Post-pandemic comeback? Not yet! The dive industry is still crashing.
- Thread starter Darcy Kieran
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But if these operators take the poor performance divers to sites where other more experienced divers go it doesn't really matter.
The "Liberty wreck" in Bali is a prime example of this, and the main reason most good operators take people to dive there at sunrise to avoid the muppets, and they're not always Chinese!
Someone brought up chinese so...of course poor divers are everywhere! I was a poor diver once and has been gradually improved over times with tremendous effort.
There are responsible/irresponsible operators in any trades. And there is nothing anyone can do about it. Plenty of horror stories on diving operators.
If I am going to a new place I will look at the reviews of some of the operators and then have to use my judgement on choosing it. Internet has made it easier than before because there are more up-to-date information(right/wrong) on the topic eg. accommodation/transport etc etc.
Don't expect too much too soon and be ready to bail out/plan B.
Diving is no difference from any recreational sports eg skiing. I have seen skiers on wrong piste and have to call for assistance. I tried off-piste(short distance) once and regretted as I did not have the right technique.
It was poor form to pick on one nationality whom one cannot communicate with and tar them all with the same brush.I have heard the same has been said about Japanese, Korea, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Brazilian divers etc and yet these have been some of the best I have seen diving.
On Phi Phi I recently had the misfortune of diving with some germans, who were super excited, nervous coral kickers with crap buoyancy, used their air up really quickly etc (I surfaced with 120-130 bar) but would I castigate a whole nation of divers based on the experience of a small group of newbies, no way, but some feel it OK to do and should be called out
LOL. Not many of us would have a yard, public park more than likely.
That "off-piste" skiing did not last for more than 10m. We gave up, removed the skis and climbed back to the proper slope. I was in the Les 3 Vall'ees in France on a 2 wks trip with my mate.
You will love the place.
What recreational dive training standard of the RSTC do you feel is contributing to these statistics?
I have no idea why you are suggesting it is the RSTC's issue.
Now.. DEMA is another matter.
inflation adjusted diving has gotten cheaper that it was when it was growing as a sport in the 70-80's, it's a really bad argument to blame it on cost.
I think part of the problem is cost, but not in the "the total cost is way too high" sort of way.
I have probably 15k worth of bicycles in my garage right now, but when I got back into cycling/racing, and I bought my first bike in years, I knew that at a minimum, I was buying something that had some utility outside of the sport. I could ride to the store or whatnot. I didn't have to use it for racing.
It's the same with running shoes - people try new shoes all the time, but if they don't work out for running, they still have utility. I can use them to walk in, do yard work, etc.
Scuba gear isn't any more expensive than a good bicycle (I'm not talking about Walmart bikes here), but outside of diving, it doesn't generally have any utility to the consumer.
There are probably some other things at play too:
1. Our society is getting older, so there are fewer new customers to be found.
2. Scuba isn't instantly gratifying - you have to do the work first. (PADI does have a model for addressing this, but it's not really applicable unless you're a resort, or you have your own pool).
3. Kind of like the previous, but you can't just go jump in the water. You can jump on a bike or go for a run because you know how to do those things.
3. Scuba isn't really a sport. You can't get fit from diving. It won't make you lose weight or get stronger. There are no real competitions between people that are performed on scuba that are generally available to the public, or that appeal to a wide range of people.
I think learning to dive is more like learning to fly. There are technical and medical aspects that are similar (though the bar to entry is lower for flight training than it is for scuba). There's an "adventure/cool guy thing to do" aspect.
Flight training's doing fine though. They keep certifying more students every year. The scuba industry's churn and burn model is self-defeating. All the quick classes with overweighted students work great if you're a dive resort and you aren't going to ever see those students again. Resorts don't have to worry about retention, the customers just keep rolling in.
Meanwhile, the divers they train don't have the skills to enjoy scuba diving, so they move on to something else.
When I worked for someone else, that shop had the same churn and burn model. Get them in, sell them a mask, snorkel, fins and boots at a huge markup... about 10% stuck around for other classes or bought gear.
Working for myself, almost all my customers buy gear and more training. We don't have to sell them on anything because they're getting quality training and we don't treat them like numbers. They want to continue diving, so naturally, they take classes and buy gear.
There's a bunch of poorly trained, certified divers out there who would be making shops money, if they'd been taught correctly in the first place. My kid's orthodontist and his wife, for example. Both were churned and burned by a local shop. She had a major panic in open water during a mask skill and her instructor held her under the water. She made it through the course, but now neither one dives because she has said she'll never go diving again. He wants to go, but his natural buddy learned to hate diving.
If we want to fix the industry, that's where we need to start.
drrich2
Contributor
That's an interesting summary, and it has me wondering how a wisely run dive shop would craft a strategic 'vision' of its view of customers over time.
What you describe is looking beyond initial OW training/certification and gear sales to the somewhat longer-term, where better trained OW grad.s are more likely to keep diving and take more classes and buy more gear. That sounds good, but it seems to me that would still mostly fizzle out over time (albeit with more profit).
How much training and gear does the mainstream recreational diver (not tech. diver; it's my understanding tech. divers are a small minority) need? I'd say:
1.) Training: OW, AOW, Nitrox, ideally Rescue Diver but not required. Some people pursue Dive Master (for self-improvement) or Solo Diver.
2.) Gear: mask, boots, fins, BCD, regulator, dive computer, dive light, a cutting tool, deployable SMB. They may get their camera and underwater housing online.
That's a lot more than mask, boots, fins and an OW course, but the point remains...when your former trainees are at this level, do you focus on continuing to 'monetize' them or rely on new students?
Offering organized group dive trips seems to be the obvious way, unless you can cajole some into tech. diving.
How does your shop approach this issue, @VikingDives ?
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