Quality Determines Price — A Law That Has Never Changed
Scuba diving is a service, and it is a product. It is not a non-profit organisation or some kind of mysterious religion. Many instructors and dive shops depend on the diving industry for their livelihood. If diving is a product, we can apply ordinary business logic to explain it — but if we were to invoke the economic theories the Editor majored in at university, things like supply-and-demand theory, marginal utility theory… blah blah blah, most people's eyes would glaze over before long.
Let's Use Noodle Soup as an Analogy for Learning to Dive!
Image used under CC License: Wikipedia
Take the humble street food of oyster vermicelli noodles as an example. For NT$25 you might get a plain bowl of noodles; for NT$45 you might get oyster-and-intestine vermicelli — but they're all still called noodles. The same oyster-and-intestine vermicelli can range from NT$45 to NT$60, and the difference might come down to the amount of toppings and the flavour profile. But you can't expect lobster and abalone in a NT$60 bowl.
The other key point here is "value vs. quality." If a customer just needs to fill their stomach, spending NT$50 on two bowls of plain noodles is a good deal. But if they're chasing great flavour, a single NT$80 bowl might offer their taste buds far richer satisfaction. Of course, you won't know if it's delicious until you actually eat it, so before you do, it's worth doing a little research and letting other customers' reviews guide your choice. However, in recent years Taiwanese consumers have become overly fixated on "high value for money," which has quietly strangled many industries that work hard to provide quality service.
Would a noodle shop cut prices? To maintain the original standard of ingredients, the only thing left to cut is profit. A packed, in-demand noodle shop would never slash its prices — only a shop with empty seats might resort to discounts to lure customers in. But is it the ingredients being cut, or the profit? If it's the profit, they'd need to dramatically increase the number of customers just to break even. Even if customer numbers doubled, they'd merely be back to where they started — and whether they even have enough seats or capacity to handle that is an entirely different problem.
Take a look at the discounted noodle soup — has it gotten thinner?
All this talk about noodles has made us hungry, but what does any of this have to do with choosing a scuba diving course?! After all, beginners facing that choice don't understand what the course content involves, so relying on word-of-mouth recommendations from those who've gone before is naturally the best starting point. That said, there are still a few things to consider.
The suggestions below are not absolute rules — they are simply insights the Editor has gathered over a still-modest diving career, drawing on conversations with many seasoned divers and dive shops. There are many intangible services that instructors and shops provide that can't be neatly summarised in a short article — such as an instructor thoughtfully handing you a warm cup of tea and a towel when you surface, or gifting a student a nudibranch charm on their birthday. These are the kinds of hidden, unquantifiable extras that matter! So before you settle on an instructor or dive shop, take some time to do your research online or ask friends for recommendations — it's essential homework if you want to find the learning style that suits you best.
(1) What is a reasonable course fee?
A scuba diving course sells the instructor's teaching experience and expertise — the tuition fee is a reflection of the instructor's worth. An instructor with a fully booked schedule has no reason to undervalue themselves. Expensive doesn't always mean better, but genuinely good instruction will never come in below the market rate — and will often exceed it. After all, maintaining teaching quality takes considerably more time and effort.
(2) Choose a dive shop close to where you live
Learning to dive is like learning to drive: once you have your licence, you still need to get out there and practise. You might plan a trip up or down the island to take your course, but you can't realistically make that journey every week just to dive. And without familiar dive buddies or instructors nearby, it's very easy to lose momentum without anyone to dive with regularly.
That said, if you're going with a group of friends, you might consider heading to an offshore island or even going abroad for your certification — it's a great way to bond with good friends while gaining the unique experience of getting certified in a different environment. Of course, the risks mentioned above still apply. The Editor personally knows many people who went overseas for their certification, only to drift away from the dive community upon returning home and become what we call "dive orphans."
There are always exceptions, of course. The "Gap Year" — popular among younger generations today — is about carving out time between jobs or after graduation to go somewhere new and tackle a personal goal on your own. If that sounds like you, heading abroad for your certification might be a perfectly valid and fulfilling approach to learning!
(3) Don't restrict yourself to a fixed course timeline
There are plenty of "get certified in N days" courses out there. But ocean conditions change every day, and every student learns at their own pace. If things get slightly delayed, the instructor may have no time for remedial teaching — and that means your right to a complete, thorough course gets sacrificed. There is no such thing as having it all without paying the price. We strongly recommend giving yourself plenty of time to learn properly, and let go of the mistaken idea that paying the fee guarantees you a certification card.
That said, some people genuinely have no choice — work commitments or limited leave mean they must complete the course in a short window. If that's the case, let your instructor know upfront so they can condense the schedule, and be prepared to put in significantly more effort than your fellow students. Continuing to dive after you're certified is just as important — because when you're underwater, you are ultimately responsible for your own safety. A dive guide or instructor should never be your babysitter.
(4) Class size matters
Group instruction with one instructor and many students costs the least, but it's difficult to accommodate individual differences in learning pace. Knowing that everyone else is waiting on you can also create real psychological pressure. More critically, when actually in the water, can one instructor truly look out for the safety of every single student? An instructor only has two hands — unless you plan on learning from an octopus (?).
One-on-one or one-on-two instruction allows the instructor to pay close attention to each student's progress, but this kind of arrangement can also create more pressure for the learner. Group classes, on the other hand, can foster a sense of camaraderie — working through challenges together builds real bonds. It's worth thinking about which style suits you better.
(5) Check the assistant's qualifications
Teaching assistants are an essential part of the learning process, but under the standards of diving certification agencies, only a Divemaster or assistant instructor is qualified to serve as an assistant in a scuba diving course. They have received professional training and are themselves on the path to becoming instructors. Some courses, however, simply assign a recently graduated student to fill the role — and that is a risk worth being aware of.
(6) What happens after you're certified?
Everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day, and most people can only schedule classes on weekends. Once a solo instructor takes on new students, do they have the capacity to take their certified graduates out diving as well? More often than not, the result is that certified students end up tagging along on beginner sessions as a kind of recreational dive — they don't really get to enjoy themselves, and safety becomes a concern too. A dive shop of reasonable size will have more Divemasters or assistant instructors available to lead certified students on practice dives or fun dives.
That said, many solo instructors now offer value-added specialty services beyond the basic certification course. Take Taiwan's celebrated dive guide Instructor Lin Music, for example, who is well known for underwater macro search-and-shoot expertise. If your reason for learning to dive is to develop underwater macro photography skills, then Instructor Lin Music is an excellent choice.
(7) Equipment support
Some instructors may only have a limited amount of training gear, which means certified graduates must purchase their own equipment before they can dive — no small expense for most people. Ideally, the instructor or dive shop should be able to provide sufficient, high-quality gear for graduates to use — that's where the real value lies.
Here are seven straightforward points to help guide your decision. Given that all activities carry some degree of risk, prioritise safety first, then choose the instructor or dive shop that best fits your needs and can guide you step by step. First-timers especially should listen widely and compare options carefully before settling on the right instructor or shop.
Finally, never let a poor fit with a diving course extinguish your desire to explore the ocean.
If this article resonates with you, share it with your friends and bring them along for the dive!
Cover image: Photo by Anurag Harishchandrakar on Unsplash
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