I’m Taking the Step: From Normal Life to a Scuba Diver Life

I’m Simon. I’m a 34 year old PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, and I’m expecting a new Baby in August.

After a tough year at my last job I took 8 months out and worked a dive season in Honduras, going from advanced diver with only 14 dives to Dive Instructor with 200 by the end. I was the happiest I’ve ever been and before I left I promised myself that I would make diving my career.

In the last few months I have sold my car, my house and most of my stuff. I’m just waiting for November-December when the baby will be 5 months old and we’re all out of here.  Er, hopefully I’ll have a job to go to as well.

Of course if it was just my Girlfriend and I, I would not be worried about this. We’re pretty experienced backpackers, and usually would just go somewhere and do it. Now we are expecting a baby to be coming with us there’s a lot more to think about. Like malaria, clean bath water and keeping it in diapers. There’s also the matter of general safety and legal permission to even just be there, never mind work!

Living and diving somewhere for years is different from being on holiday there for a few weeks or a month. I have only worked in diving in Honduras and I never had a work permit. I would be grateful for advice from readers about places where you have lived and worked in diving, as well as from anyone who has taken babies travelling.

Here are some things we’ve thought about as being important

1. I’d like to be somewhere tropical

   I know I could work in diving here in the United Kingdom, or back home in Canada but I’d rather see sharks and sea turtles and things and have a great tan.  Yes I hold both a Canadian and an E.U. passport, which might help address my next point.

2. Permission to live and work there is important

   If I’ve got a job before I go I’m sure the employer will get some kind of visa together, but I need to bring a baby and the mother too! I expect there to be some red tape involved, but some places wouldn’t let the family in for more than 30 days at a time. Poop.

3. Healthcare is important

   With a tiny baby it would be nice if the tap water was safe enough for them to have a bath in. We’re also going to want a little more than a mud hut with a nurse in it. Veto anywhere with rampant malaria, or where the only doctor is actually a vet who is reliably off his head on Ketamine by 3 o’clock in the afternoon. It doesn’t have to have the most modern hospitals but it does have to have somewhere you could get to within a couple of hours in an emergency.

4. Safety is important

   I’ll take a chance with a little pickpocketing, burglary and people trying to run scams. We’re hoping to avoid the daylight murdering of people for their shoes or having to flee the country in the middle of the night because civil war has broken out or something. Anywhere where cannibalism is still commonly practised or piracy is a popular profession is probably out too.

5. Cost of living

   We are a little bit flexible on this one, but I’m probably going to be the only one working for the first year.

   Somewhere I could teach SCUBA all year would be best, otherwise how would I earn money for the low season? With rent on a 2 bedroom place and food for 2.5 people (but not drinking and going out) it would be nice to be able to break even on an instructor’s wage.  It would be useful to at least know what an instructor’s wage and rent actually are.

I Need Your Help

Right now we are waiting for our child to be born. I’m waiting until October before I start applying for SCUBA instructor jobs.

Now I need your help! I would love advices on places to work as a Dive Instructor that fulfilled my requirements!

If you know the place I’m looking for or you have personal experiences that could help me in my job hunt, please leave a comment below!