What do you see happening with the sport of diving?

[Z Gear]

It can be, but a different kind of statement. Less effort to stick out. Pink is glaring, draws attention. I suspect most men wouldn't want to stick out because of a loudly colored gear piece. Imagine a hot yellow BCD with lime green tank. Bleh!!!

Richard.

For me personally I don't want loud colors. I just prefer black. But I do have preferences towards my mask how it feel but also how it looks. I am being honest about this because there are some who feel this for some reason is wrong. How you feel about your gear in all aspects including the visual image completes your experience. Its your choice and if you want to feel good about how you want to look in some thing its good that you have a choice. What image you want to portray from the outside as well as how you interact with others and perform your dives are components of a Divers Image.

We didn't have as many choices a while ago, so many regard the option of having these kind of choices unnecessary. Remember that what worked a while ago does not necessarily apply to today's situation. The power of the internet as well as TV and social media has made Image a way of branding a product or even an Industry.

I said on the earlier post that there seemed to be a lot of confusion in regards as to why Scuba was not growing. Cost mainly and then some said it didn't matter because other industries can be more expensive anyway's and they are still doing fine. The I saw some regarding Scuba as a just having to much gear, and that this was one reason it is not doing well. If you really want to critique and find things that make the sport less appealing to the public, you will find it. There is plenty of excuses and that all that is. The reality we don't spend enough time focusing on makes the sport/activity diving great. Greater than free diving this is what I believe.

I want to make an example while it is fresh on my mind in regards to the comment 'Scuba just has to much gear". Sure if we want to complain about it, you are actually making it even bigger than what it really is. A better approach is to embrace the fact that your sport/ activity has as some cool gear that challenges you to think and be thorough. You look and feel like you have together. You project an Image that translates to the observer that you are and equipped and trained underwater explorer. The message you are sending is that you can look like this and you can do this as well.

I want to show this clip again because although it is trying to sell a wet suit I want you to focus on the message of how this could inspire a potential free diver.

No one really commented on this Utube type exposure regarding free diving and how this video in particular depicts a free diver's hunting and stalking skills. The look as well as the actions complete the Image of the Free diver in this video.

[video=youtube;cAO6y5MK_tM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAO6y5MK_tM[/video]

Frank G
Z GEAR - Z Gear

 

[descent]

The demand for - and utility of - computers is probably nine hundred orders of magnitude higher than that for scuba gear.

Those are reasonable statements for a person living in a highly urbanized part of the US or Europe, but they are only preferences, not permanent aspects of human nature.

People living in communities with 1950s level technology may want phones and laptops, but they need to eat.

In those smaller communities, I would be most employable lifting junk off of the bottom of the harbor or repairing netting in an aquaculture pen. Even a public health database lacks utility in a society without functioning public health programs.

 

[Diving Dubai]

---------- Post added June 16th, 2015 at 10:22 AM ----------

how did you get a picture of my wife's gear?

seriously when hen my wife chose her previous edit dive comp, she got the same as mine except she had a pink strap.

i have to be careful here. My wife is a great diver, more dives than me, she had a wing and a doc before we met. But she doesn't give a damn about the detail of the gear, apart from does it work and does it look nice. The technicalities of equipment don't interest her. That's not an anti women comment, it's the way she is wired. To her scuba gear is there to allow her to get underwater and get freedom away from the corporate world. Whereas to some they are wired towards the other extreme where diving is almost just a reason to put their gear together

There is room for both.

obviously colour choice for equipment isn't the sole reason for this so called decline. I say so called because everywhere I go, and I do go off the beaten track, there are always plenty of people diving - but importantly even in remote destinations there are still people getting their first cert

The point raised above that perhaps in the U.S. Scuba has lost its appeal to the masses but I don't feel that is true outside of its borders. I still argue, and have not been persuaded otherwise that people now choose to dive in exotic locations rather than their local cold low vis pit somewhere. Air travel is more available to more people than it used to be and despite the doom and gloom, a lot of people, especially the young gave more disposable income.

yes your local LDS may have shut but one swallow doesn't make a summer

 

[RJP]

People living in communities with 1950s level technology may want phones and laptops, but they need to eat.

