My name is Kai Steinbeck and I have been a PADI PRO for over 25 years. I am fortunate enough to live and work in a small sea side town called Port Douglas, which is located in Queensland, Australia on the footsteps of the Great Barrier Reef.
Over the years in the scuba dive industry I have continued my diver education and a few years ago became a PADI Course Director which, without a doubt, was one of the best decisions ever made.
Let’s go back to the title of this blog: What’s so great about being a PADI PRO?
As a PADI Course Director I literally have the chance to change lives. On my last IDC I asked all my candidates to introduce themselves and tell the class why they want to become a PADI OWSI. One of the candidates was Dom and he answered with:
“I live in the UK, I have been in the Army, I was a commercial diver and I worked as a prison guard. Then I discovered recreational scuba diving and I noticed that the dive instructors I did all my dive courses with were truly enjoying themselves. They were having fun whilst at work, which is something that I have experienced very little of in my working life. So, I decided to do something about it and become a PADI PRO dive Instructor.”
What is so great about being a PADI PRO?
Instead of having a post card stuck on my computer screen of some exotic location and daydreaming about going there as soon as I save enough money to do so, whilst stuck on the 27th floor doing data entry, I get to teach scuba diving.
There was the day that I had a group of Open Water students and we encountered a minkie whale on their second ever training dive.
There was the discover scuba diving participant that got to dive with a manta ray on their first ever dive
There was the 82 year old lady that enrolled into a PADI open water course and ticked scuba diving off her bucket list.
I could go on, but there is no need to. I think you get the picture. And yes…. Just like in any job there are the bad days as well. In the winter, when the temperature does not get over 25C …. LOL
But in all seriousness the life of a dive instructor can be hard and physically demanding. The days are long. Chances are that you do 10 to 12 hours days and work 6 days a week. The pay is…. WELL …. depending on where you work, enough to live on. You will be lugging tanks, dealing with sea sick people, having to be nice to people all the time even when you don’t feel like it.
It is still better than doing data entry on the 27th floor I think.
If you are ready to become a PADI PRO you should contact me and I would love to change your life ….
