DIVE LOCAL – A Community Effort
Building a Local Diving Community
By Gene Muchanski, Executive Director,
Dive Industry Association, Inc.

The Importance of SCUBA Instructors

 DIVE LOCAL was designed as a marketing vehicle to deliver a unified marketing message to divers and prospective divers across the globe.  The message is:  Learn to Dive – Buy Your Gear – Go Diving – Stay Active.  There are four pillars of every Local Diving Community that work on a daily basis to bring this message to life.  If we want the recreational diving industry to grow, we need to collectively support these front-line ambassadors in order to get the job done.  It is our responsibility as an industry to identify and promote the Dive Industry Professionals and their businesses who create and grow the market of active divers.  A market that diving equipment manufacturers, training agencies, travel companies, and lifestyle product merchants all benefit from.

The Four Pillars of a Local Diving Community are:

• Dive Stores
• Dive Boat Operators
• Dive Clubs
• Dive Instructors

What do we know about Dive Instructors?  Dive Instructors are a major stakeholder group in the Global Diving Community.  You probably have never thought of dive instructors as a major stakeholder group before because no one to my knowledge has ever acknowledged individual dive instructors as being part of a major stakeholder group.  I understand that diving certification agencies are a major stakeholder group in the industry, but the perks, awards, Hall of Fame nominations, and placement on Boards of Directors are reserved for their employees (and contractors now) but not for their customers, the scuba diving instructors.   I guess we will have to go on record as being the first association to acknowledge that Scuba Diving Instructors, as a group are a major Stakeholder Group in the Global Diving Community.  That would also make them a significant stakeholder group in the Global Diving Business Network. For way too long, dive instructors have always been treated like customers, not as industry trade professionals.   I guess we will all have to call this a paradigm shift or an industry awakening moment.  Let’s start giving these Professional Educators the recognition they deserve.  Thank you for your service.

Different Classes of Diving Instructors:  There are different classes of Scuba Diving Instructors.  If you jumped to the conclusion that I was going to mention the levels of diving instructors like Instructor, Instructor Trainer, Course Director, and Course Director Trainer, to name a few, you’re wrong.  While I do admire Instructors who grow within their certification agency ranks, the different levels of an Instructor’s training and certification are specific to the agency they do business with.  As a group we can classify them as active Dive Industry Training Professionals.

The different classes of diving instructors I’m talking about has less to do with their certification attainment level and more to do with their active role in the Global Diving Community.  First of all, there are over 35 Certification Agencies in the United States.  Each one teaches Instructor courses and certifies their graduates as Diving Instructors.

One quick note:  The terms SCUBA Instructor and Dive Instructor are often used interchangeably.  In the global diving community, many industry professionals are using the word Dive instead of SCUBA to acknowledge and include different types of diving such as snorkeling, freediving, rebreather, surface supplied, and mermaid diving.  To me, the word DIVE has a nice ring to it, includes more people, and is not too overly technical.

Becoming an instructor is an achievement level in the diving industry that we all respect.  It used to be the ticket you needed to get punched in order to secure a good job in the diving industry, regardless of whether you were going to teach diving or not.  Although we still respect the personal achievement of becoming an instructor, it is no longer a prerequisite for obtaining a job in the diving industry.  In today’s market, we look at diving instructors in many different ways.  First and foremost are the instructors who are still teaching diving.  They are the rainmakers of our industry, who are increasing the certified diver population.  Without active diving instructors, our industry would slowly decline and then vanish as a recreational option.  Active diving instructors are one of the four pillars of each and every Local Diving Community.

An active Diving Instructor is one who keeps current with their certification agency and teaches and/or certifies scuba divers.   It does not matter to us if they teach part-time or full-time.  Where they teach and how often they teach is totally up to them.  I am sure that the 35 certification agencies keep track of how many classes, how many students, and at what level of diving each of their instructors are teaching.  That data is very important in calculating the growth and development of the industry.  As an industry though, we are grateful that instructors are out there teaching diving and certifying new divers.

Another classification of Diving Instructor is the Sustaining Instructor.  Like many of us, we keep our training knowledge current, we pay our annual dues, but we no longer retain an active status.  This leaves the door open for a possible return to the trade, after some required training and updating.  I guess you could call Instructors like us, the Ready Reserves.  Another classification worth noting is the former instructor.  The one who no longer teaches diving and has let their membership with their certification agency expire.  For whatever reason, they have been there, done that, and moved on.  Included in this group are the instructors who continue to support their certification agency by paying their annual emeritus Instructor dues.

