Scuba Professional - Insights into Sport Diver Training & Operations

The Scuba Series #4

by Simon Pridmore

Scuba Professional is the natural successor to Simon Pridmore’s first book, Scuba Confidential - An Insider's Guide to Becoming a Better Diver. Whereas Scuba Confidential focused on how to scuba dive, Scuba Professional looks at how diving is taught and how dive operations are conducted.

Scuba Professional is an excellent source of out-of-the-box ideas and independent, objective advice for instructors and dive operators. It is also an indispensable guide for those aspiring to become dive professionals with chapters such as “Do You Have What It Takes?” and “Which Training Agency?” In short, this is everything you wanted to know about working in scuba diving but never dared to ask.

Although primarily aimed at those who make a
living from recreational diving, principally instructors, Scuba Professional also offers a fascinating insight into the business side of the sport. Everyone who takes more than a passing interest in scuba diving will be fascinated by the topics addressed and the insights offered. From a dive safety point of view, Simon looks at the bigger picture and sets out something of a framework for developing the safety culture within our sport. He also examines the present state of the industry and analyses recent trends with a view to the future.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 2015

About the author

Simon Pridmore writes scuba diving books, travel guides and biographies. Originally from the UK, he has lived in the Asia-Pacific region for over 40 years and has spent a considerable portion of that time on the move, both overland and underwater.

As well as his books, Simon has written hundreds of magazine articles on diver training and travel. He also speaks at dive and travel conferences all over the world.

Writing as S J Pridmore, Simon has also written an acclaimed novel, May the People Know I'm Here?

He and his wife, Sofie, currently live among the outlying islands of Hong Kong, but spend a lot of time exploring other places, trying (but failing so far) to find a cure for their itchy feet.

Reviews

[Candice Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic read. I'd even recommend it to those divers who aren't planning on going professional. I particularly liked Pridmore's discussion on constructive paranoia, something I think more diving professionals are in need of, and certainly more divers.

The book is a bit slow to begin with and initially feels more as though it's geared towards instructors, but that quickly changes. It's simply packed with so much useful information and so many useful stories, it's impossible not to get a lot of value out of it. If you read the whole thing you'll know that much more about reading a site, a dive center, the professionals that work for it, and so on.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND this to any aspiring Divemasters, existing Divemasters and Instructors.

[Meghan Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed look at the scuba industry and considerations for making a hobby your career. As someone who has been working as a divemaster for a little over a year, a lot of this book rang true. My lower star rating was because there was little revolutionary in its content, though many chapters were entertaining and a good reminder to keep constantly abreast of course materials past and safety requirements. An interesting read, but maybe better for those about to make the leap into a scuba career, rather than for those who already have.

[Sunflower · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a scuba professional, and read this just before a scuba diving holiday. Found it really interesting to think about the industry from the inside. The job sounds like a dream but like any job where you have to be nice to people all day every day while you make sure they are safe as well as having fun clearly has its down side. It did make me look more critically at how things were done on our holiday, and more likely to speak up over organisation and safety issues. Worth a read.

[Lori Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great insights into best practices for scuba shops and scuba instructors. Interesting commentary on the state of diving today, and the next generation of divers coming.