workbook, teaching slates, RDP Table and Wheel). This in itself is a fair outlay, without putting the cost of the IDC and IE on top.

To give you some idea, I had bought all my own gear by the time I had 35 logged dives (about GBP1500, spread over a couple of years). I became a PADI Divemaster in Egypt in 1998, paying about US$1000 (about GBP650, at the time) for the Rescue and DM courses, plus gear hire (because I’d left my gear in Britain), not including living expenses for 5 weeks (probably another GBP500).

I did my IDC in 1999, in Australia (I was there on a 1 yr working holiday visa at the time), having carried all my dive gear halfway round the world (this time!). I paid about AU$1500 for the IDC itself (including the MFA and UW Naturalist Instructor courses), the materials cost about AU$500, and the IE AU$600 (including boat fees). So, a total of AU$2600, which was the equivalent of about GBP1100 at the time. This doesn’t take into account the fact that the IDC+IE lasted two solid weeks (8am-6pm), when I wasn’t working, and still had to feed and house myself. (The IDC has since been slimmed down somewhat, and split into two chunks, the Assistant Instructor and Open Water Scuba Instructor courses, which you can do separately or run together – total 7 days minimum, plus 2 for the IE).

What you’d pay now will be inflationally-adjusted, and dependent on where you do it. Every month in the back of diving magazines, you’ll find adverts for Instructor Development Centres around the world (including Britain), offering you the chance to become a PADI OWSI. Also, as a PADI Divemaster (i.e. a paid-up PADI member), you’ll get newsletters which detail the dates and locations of all PADI IDCs everywhere in the world.

In theory, they all offer the same thing, to the same standards – in practice, you pays your money and takes your chances. Bear in mind that while many dive centres in the third world (Thailand, Egypt, Central America, etc.) will be (a lot) cheaper, and some offer outstandingly service (Emperor Divers in Egypt is a shining example – I never worked for them, BTW, but they win awards regularly!), you will have to pay for flights (possibly including excess baggage charges!) to get there.

In the first world it will be (a lot) more expensive (for courses in Britain, you can probably just change all the AU$s above to GBPs, and adjust for inflation to figure out how much it would cost now), but you will have consumer protection, the centres have a legal obligation to follow every single PADI standard to the letter (not just the “spirit”), and you will be better equipped to be an instructor anywhere in the world, not only in the other shack just down the beach.

Your best option would be to buy yourself a couple of dive magazines closer to the time when you’re intending to do your IDC. Better still, get yourself a subscription to a dive magazine right now. Most in Britain are monthly, most are good, and all the knowledge you’ll pick up (or that didn’t quite sink in during your OW course!) regarding equipment care, destinations, diving technique and so on will only make you a better and keener diver. My preference would be DIVER for good all-round info, Sport Diver for more focus on the PADI world. DIVE isn’t bad, but tends to cater more towards the BSAC crowd (it tries to be DIVER, but just isn’t as good).

Have a look through the adverts, and get in touch with the centres that sound most promising (most dive centres, no matter where they are, at least have email. And if they don’t, then what else don’t they have?). Ask them to give you full and accurate quotes in some standard currency (i.e. GBP, US$ or Euro) for how much the IDC (WITH the IE, AND certification on passing the IE, as these fees are separate) is likely to cost, and don’t forget to take into account things like travel and accommodation when you’re totting up the final cost.

I know this all sounds like quite a horrendous outlay, but what you’ve got to remember is, if the goal is worth the achivement, the cost is worth the payment! I wish you all the best in the pursuit of your dream.

Diving with seals off Lundy Island

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