in today's video we're gonna find out
why i quit and i am living in a van down by the river technically not by a river today but yes
welcome to our channel Azul Unlimited where we teach all things scuba diving my name is Sarah
and... i don't know what's going on basically just
i don't know but i am going into non-teaching status as a scuba instructor and this the first
time that i've done that since i got certified and i'm going to tell you why to be clear this video
is not about putting down the job the industry organizations nothing like that i have absolutely
enjoyed my time as a school instructor so before we get into why i'm leaving i'm gonna talk about
why i still think that being a scuba instructor is such a wonderful and priceless thing of course
the main reason was i mean my office was a boat i got to take people to see manta rays and turtles
and play in currents and be outside it was one of the most beautiful offices that you could ever
ask for i got to help people face their fears as far as my own personal development i cannot even
express the amount of growth by being challenged with difficult environments and making decisions
under pressure and learning how to be confident with myself so now let's get to the tough stuff
aside from global pandemic let's talk about why dive professionals leave the industry
first one the job doesn't pay super great as we covered in our scuba instructor salary video
it's not a high paying job but luckily in a lot of the places where you teach at least in
tropical areas the cost of living is very low so you can actually make it work quite well that is
of course if you do not live like an extravagant lifestyle if you're going out with all of your
clients and spending money in bars and night clubs and whatever then yeah you're you're gonna be
tight pretty much all the time but if you live a really boring early to bed kind of lifestyle
then you can actually do just fine that being said you'll never be rich doing this work so depending
on your goals you know it can it can really work for you or or not you know it's kind of
a personal decision there loneliness a lot of these places where you work end up being very
uh transient people come in they are only there for a few days or a few months if you're lucky
and so making friends and having a community can be difficult especially if you're in a
place where you're learning the language of the locals so you aren't quite on a friendship basis
with them as you're trying to get into their culture and everything it can be challenging
that was something that i struggled with a lot just not having a community of like-minded people
quality of care at work the scuba industry tends to work people pretty hard the job is not easy
it is typically very long days you don't get a lot of days off and it's physical right you're
physically in the water with people and helping people it's tiring it's tiring job so that can
be a challenge and then on top of it within the industry management is not always the best
you can be treated like garbage and uh that's that's something that you have to be really
mindful of to not get taken advantage of it can be tiring in that sense medical care a lot of
the places in tropical regions medical care is very affordable but sometimes it's not the best
so if something really serious happens that can be an issue of course if you're an american then
you're kind of used to being screwed by the medical system so maybe that's not you know
i didn't find it that challenging i thought it was quite nice that i could actually afford
medical care uh but i'm also very fortunate to be quite healthy so you know that's a whole other
thing job security as we've seen through the last couple of years something can happen in
the industry that just blows it up so it's really good to have a back-up plan finally another one
lifestyles you know as we get older we maybe don't want to be worked so hard and if we're not in a
position of becoming an owner or a manager or you know just not being in the water all the time that
can have its limitations right you may get out of the work just because you know you're getting
older and you have different priorities i've known tons of people to grow old in the industry as they
move up into different positions have families and stuff but it just depends on your priorities
there are flies all over the place in the van right now you know just one of the uh fun little
perks of van dwelling i should probably get screens at some point it's a work in progress
now specific reasons to why i'm not continuing my teaching status i've decided to live
in the u.s my job right now is based in the u.s so i'd have to change my location for
certifying people and when that happens if you move to the united states or to europe
there are different requirements i had a certain insurance while i was living in southeast asia
that insurance is not good enough here in the states because americans love to sue each
other it's awesome now you have to maintain your instructor fees every year with your organization
but on top of that you also have to pay for better professional insurance that here in the states go
is about a thousand dollars a year or possibly more maybe i don't know but
it's just an extra expense that at this point after two years of just like bleeding money
i'm just not willing to pay it right now to be honest for me the biggest deciding factor
actually was the amount of work and the schedule of teaching in the united states
the majority of people who want to get certified are also working full-time jobs and so they
want to go diving on the weekend and makes total sense but as a person who's working full-time i
kind of sat back and thought you know i just don't want to be working seven days a week
it's just not a goal of mine i've been stressed out for too long i just i need a break need a
break on a personal note teaching in cold water for me is just not super fun it's challenging
for the students it's not my favorite thing to do it's something that i could definitely see myself
getting into eventually but at this point it's just not you know again to be working full working
seven days a week to do this and on top of it like have the diving not be super pleasurable it's
i just you know i love diving in california in the right conditions but sometimes when
you're teaching courses it's not the perfect you know you just you're at the mercy of the ocean
right so like sometimes you have really terrible visibility and you got to do your skills so it's
just not i don't know i just don't want to do it and finally around here you really have to work
as a small business like you need to create your network of clients it really helps to be part of
the diving community and really be integrated with a location and that's just not something that i'm
doing right now you know i move around with my van and it's been really nice because i've been
able to dive in different locations that i maybe didn't have a lot of experience with before like
the videos that i made for san diego i had only been diving there a weekend before i did that
and so it was nice to be able to just like hang out and be there but i'm also not like
there long enough that i can make a clientele and advertise for teaching courses especially when
there's such a strong local dive community you're coming in as like the stranger i would love to
come back to teaching but it just takes a lot of time and energy that i just am not i don't think
i have in me i mean i can't even right now commit to making a video every single week like it's uh
you know i just gotta honor that i don't have the energy for it
as for my specifics i have not taught a course since summer of 2020
lucia sidemount that was a good time but i you know i didn't teach a single course in 2021
and so it just doesn't make sense for me to spend the money to remain in teaching status i
will probably only lapse maybe a year because just so you know if you go a long time without
paying your instructor fees you're not receiving the regular updates from your organization and it
could result in you needing kind of an update or even a full idc if it's been a long time so that's
something that i want to avoid but i'm taking 2022 to really just like figure out what what is life
what does life look like for me because it's been real reactionary with everything that's
happened this is not a video to discourage you from becoming a scoop instructor it is by far
one of the best things that i've done for myself and if it wasn't for the pandemic i would still be
doing it for sure what are you gonna do you gotta be flexible and find the good find the joy in what
was a really devastating thing that happened you gotta find the joy and my decisions thus
far have been in giving me more stability and i'm sure you're thinking but sarah you live in a van
and this may not look stable to you you're not you're not in this noggin
it works somehow i don't know we're living a good life so that's it for story time
i don't know hopefully you got something out of this i just wanted to share because it's new
i've never not renewed and it's kind of sad but i know that it's what i need to do so hopefully
this helped somebody or was just interesting and entertaining i don't really know uh but if you
like the video give it a big hole thumbs up and uh subscribe to our channel for more scuba diving
content thanks for watching we'll see you next time i've mentioned expeditions in the past and
i'm still like sorting through a lot of nonsense in my brain and drama in life
but eventually eventually i want to pull a group of awesome people from this channel and go scuba
diving somewhere so my first spot that i think of because it's easy it's close is baja and we
could go bother ital down there oh yeah i know i know and abby might have to come because you know
she loved mexico what is this the spread eagle so yeah that's kind of what i'm thinking that's
where my head is going and i want to know if that's something that you would want to do
so if it is tell me in the comments below and if you would like seriously
want to do it what time of year works for you that's this is all new to me but i would really
just get a kick out of meeting you guys and doing some rad dives down in mexico so yeah let me know
let me know van dogs have the best life ever we go hiking in the morning and then work all day