DIVE LOCAL
U.S. Dive Instructors
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Diving Instructors play a vital role in the development of the global diving community.  As qualified scuba diving instructors, they have introduced millions of people to the joys of underwater activities.  The necessity for safe scuba diving training is written into our industry’s DNA.   Without diving instructors, there would not be a diving industry.

Diving Instructors are one of the four pillars of their local diving communities.  The four pillars being dive stores, dive boats, dive clubs, and dive instructors.  These industry stakeholder groups are the ones responsible for building, growing, and maintaining not only their local diving community, but the global diving community itself.  These full-time, part-time, and volunteer Dive Industry Professionals teach people how to dive, sell and service diving equipment, take people diving, and keep them active in our recreation.  Dive Instructors are the rainmakers of our industry.  They create the market for the programs, products, and services that are created, distributed, sold, and serviced in the diving industry.

Definition of a Diving Instructor: Before we start our global search for instructors who are actively teaching diving, let’s first define the parameters. A Diving Instructor is a person who has been certified or licensed to teach people how to dive.  When the diving industry first began, people who had diving experience started to teach their friends and family how to dive.  These people were for the most part, former Navy Divers, Lifeguards, Spearfishermen, and Free Divers.  They were self-appointed skin-diving instructors, and they wanted to share their activity with others.  Thankfully, early in our industry’s history, these skin-diving enthusiasts realized the need to develop an educational curriculum for teaching and certifying people how to scuba dive safely.  Of course, to do that, they had to develop a curriculum to teach divers how to become scuba diving instructors.

Over the years, a number of Training Agencies were formed to teach and license scuba diving instructors.  I believe we called them Certification Agencies back then.  At last count, there are over 40 training agencies in the United States.  Their affiliated instructors teach and certify a plethora of scuba diving and diving related courses and the practice has become an industry standard.  This industry stakeholder group has grown its course offering from basic scuba diving to advanced scuba diving, specialty courses, technical diving, rebreather courses, rescue training, divemaster programs, instructor courses, and beyond.  They have even included courses in swimming, lifesavings, first aid, water safety programs, free diving, and mermaiding.

Diving Instructors Are Important: For safety purposes sake, becoming a certified diving instructor has become a prerequisite for being able to teach diving programs.  It is considered an industry standard practice, and that’s a good thing.  For the over six million certified scuba divers in the world, obtaining a diving certification from a certified, licensed diving instructor has been their door opener to our industry.  And it is all because of the Diving Instructors.

Types of Diving Instructors: I have held a diving instructor certification for over 52 years.  In that time, I have taught many types of diving programs, in different types of training facilities, environments, and situations, and have certified my students through different training agencies.  I realize and appreciate the diversity in the kinds of dive training a person can receive, and the differences in the agendas that various training centers and facilities have.  To many in our industry, these differences have created an enormous amount of channel friction and a contentious source of debate and disagreement.  That is certainly a true statement, and I have to say that this type of behavior does not reflect well on our fellow dive industry professionals or their affiliate vendors.  On the other hand, I see this as an opportunity to appreciate the diversity and the differences in dive training focus and the industry’s need to integrate them under a much larger industry umbrella.

Dive Instructors & Stakeholder Groups: Dive Instructors need to have their own stakeholder group to understand their role in the diving industry and advance in their profession.  I am not suggesting that dive instructors band together and start another certification agency.  Far from that.  Training Agencies fall under their own stakeholder group and the purpose for which they were formed is critical to the function and stability of the global diving industry.  Training Agencies develop Dive Training Professionals.  They develop the course content that is used to teach and certify instructor candidates enrolled in their instructor training programs.  Training Agencies develop the curriculum, standards, and procedures their instructors use to teach safe diving courses.  They govern their own associations and maintain their own corporate cultures by conducting periodic professional development programs in dive education and training.

Dive Instructors need to participate in professional development training that focuses on the business of diving issues.  Managing a career as a Dive Industry Business Professional is the other half of being a Dive Industry Training Professional.   Business training and the Business of Diving issues are different for the different categories of job descriptions that diving instructors work under.  Within the Dive Instructor sector of the ding industry, we have instructors who teach at a dive store.  Others teach in an academic setting like a high school, college or university.  Many instructors teach independently, while others are paid employees of a dive business that hires Instructors and Divemasters.  Teaching diving at a dive resort or on a liveaboard is different than working for a contracted Diving Operator who has multiple clients from several hotels and resorts.

As mentioned before, professional business development programs would not be the same for an instructor working in a dive store as for an instructor teaching diving at a college or university.  Sure, they may have many business training needs in common, but a good professional development program should have tailor-made content for the specific audience.

Building a Global Diving Community: Teaching entry level scuba diving programs and certifying them as scuba divers does not guarantee that the Global Diving Community will grow or even continue.  There are four things that need to happen to ensure the creation, growth, and sustainability of our industry.  Dive Industry Professionals employed in the Global Diving Business Network must unanimously make this our industry message to the general public:

1. Learn to Dive
2. Buy Your Gear
3. Go Diving
4. Stay Active

As we mentioned before, not all Diving Instructors have the same goals and objectives for teaching diving.  That is a topic for future discussion. Our purpose for bringing it to your attention here is that we feel the industry needs to bring awareness to the topic, discuss its pros and cons, think about possible and probable solutions to the problems, choose actionable items that will address this conundrum, implement an action plan, measure the key results, and evaluate our progress.

Creating Active Divers: While teaching diving may be the goal and ultimate objective for some diving instructors, our goal as Dive Industry Professionals should be to create active divers.  Active divers give sustainability to the Global Diving Industry. I believe this is a much higher goal than just trying to create more divers or more business.  Our purpose as recreational professionals should be to create a recreational activity that people could enjoy for a lifetime.  Scuba Diving is an enjoyable activity that can be socially shared with friends and family, and it often leads to new activities and adventures.  As Dive Industry Professionals we can teach people how to dive so they have a good experience and want to continue doing it.  As Diving Equipment Advisors we should continually educate and update ourselves on the proper use and purchase of diving equipment and accessories.  New divers look to us for advice on the purchase or rental options that are available to certified divers.  We know from experience that certified divers who purchase their own equipment will use it more often.  As Dive Travel Specialists we are in a position to share our dive and adventure travel experience with new divers.  We can make recommendations to visit dive resorts and liveaboards we have experience with.  We can also put together a group of divers and escort them to our favorite dive destinations.  To keep divers active in the Global Diving Community, we can recommend membership in our local dive club or put together a social event at the Regional Dive Show in our Local Diving Community.  There are so many things we can do after teaching someone to dive.  It all starts with taking our dive instructing passion to the next level.

Dive Instructor Listing: Based on the successes we have had with our directory listings for dive stores, dive boats, and dive clubs, we are building a directory listing for dive instructors on our DIVE LOCAL website.  Check out Dive Instructors – U.S. on our DIVE LOCAL website.  Of course, this is going to be one of the most difficult directories in our industry to create and maintain but we are willing to start the process.

For more information about the Global Diving Business Network, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director of the Dive Industry Association, 2294 Botanica Circle, West Melbourne, FL 32904.  Phone: 321-914-3778.  Email: gene@diveindustry.net  Web: www.diveindustry.net

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