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Well, there is the expectation that one doesn't have to sell one's blood to have enough to eat.
One of my buddies was a "dirtbag climber" (his words) and he'd eat off people's plates at restaurants after they left.
Well, good for them. It’s in the spirit of capitalism and creating a profitable business.... from wikipedia:
"In 2019, PADI reported it had a membership of over 137,000 professional members and 6,600 dive centers, and had awarded more than 27,000,000 diving certifications internationally."
Lets assume they charged 50usd per cert, that would make 1.3b. Lets assume membership fee is 200usd, it will make less than 30m, so, not hard to figure out where the money is made. I believe travel biz is pretty new, I wonder what the revenue is but not hard to guess looking at what intermediaries like booking.com charges, it is probably quite significant as well.
the industry is optimized for gap year kids. I can't think of a better way to spend a year before going back to reality/uni.The dive guides/instructors that I met in Florida all were younger people without a family who became instructors as they traveled the Caribbean/Southeast Asia, happy to be doing what they were doing for the money that they made, all understanding that this was a temporary thing that they could do while young, single, and healthy. Their income needs and wants are certainly much less than a person with a spouse and two kids who wants to live in a house in a decent school district. Hard to compete.
My OW class was through a University Phys. Ed. department, and those in the class were classmates of mine for 4 years after that. None of them pursued further dive training in that time.Sure, at my last OW 15 year reunion, we all checked in with each other and compared our dive training history. Aside from that, I also make it a point to keep track of of my entire OW cohort. Judy, for one, needs to get out diving more.
I am sure this observation of yours is as solidly backed as everything else you've posted here.
In such places, dry suit training is part of OW.Location and location.
I wonder how many OW divers in countries eg. Iceland, Scandinavian countries and UK would not do a dry suit course on top of their initial training? Probably quite a lot.
Not always. We have waters similar to the UK. I see so many open water students in 7 mils suffering as they won't pay for the upgrade. Some shops only provide a dry suit option and they have happier customers.In such places, dry suit training is part of OW.
A very large majority of OW classes here in Sweden will be done with wetsuits.Not always. We have waters similar to the UK. I see so many open water students in 7 mils suffering as they won't pay for the upgrade. Some shops only provide a dry suit option and they have happier customers.