That's the point... the demand for some things is greater than the demand for others. This will vary by geography, by economics, and by personal preference. Ultimately, people - and industries - will apply their money to those things that meet the greatest need.

Any business or industry that doesn't sell enough stuff needs to increase demand. Lowering the price is one of the least effective ways to do that. Particularly in the case of something like scuba diving.

---------- Post added June 16th, 2015 at 03:10 PM ----------

The point raised above that perhaps in the U.S. Scuba has lost its appeal to the masses but I don't feel that is true outside of its borders.

Let's try to keep a realistic frame of context here. Scuba diving has never had "an appeal to the masses" in the US or anywhere else. Less than 1% of the population of the US has ever tried scuba diving. With the right approach, could that be driven to 1.5% or 2%? Absolutely... and that would be huge! But anyone who want to try to turn scuba into an activity that has "mass appeal" is on a fool's errand.

 

[descent]

Less than 1% of the population of the US has ever tried scuba diving. ... anyone who want to try to turn scuba into an activity that has "mass appeal" is on a fool's errand.

Oh dear. Who is the gloomy scowling killjoy that has stolen your password and posted on your account?

Optimism! Less Mao, more Steve Jobs!

Tell me this: by the year 2005, had you ever seen an episode of the original Star Trek series? Seen a "communicator"? Seen a "tricorder"?

Did you predict the iPhone? Yeah. Me neither.

 

[RJP]

Oh dear. Who is the gloomy scowling killjoy that has stolen your password and posted on your account?

Optimism! Less Mao, more Steve Jobs!

Tell me this: by the year 2005, had you ever seen an episode of the original Star Trek series? Seen a "communicator"? Seen a "tricorder"?

Did you predict the iPhone? Yeah. Me neither.

You'll not find a more optimistic marketer than me when it comes to scuba. Hell, I've bet my career on that belief.

I'm suggesting that the scuba industry could easily DOUBLE in size. If you think that is being a "gloomy scowling killjoy" than I'm not sure what to tell you.

 

[Adobo]

I'll play gloomy gus.

I see the scuba industry dying a slow death.

In my area (SF Bay Area) numerous dive shops have closed. Very few have opened to take there place. In Monterey where I do my diving, several of the dive boats have gone away and not replaced by others. There are only 4 dive boat operators left that I know of and as far as I am aware, only 1 goes out regularly throughout the year. This is in the Monterey/Carmel area - in my opinion, the best diving available in the west coast of the United States (actually, in my opinion, the best diving in all the United States with the exception of the cave diving in Florida).

Also, the norcal forum here in scubaboard is a shell of its former self.

I wish it weren't so. I love diving and wish more dive shops were opening. I wish more people around me were taking up scuba. If scuba feels like it is dying in an area that has as much money as the SF Bay Area and has such fantastic diving as Monterey, I can't imagine what it must be like in other areas that are several hundred or even a thousand miles away from the ocean.

 

[archer1960]

For me personally I don't want loud colors. I just prefer black. But I don have preferences towards my mask how it feel but also how it looks. I am being honest about this because there are some who feel this for some reason is wrong. How you feel about your gear in all aspects including the visual image completes your experience. Its your choice and if you want to feel good about how you want to look in some thing its good that you have a choice. What image you want to portray from the outside as well as how you interact with others and perform your dives are components of a Divers Image.

...

Frank G
Z GEAR - Z Gear

Being a cyclist, I like high-visibility colors for safety reasons, and would buy lime green or bright yellow SCUBA equipment in a heartbeat if I could find it for the same price as basic black, but I can't.

 

[Wookie]

People living in communities with 1950s level technology may want phones and laptops, but they need to eat.

Interesting how I see pictures of sub-saharan Africans living in grass huts and using smart phones just like kids here do. They seem to have skipped the whole AT&T culture, never had cable tv, or any tv, never had a gameboy or a PC, but took to the internet just like the folks who had all of those things.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The industry has an incredibly high drop out rate after certification. Rather than trying to get more people to take scuba classes, does it make sense to try to reduce the drop out rate? Would better training generate better longevity and enthusiasm in the diving public?