Working a 9 to 5 job, waking up in the morning, dressing up and then struggling around the concrete jungle, be it traffic, pollution or dealing with various other boring stuff. Sounds pretty normal?
How about waking up to beautiful tropical weather, walking across a sandy beach surrounded by palm trees as you head to your office, a daily part of your life? No, it is not a fantasy! It does exist. Such humans living an experience like this are called professional scuba divers.
Scuba Diving as a Career Option in India
Scuba diving as an activity is at a pretty nascent stage in India. Still, it is multiplying and so is the need for professional scuba divers. A scuba diving career sounds very unorthodox among the most common career options that the youth opts for in today’s time, but it can be very rewarding.
A scuba diving career is just like having any other job. It has its own pros and cons. But who doesn’t want to wake up to a tropical weather every day, introduce people to the oceans, make them safely have fun and witness the beautiful coral ecosystems?
How do you become a dive professional in India?
To work as a dive professional in India, you have to at least be a Divemaster. The Divemaster is the first professional rating in scuba diving. To be a Divemaster, you need to be rescue diver with at least 60 logged dives and hold an active EFR (emergency first responder) rating.
You can take a look at the continued education chart below to get an idea about how to get the professional rating.
If you still feel confused, you can always give us a call and chat with one of our instructors +91 99402 19449 or drop us an email at dive@templeadventures.com.
PADI (Professional Association Of Diving Instructors) is the largest recreational scuba diving body in the world. It has more than 6,600 dive centres & resorts, and 137,000 dive professionals who have issued more than 27 million certifications till date.
With so many dive centres & resorts at bay, you are free to work in most parts of the world, and that too, the most exotic ones.
Your role as a Scuba Diving Professional
A Divemasters roles and responsibilities involve supervising training and non-training related activities, assisting an instructor during courses, and guiding the open water course students on the tour portion of the course. They also lead fun divers, train & certify skin divers and conduct the local discover diving experience.
As a Scuba Diving Instructor, you’re authorized to teach different Scuba diving courses like a scuba diver course, open water diver course, advanced open water diver course, and up to the divemaster course. Once you gain experience, apart from your general instructor roles, you will also start managing a dive centre as a lead instructor, overlooking all diving activities and if you have the skills, non-diving activities too.
How much will you earn?
As a dive professional, your earnings can be anywhere from INR 15,000 to INR 75,000, plus the commissions you can make on equipment sales and upselling courses.
A divemaster in India makes about INR 15,000 to INR 35,000, given he has the skills and experience. Whereas an instructor can make anywhere from INR 35,000 to INR 75,000.
In the scuba diving industry, not just your diving skills but other skills like web development, social media marketing, videography, photography, compressor and equipment servicing, boat handling or even languages for that sake will increase your earning potential.
Being a dive professional, you will make a good living, but for most, it is about the lifestyle and not the money. Diving can take you places, it will let you travel and experience different cultures. Your life as a dive professional will never be monotonous.
As once said by a great man, money is numbers, and numbers don’t have an end. If it takes you money to be happy, then your search for happiness will never end.
Places to Work in India
As we said before, scuba diving in India is at a very nascent stage. It hasn’t even reached its full potential yet. There is still a lot to be explored.
As a scuba diving professional, you have the options to work at over 80 dive centres in India. There are dive centres in Pondicherry, Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andaman and Lakshadweep.
Can you bag a job outside India?
Yes and No! I mean it’s like asking a question ‘if I am an engineer, will I get a job abroad?’ It all depends on the skills and experience you have. If you have the required skills that the employer seeks then, of course, you will bag a job abroad.
The most important thing for a dive professional to get a job abroad would be speaking different languages. French, German, Mandarin, and Spanish being the most desired ones, not only in the scuba diving industry but the recreational sector as a whole. Other skills like web development, social media marketing, photography and videography might be some skills which might give you an upper edge over your peers.
A background in marine biology will provide quite the advantage too, as a lot of dive resorts look for dive professionals with a marine biology background.
The Final Take
A career in scuba diving can be quite rewarding. You get to travel, work in the most exotic locations and meet new people every day. You get to teach what you love doing. Diving is a combination of art and science and introducing someone to it makes quite a bit of a difference in their lives.
Above all, as a dive professional, you share your love for the oceans with others. You get to spread awareness about the importance of conserving the beauty of our oceans and the planet.
So what’s the wait for? Take a plunge and choose a life packed with travel and wonderful experiences!
If you are looking to make a career in scuba diving, we have internships and programs that can help you get where you want. You can have a chat with us over WhatsApp or Call Us!