Scuba diving itself is a very easy activity that can be explained in a few words. To breath, swim and let ourselves be amazed. Rules are simple as well. All dive centers and resorts can cover the minimum basic standards but not many go beyond in their education system and supervision.
We stand out seeing the value of dive education
The cost and value of good diving education
Most people see a career in diving as something of a seasonal job, like work that is not serious enough that it requires a degree to teach. Something we do on some long holiday or on our free time. This is why they are also lead to believe that all dive centers and professionals are equal. They would also pay a higher price for good food from a great restaurant but will neglect a fun but serious sports with life-threatening risks if something was to go wrong.
Even if the basics of diving are simple, risks grow rapidly as complexity and depth increase. Professionals who teach diving must have exceptional qualities to ensure the safety of their students and divers. They must also be quick thinkers and have initiative. Their past experience gives them all necessary tools to have better decision making in unknown and emergency situations.
We also think that to best teach a course, there is more to just a card stating they can teach a specific topic. Professionals must be able to dive at a higher level than what they are entitled to teach. It also means that they are doing these dives for themselves and getting experience on their own. This lead to the passing of true experience and know how not just what the book says.
The employment situation
In most tropical destinations we see a great number of dive professionals starting or ending their short career. It is an industry that currently sees a lot of turn-over. It is said that only 2% of new instructors will make it past the first two years. And the ones that past that time do not want to give their place and a lot of new professional quit and leave as they cant afford their lifestyle. They also do to get greater chances of getting full-time jobs with better conditions.
So to we can keep ours and offer them a chance of a career, we give our staff the best work conditions and all the tools they need. Empowering them with greater confidence so that the can give the best of themselves.
Other things to remember about the cost of diving in general
And when compared to the investment required for other sports or hobby like hockey, football, or even golf, we quickly realized that the cost very close.
We stand out by respecting local laws and regulations
Working in Thailand require a work permit and this even for unpaid work as a volunteer. This is the main reason we do not offer any internship programs, trading work for education. All our employees possess the all the required paperwork to legally work in the kingdom.
We could say that to comply with local regulations is a big adventure. It is also a big chunk of administrative expenses. It is true if we only look at the daily living cost of rent, food, and all the expenses, it is very cheap. This would be simple and not expensive if our staff was composed only of local people. Because most of our customers are tourists and visitors, we must find employees that can accommodate foreign languages such as French, Spanish, Chinese, German, Russian or other European languages. There are not many locals that are dive professionals. And much less that speak a foreign language fluently enough to teach in a safe way.
This means that our employees are foreigners for most. For them, if we calculate the living cost with the added expenses of visas, work permits, lawyers, registration, transports, and the day lost for immigration-related compliance. We quickly see that their lifestyle matches much more the western lifestyle. For an average employee, this adds up to one-third of his annual salary. This is the main reason why diving here is cheaper than in Europe or America. But not really less expensive if we want to offer proper decent salary and services of high quality.
We stand out through our environmental efforts
We use environmentally friendly and biodegradable products for cleaning, pool treatment, sanitary and other. We also take part in recycling, composting. This can also lead to a more elevated cost of operation. But each time you do business with us, you do your part for our local island community but also to limit our impact on the environment. One way to see it is like you would be doing a little donation through our work.
Our team also participate in cleaning initiative from the local people and with the Thai Government.
In short, how do we stand out
It is for all these reasons that at first, our prices might seem over the average of local competition. But we take pride and stand out by doing everything we can to offer services of the highest quality. Let us say that for a little extra investment, you get a lot more.
What we have or offer
- Experienced instructors with many years of active teaching in diving
- Brand new facilities built to optimize logistics and offer the best environment for learning
- More time with your instructor while doing courses which gives you more opportunity to develop and learn
- A custom-made boat for divers meant to be comfortable
- Brand new equipment, in perfect conditioned and maintained more often than recommended
- A clean and properly maintained filling station with a dedicated air climatized room.
- Ecological conscious staff and operations
What we do not have or offer
- Teaching standards at the bare minimum required by agencies
- Obsolete, not maintained or broken equipment
- Doubtful fills
- Accelerated course with no objectivity
- Professionals with no experience or in an irregular situation
- Big groups of divers or students
- Certifications to divers not meeting the criteria
- An old boat, unclean and unsafe
Still not convinced?
You still have some doubts about the reasons you might be paying more with us than with other centers?
You can go read on social media, forums and other information sources what is objectively said about courses and standards offered in the region.
