Imagine a job that will take you to the most exotic locales in the world, allow you to wear a bathing suit and flip flops to work and has you spend a good portion of your day hovering between 60 and 100 feet under brilliant turquoise waters exploring the fauna and wildlife of the worlds' most beautiful oceans and all while earning a decent wage. Sign me up you say! Well for a SCUBA instructor or a dive master that is only one part of their job but it's the best part if they have elected to work in the tourist sector of the diving industry.

SCUBA (self contained underwater breathing apparatus) Instructors and Dive masters (the difference is based on the level of training through a recognized agency such as PADI or NAUI)will generally begin their day somewhere between 6 and 7 in the morning in order to get their boat loaded up with gear for the first set of dives with the goal to leave the dock with their guests on board by about 7:30 a.m. to get to the best dive sites. Once at the site they will hook on to a mooring line or drop anchor and lead their group on a dive showing them the vistas of the underwater world. Generally they'll do this twice before heading back to shore but sometimes there are 3 and even 4 tank dives but the first dive will always be the deepest coming in around 100 feet in depth. This is for safety reasons. After that the dives will remain shallow somewhere between 50 and 60 feet.

Many diving staff in the tourist sector will hold multiple responsibilities including serving as a boat captain, reservations agent, equipment repair technician, retail staff member, guest relations supervisor or even manager of the operation overall. Choosing a career in the tourist sector will guarantee that you wind up multi-tasking but you will do so while being in amazing surroundings and having the opportunity to interact with people from all over the globe.

However the tourist sector is not the only place for someone who is a strongly qualified diving aficionado. SCUBA divers can find work in underwater welding working on ships, oil rigs, even the making of artificial islands! They can find work in law enforcement (needing additional qualifications generally) for search, rescue and recovery, perhaps not the most pleasant of jobs but certainly vital. There is even work to be found in underwater farming activities, and for the ecologically minded there are assignments for SCUBA divers to partake in research projects involving marine life and the underwater territories.

How do you get involved in any of these careers? Start with getting as much training as you can through your local dive shop that is affiliated with one of the internationally recognized agencies such as PADI or NAUI then start logging dives especially in different environments and types of dives. Once you have a good number of dives under your weight belt, start sending out your resume.

Keep in mind that in the tourist sector, your career is not likely to be 20 or 30 years unless you go into management. SCUBA diving as a career is hard work and can be physically hard on your body. It's a great choice of careers when you are fresh out of college and wondering what to do with yourself for a couple of years or when you want to take a mid-career break and travel the globe for a couple of years. Finally, if you have managed to find yourself at early retirement, SCUBA might make an interesting second career for a couple of years.

So what are you waiting for, grab your BC and Regulator and get diving!

Learn more about this author, Cindy Abrahams.
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