How to Engage Younger People in Diving?

[Bigbella]

Teens aren't likely to independently book dive trips, and a lot of people don't live close to local oceanic diving. Quarries and lakes alone won't cut it for most. Parents may pay for those things you listed (to be fair, phones are part of the social functional platform in modern society, computers and the Internet likewise plus a lot of work, including school works, is done on them), but they're not likely to send their minor out of the country to dive in 'shark-infested' waters - and they won't get certified to go with him, either.

Who the hell is talking about booking dive trips? The idea is to get someone interested; not bribe them with the empty promise of a f**king Corona ad. You take a course (as I did, at the Y, on my dime); swim in whatever body of water is available to you (as many friends did, in lakes and quarries -- even water traps). I was diving for five or six years before I ever had a chance to swim in waters above 10˚ C; that didn't deter my interest one whit -- nor those of my friends. I still prefer cold water diving.

The immediate attraction was the newly-realized ability and promise of breathing underwater. No small feat. It didn't f**king matter where you were. I was in an overly-chlorinated pool in the late 1970s; and that memory is as clear as day.

Got my first new gear, as a teenage prep cook, at minimum wage -- again, on my dime; wasn't waiting for my parents; nor did I feel that all-too contemporary, millennial conceit of entitlement . . .

Sure, parents may cover many or most of a kid's expenses; but schoolwork can also be completed on a 300.00 Chromebook, just as effectively as on a 2K MacBook Pro, while sporting 300.00 sneakers, and yup-scale Bose noise-cancelling earphones . . .

 

[drrich2]

If you're marketing to people living in driving distance of divable regions such as coastal California, Puget Sound, parts of Florida, etc..., where oceanic diving (even if cold water) can be had without over 6 hours each way in a car or plane tickets, that's fine.

I don't think many people train and certify to dive in nothing but quarries and cold, low viz. freshwater lakes in the U.S. They may do those things, but if they don't live near the ocean, most travel to it from time to time.

Most people don't dive under to be underwater blowing bubbles. They dive because there's something down there they want to see and do. You've got to show it to them, and convince them it's practically attainable.

For a large demographic of young potential divers in the U.S., that means making trips for ocean diving practically doable.

Just to belabor the point, another poster in a past thread indicated there are a number of California divers who don't dive locally. California has sweet diving and that blows my mind, but some people who live there with access...still only dive on warm water trips apparently.

 

[Bigbella]

As I mentioned previously, many of my friends took their open water course, outside California; some in quarries in the Midwest; one of whom, even did check-outs in a water trap in Colorado. They did it for the initial training; the promise of being able to use an ability later, down the line; to have that ready card on hand. There was patience in that.

I learned to tie flies, two years before I had an opportunity to use them in Oregon; that didn't diminish my interest in fishing or lessen a kid's early accomplishment.

The problem that I see is with the dive industry itself. It strives to reinvent the wheel each year; and, generally, once decent gear is purchased, there is little need of more, or of replacements; much like that of the skiing industry. It becomes a difficult challenge to market a potentially single large purchase, and little beyond that. I attended DEMA with a friend who ran a shop, some years ago; and a facrtory rep, when pressed upon what was then new, admitted, "same sh*t from 1958, more colorful box, ten times the price . . ."

That there are California-based divers that don't take advantage of the water here, is their great loss and my great benefit. There are far too many people flopping around here . . .

 

[DBPacific]

Parents may pay for those things you listed (to be fair, phones are part of the social functional platform in modern society, computers and the Internet likewise plus a lot of work, including school works, is done on them), but they're not likely to send their minor out of the country to dive in 'shark-infested' waters - and they won't get certified to go with him, either.

Aye, that's why I don't tell my family or my partner what I've been diving with until I get back.

Who the hell is talking about booking dive trips? The idea is to get someone interested; not bribe them with the empty promise of a f**king Corona ad. You take a course (as I did, at the Y, on my dime); swim in whatever body of water is available to you (as many friends did, in lakes and quarries -- even water traps). I was diving for five or six years before I ever had a chance to swim in waters above 10˚ C; that didn't deter my interest one whit -- nor those of my friends. I still prefer cold water diving.

The immediate attraction was the newly-realized ability and promise of breathing underwater. No small feat. It didn't f**king matter where you were. I was in an overly-chlorinated pool in the late 1970s; and that memory is as clear as day.

Got my first new gear, as a teenage prep cook, at minimum wage -- again, on my dime; wasn't waiting for my parents; nor did I feel that all-too contemporary, millennial conceit of entitlement . . .

Sure, parents may cover many or most of a kid's expenses; but schoolwork can also be completed on a 300.00 Chromebook, just as effectively as on a 2K MacBook Pro, while sporting 300.00 sneakers, and yup-scale Bose noise-cancelling earphones . . .

Oi, we were just getting out of the sniping and griping range.

People die every year in the PNW by going swimming when the air is warm but the water is still too cold, so pardon me if I don't enter the water without a thick wetsuit. Most people either don't find cold water appealing or enjoy a change of pace in not getting gussied up like a neoprene Michelin Man (or needing a drysuit) and freezing during the surface interval. Plus, from what I've seen there are already a lot more dive shops in tropical areas than in cold temperate, which makes coordinating fills, gear rentals, trips, and trying on gear a lot easier than if you're stuck to your computer (and hope the size charts are accurate) or a two hour drive. For the majority, warm is what people want.

 

[KenGordon]

People die every year in the PNW by going swimming when the air is warm but the water is still too cold, so pardon me if I don't enter the water without a thick wetsuit. Most people either don't find cold water appealing or enjoy a change of pace in not getting gussied up like a neoprene Michelin Man (or needing a drysuit) and freezing during the surface interval. Plus, from what I've seen there are already a lot more dive shops in tropical areas than in cold temperate, which makes coordinating fills, gear rentals, trips, and trying on gear a lot easier than if you're stuck to your computer (and hope the size charts are accurate) or a two hour drive. For the majority, warm is what people want.

