Water way to earn a living

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Water way to earn a living

Written by Charlotte Boan Thursday, 29 May 2008 00:00

It’s often said that you should work to live and not live to work. But if your job involves diving every day, living to work would surely be perfect.

Slow afternoons in the office are spent scanning the web for all things underwater: weather reports for weekend trips, last-minute dive holiday offers, diving forum chats or the latest kit tests. At the water cooler, colleagues nod in boredom or wear that so-obviously-fake smile when you talk enthusiastically and endlessly about your latest diving trip. These dry-holiday land-dwellers just don’t understand your underwater obsession. It makes you flinch in horror when they call fins ‘flippers’ and masks ‘goggles’, and say how terribly frightening it would be to see a shark underwater because ‘it might eat me!’ Sound familiar?

Scuba addiction is a common condition that can lead many divers to ditch the office desk and don the BC in search of a career in diving.

All scuba addicts have, at least once or thrice, wondered what it would be like to shrug off the grey suits, dark skies and exhaust-fumed rush hour for the serenity of the underwater world. Ever imagined being that smiley dive guide on the boat who you wave goodbye to before heading off to the airport? Or even the guy behind the counter at the local dive shop who never tires of endless dive chat or poring over the latest kit?

There are all sorts of diving-related careers, from guiding in clear blue-water tropical reefs lit by endless sunshine, to search-and-recovery work sifting through cold, treacherous water in zero visibility. Obviously, some rate higher on the glamour meter than others. But is following the dream of getting paid to be submersed in the world of diving all that it’s cracked up to be, and can you get by on the salaries on offer?

DIVE takes a look at the variety of underwater-related jobs out there and gets the lowdown from the people who make their living from diving.

Dive instructor

Maritime archaeologist

Liveaboard guide

Offshore commercial diver

Aquarium diver

Marine biologist

Police diver

Underwater photographer

Navy diver

Liveaboard/resort videographer

Boat skipper

Scallop diver

Treasure hunter/salvor

Dive shop manager

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