For a job that doesn’t feel like work, only a wetsuit will do

Which would you pick — being a rat in a cubicle or living on a tropical island and diving into the pristine warm sea? Adventure is not something Indians would associate with a job, but with the opening of the Andaman Diving Academy (ADA) you can now train to be a diving instructor. Your starting salary will be Rs 30,000 plus food and boarding, reports Neha Dara.

Which would you pick — being a rat in a cubicle or living on a tropical island and diving into the pristine warm sea?

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Adventure is not something Indians would associate with a job, but with the opening of the Andaman Diving Academy (ADA) you can now train to be a diving instructor. Your starting salary will be Rs 30,000 plus food and boarding.

Among the Hammerheads, the first batch of

diving instructors who graduated from ADA in Port Blair, are marine biologists and a software engineer working with a multinational company.

Samuel Pinto (25) says: “I worked with a BPO, I sold cars, and I was an account manager in a bank. But a desk job just didn’t suit me. I’d rescue snakes in Bangalore and lead treks, but I could never earn enough through that.”

That’s when he was introduced to scuba diving, and decided to become an instructor.

The academy is run by Planet Scuba India, which is also the country’s first five-star PADI diving facility. PADI is the international certifying body that certifies 80 per cent of world’s recreational divers.

Madhava Reddy, the owner of Planet Scuba India, said there are about 35 diving instructors in India currently and only six of them are Indians. Given the rate of growth of the industry, in just about two years there will be a need for 200 more.

“But more than the money and potential of the industry, it’s a job that you can do for the love of it and the freedom of it,” says Sajeendra Das (27). Das works with Oracle and says the course was his investment in an “early retirement plan – a job that doesn’t feel like work”.

The course costs Rs 45,000 ($900) in India as opposed to Rs 60,000 ($1,200) in Thailand (course materials and PADI fees extra).

By doing it in India you also save flight fare and accommodation expenses to the tune of Rs 50,000.

The Hammerheads also include Puneite Ramila Sil (23), the first woman to qualify as a dive instructor in India. Sil studied Zoology at Fergusen College and then did a post graduation in marine biology.

“I’ve learnt more marine biology while diving than I did in class. I want to teach others now, not only to dive but also about marine life.”

ADA will hold its next instructor development course in March. Nine people are already signed up. Will you be the tenth?