From a naive point of view warm water is easier and more accessible. However, it usually involves travel, time off work and a load of hassle. It might be genuinely easier due to support from the shops, it might also be cheaper on a dive by dive basis as it often takes advantage of low cost labour. Although one day of diving in PNW might be 150USD but only 75USD in Mexico, getting to Mexico costs, staying in Mexico costs. In my case I would compare a week in Egypt at 1500GBP with diving out of Brighton at £100/day (boat, fuel for the drive down, gas, etc) or a week in Scotland for maybe £1000 to £1200. Logistics can be a challenge, but it isn’t rocket science, google, telephones etc...

Warm water is what people are sold. It is an easier sell than cold water. Often people are sold on scuba while already at some warm water destination just for the sun, sand etc. Back when diving was the sort of adventure activity that actually appealed to young people warm water was not an option, unless you happened to live there.

Diving is often used as a hook by local authorities when marketing a tourist destination. It makes for great pictures.

Another view of why diving doesn’t appeal to young people is that it has been marketed as a safe and unadventurous, doesn’t scare the horses, sort of a thing. I think the fashion for ‘technical’ diving might be a reaction to that. It gives the sort of person who wants to be seen to do something others are scared of doing an opportunity. Cave diving especially. I don’t think it is entirely wrong to assume this is more a young person thing, people are more likely to grow out of it than into it.

 

[drrich2]

Perhaps the versatility of diving should be more advertised. Depending on what you want, it can be...

1.) A leisurely stroll through underwater coral gardens with pretty tropical fish in aquarium-like conditions.
2.) Deep or blue water diving with wrecks, sharks and other big fish or both.
3.) Spear fishing - either with a hand spear, or the equivalent of an underwater crossbow.
4.) You can challenge yourself with technically demanding dives to extreme depths and/or durations with advanced equipment, or explore underwater caves.
5.) You can 'just look,' take snapshots or embrace the world of underwater photography.

Question: Should the scuba community embrace and encourage free diving more, to 'get people down there' cheaply for a look around, hoping they'll be enthralled and expand into scuba? Wonder what % of recreational free divers take up scuba?

Richard.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Question: Should the scuba community embrace and encourage free diving more, to 'get people down there' cheaply for a look around, hoping they'll be enthralled and expand into scuba? Wonder what % of recreational free divers take up scuba?

This is a very good question. Time ago, many people started free diving, having as models to follow people as Enzo Majorca, Jacques Majol or Umberto Pellizzari. Like me!
I practised it for 3-4 years, while also playing waterpolo. In the meanwhile I was also certified for scuba diving, but I switched entirely to it after a couple of syncopes.
Freediving is dangerous, much more than scuba. So I do not think is, in general, a good idea to start the generality of youngsters with a severely dangerous activity, requiring some profound brain tuning and some continuous physical training.
Freediving is not for everyone, whilst scuba diving can be practised by a much wider number of people.
It is true that advertising scuba as a not-adventurous, contemplative activity makes it loose some attraction for adventurous youngsters. These guys are probably more easily attracted by freediving, for his higher risks, and for the need to go beyond your physical limits. Only for them a path as the one I followed when young can be profitful.
But I think this is a minority of potential scuba divers of tomorrow.
What we need is a number of positive models to follow and to imitate, which are now lacking since many years.

 

[Sean Walberg]

Perhaps the versatility of diving should be more advertised. Depending on what you want, it can be...

If I were a marketing person trying to address the youth, I'd be pushing that versatility along the axis of climate change and experience.

1. See the damage caused by climate change in coral reef
2. Experience the historic shipwreck in its final resting place
3. Harvest fish in an environmentally responsible manner through spearfishing
4. Participate in a underwater cleanup/fish count/reef replacement
5. Meet like minded people, travel to exotic places, and post the pictures

 

[tursiops]

I think most new divers are best served going with a dive group, dive club or relative their first time or two. Or a cruise ship.

Yes, but not a cruise ship....that is not always a satisfactory experience, and requires the cruise in the first place.
An enterprising dive shop ought to offer "new diver prices" to their recent graduates to get them into the groove. It would be a better way to lose money that giving away the training. You could even see a package: training plus a new-diver diver trip, so the new graduates could be with their cohort.

 

[drrich2]

Yes, but not a cruise ship....that is not always a satisfactory experience, and requires the cruise in the first place.

There are a couple of reasons I mentioned cruising.

1.) A number of families go on cruises, or people honeymoon, so it's a way to access good destinations some will be receptive to (and may have plans to do). My wife and I pursued certification for our honeymoon cruise in 2006. It's much easier to suggest on a fun cruise try diving, than woo someone in to get certified and take a dedicated scuba trip afar.

2.) It's a very friendly, easy way to get people out of their home comfort zone to take a little look around. Preparing for our cruise, I didn't even know the practical differences between planning to travel to/around the Caribbean vs. Europe. Had never been outside the continental U.S. Didn't know how long flights would be, what trips might cost, whether the 'natives' would speak English or a lack of my U.S. Constitutional rights would mean an inadvertent minor offense could get me imprisoned, whether a trip to Mexico could get my head lopped off by a Mexican drug cartel with a machete...

Seriously, I'm not making this up. Once you've traveled a bit a lot of that sounds face palm class silly, but for some people, there's just not that broader awareness. Cruising makes for an excellent bubble/security blanket to get out of your comfort zone...without having to really leave it.

Richard.

P.S.: In my defense, even back then, I was pretty sure cannibals weren't going to eat us. Pretty sure...