Why Classifying Diving Instructors Is Important:  By knowing the specific working classification of dive instructors, the industry as a whole can properly advertise, promote, and correspond with Dive Industry Teaching Professionals according to their needs.    At the same time, advertisers and marketers can cut down on unnecessary correspondence to an audience that is not interested or in the market for our programs, products, and services.

Promoting SCUBA Instructors:  Promoting scuba Instructors has always been problematic.  It was a common practice for certification agencies to publish a directory of their Scuba Instructors, in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  In the days prior to widespread computer use, print media ruled the day.  With print directories there were many problems maintaining a comprehensive directory.  For starters, it took considerable time and money for the certification agencies to compile the directory.  Distribution down to the local level, where it was a useful tool for someone looking for a diving instructor, was time-consuming and costly.  The problem with print is that the minute it is published, it’s outdated.  When a certification agency had a few hundred Instructors, publishing an Instructor Directory may have seemed like a manageable task, but as the numbers grew into the thousands, and tens of thousands, the practice grew out of favor.

There were other problems with publishing an Instructor Directory.  Not every Instructor wanted their name and contact information to be published.  Especially if they were not actively teaching diving.  Advertising a business that teaches diving is a common practice for Dive Industry Professionals, but diving instructors were cautious about listing their home addresses and home phone numbers in a public directory.  As Instructor Crossovers became a popular way of adding members to certification agencies, many of them stopped publicly advertising their instructors.  Without the free advertising that many independent instructors had with an industry directory, dive instructors were now on their own to advertise and promote their services.

Modern Day Marketing:  The introduction and widespread use of computers and the internet has changed the way scuba instructors can promote themselves.  I said can, not do.  In today’s business environment, there are new and inexpensive ways that scuba instructors can advertise their services to the general public.  Using modern-day target marketing tools and techniques they can also reach dive businesses and members of the trade to seek employment and other business opportunities.

The problem is that not all diving instructors are fully utilizing marketing and communication tools that are available to them.  I have always believed that business promotion tools and techniques should be taught as part of every Instructor Training Course, but I am not sure they are.  I may be wrong, but I don’t see business continuing education courses offered as part of the certification agencies Professional Development Programs.  If they were, I would be curious as to the level of interest they command.

Getting Started:  Every scuba instructor should be actively engaged in promoting their services to their perspective audience.  The first thing a Dive Industry Teaching Professional should do is make a list of the programs, products, and services they sell or at least specialize in.  Make a name for yourself by sticking to a few programs or courses you are good at doing and enjoy teaching.  You can always list, Other courses available upon request.   Last month we ran an article about developing your own circle of influence.  As you certify students, they become part of your inner circle and a great source of referrals for new students.  Like many of us in the days before computers, we relied on word of mouth as our main source of advertising.  Believe it or not, word of mouth is still the most effect and least expensive form of advertising there is today.

Modern Marketing Tools and Techniques:  This topic needs to take hold in the current day education and practice of dive instructors as part of their stakeholder group in the diving industry.   I would first take advantage of any Dealer Locator or Instructor Locator that is available on your certification agency’s website.  Not all locators are the same.  Most of them have a small square mile radius from your location but some of them are ridiculously too large to be practical.  Except maybe for email address farmers!  I’ve seen some locators that include their instructors who are 600 miles away from a searcher.  Not that anyone is ever going to travel 600 miles to take scuba lessons from you.  Aside from that it is up to the individual instructor to research effective communication tools that could help promote their teaching services.

Promoting Scuba Instructors Today:  Considering how important Scuba Instructors are to the growth and development of the Recreational Diving Industry, coupled with the fact that our industry has access to such great marketing tools and technologies, I believe we can put together programs to promote active Diving Instructors within their Local Diving Community.  I believe that creating a resource for people who are thinking about becoming certified, can help them find a local diving instructor at their local dive store, high school, university, YMCA, police department, or local scuba training facility.  It is also a positive step in elevating the bar of industry professionalism and growing the market.

Our Association has a comprehensive list of marketing tools and techniques that Instructors have used to advertise themselves.  We have used or still use a good number of them and have featured articles about them in our monthly trade magazine, The Dive Industry Professional.  Marketing tools such as Business Cards, Blogs, Press Releases, Digital Brochures, Websites, eMail Marketing Services, online communication software programs, and customer resource management software, to name a few, are the tools of choice for today’s Dive Industry Professionals.  What’s in your Marketing Toolbox?

For more information on building Local Diving Communities, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director, Dive Industry Association, Inc., 2294 Botanica Circle, West Melbourne, FL.  Phone 321-914-3778. Email: gene@diveindustry.net  web: www.diveindustry.net

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