WtF: The Decline in Scuba Participation

[Vicko]

An average person of my age in Europe living in a city has to work 18 days every month to pay for rent, 9 days for food, that leaves you one work day for extra money and 3 free days a month.

Geee, i wonder why my generation is not going on multi day vacations every now and again paying their monthly salary for diving gear and training.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Agree. That's all I've been doing since 2017. Miss those winter months in FL. A dozen or so nice shore sites here but after a while.... I'm sure that is the case in many areas, much worse in some. Travel is important.
Well, I did get my 7 weeks in NYC area in '18 & '19 before the pandemic, but those sites are fewer and less attractive.

A 747 holds 63 thousands gallons of fuel and it takes about 35 thousands gallons for it to fly 10 hours. That’s just one plane. Granted there are smaller planes flying too.
With all the planes in the sky every day and all the travel logistics vacationing jet setting etc. how long do you think we as a planet can keep that up?

 

[Marie13]

Two words, Local Diving.

Yep! Absolutely!

 

[donhealy]

An average person of my age in Europe living in a city has to work 18 days every month to pay for rent, 9 days for food, that leaves you one work day for extra money and 3 free days a month.

Geee, i wonder why my generation is not going on multi day vacations every now and again paying their monthly salary for diving gear and training.

Well, I guess you have a point there. It's not just Europe though.

 

[Scuba Client]

The current scuba industry and retailers are dinosaurs. Imagine someone telling you they'd teach you to be a pilot for only a thousand dollars and then trying to sell you a Learjet. That's your typical scuba retailer. The average distributor won't talk with you or me, because we don't have retail space that we pay thousands a month to maintain. They're in for a reckoning.

There's a generation that been raised on youtube, doordash and online ordering that's about to become the principal wage earners and the T-rex arms of big scuba are trying to hem them into a model that worked 50 years ago. T-rex loses that battle every time.

That's because you live in Oz, believe me it's much cheaper elsewhere.

That said, it's still not cheap, but if you have good access to shore diving then it can be pretty well reasonable.

When I lived in Saudi in the 80s/90s an air fill was 1 USD and petrol was cheaper than water, You could practically dive the whole of the Saudi Red Sea shoreline for free back then.

Times change though and people get greedy

I have supported many local dive shops and continue to do so, but many consider you as just a number. Although much of my gear was bought online and overseas. I now buy quality used gear when it's available. I dive every week and enjoy it more as a physical workout then just a hobby. Marine life is a bonus.

 

[TMHeimer]

A 747 holds 63 thousands gallons of fuel and it takes about 35 thousands gallons for it to fly 10 hours. That’s just one plane. Granted there are smaller planes flying too.
With all the planes in the sky every day and all the travel logistics vacationing jet setting etc. how long do you think we as a planet can keep that up?

Oh I agree. I've only done one "dive" trip (Panama 10 years ago for a week). Thinking of cost compared to driving down the road for a dive. I get annoyed when divers criticize my shell collecting, but their usual dive plans may include that flight and staying in hotels that most likely screwed up the shore & reefs when built, possibly destroying mangrove areas. It is what it is.

 

[dead dog]

Geee, i wonder why my generation is not going on multi day vacations every now and again paying their monthly salary for diving gear and training.

Only you can change that. Find a better job, get an independent instructor, buy use equipment. You can do it I know that you can.

 

[Bob DBF]

Two words, