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Scuba Jobs in the CaribbeanWorking as a Scuba Diving Instructor
Scuba jobs offer many opportunities for a life long career. One of the most exciting scuba diving jobs is working as a scuba diving instructor.
For me becoming a scuba instructor was an easy decision. I was living on the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean and surrounded by clear blue water, warm tropical breezes and hundreds of divers. I felt I was in the right place at the right time.
Making the decision may have been easy, but I soon found out that becoming a scuba instructor takes time, commitment and money.
The Road to Instructor TrainingAt the time I decided to do my instructor training, I was already an Advanced Open Water diver. For me to be eligible for instructor training I had to complete my Rescue diver and Divemaster training. All of these courses where preparing me for the challenge of an Instructor Development Course. These two courses are great preparation for instructor training. The Rescue course teaches you rescue skills that you are tested on again in the Divemaster and instructor courses. The Divemaster course took the most time. I spend lots of time in the water practicing and perfecting the skills I learned in my open water, advance and rescue courses. There where also advanced classes on the physics of diving, the physiology of diving and scuba diving equipment.
To pass the Divemaster class I had to demonstrate I had mastered all of the diving skills. Things like neutral buoyancy, sharing air with two people, controlled emergency ascent, removing and replacing scuba gear underwater and rescue skills had to be perfect. Scuba jobs can be psychically and mentally demanding. I soon realized that all of this practice and perfection was necessary to meet the challenge of scuba diving jobs. The Instructor Development Course (IDC)I was lucky because the dive shop I was diving with in St. Thomas Was a PADI 5 Star Instructor Development Center. Twice a year St. Thomas Diving Club would offer the course to any one interested in becoming a PADI scuba instructor. When I think about my IDC, the word commitment comes to mind. This course was very demanding and took a lot of commitment. The course was given over 14 days. The days where 10-12 hours of confined water training, open water training and class room training. At the end of the course I was completely exhausted.
The day would start at the dive shop at 8:00 and would normally last until 6:00 or 8:00 in the evening. One half of the day would be spent in the water and the other half would be spent in the class room. After this we would break up into small groups to study the things that were not being taught in the IDC like physics of diving, physiology of diving and equipment. These things are learned in the Divemaster course and are not re-taught in the IDC. But you are tested on them.
The things that we learned in the class room where PADI's Standard and Procedures. In these classes we learned how to properly set up and teach PADI courses. In the confined water training we learned how to teach and demonstrate skills to students. We learned in the open water how to safely evaluate students diving skills.
Just when you think it is all over, there is the IE (Instructor Examination). This is a test given over two days. We where tested on our diving knowledge, our ability to properly demonstrate skills in confined water, rescue skills and our ability to safely conduct open water skill evaluations.
My Scuba Instructor JobsPeople have asked what I got from all this hard work. I tell them I got one of the best jobs in the world. I was able to make a living at something I was passionate about, meet a lot of great people and live and work in the Caribbean. Many people dream about living and working in the Caribbean. Scuba jobs can help you turn that dream into a reality. It worked for me. Being a scuba instructor enable me to stay in the Caribbean for 15 years.
A year later I found myself working on the island of St. Maarten. This is the island that is to the right or east of St. Thomas. On this island there was never a short of scuba instructor jobs. It was a very busy island. There are many timeshare resorts on the island and a very cruise ship business. There are divers on the island year round.
Scuba Jobs for Instructors+ One of the best places for instructors to find scuba jobs is at resorts and dive shops. Where ever there is a dive destination, there is a dive shop or dive resort. Each one is an opportunity for a scuba diving job. You can also find scuba diving jobs on cruise ships, scuba diving liveaboards and on private yachts. Scuba diving instructors can also offer private scuba lessons. Private lessons can be offered to friends and family, sport groups, youth groups or any other group interested in learning to scuba dive. Some instructors teach private lessons while keeping a full time job. When it comes to scuba jobs, working as a dive instructor is one of the best. It is a job that offers a list of endless diving opportunities around the world, doing what you love to do.
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I was lucky and landed my first instructor job as soon as I finished the IDC. I went to work at Dive In at Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas. What a great first place to work. The dive shop was an open air style cabana on the beach. From the dive shop you looked across the channel to see the islands of St. John and Tortola. It was like looking at a Caribbean postcard.
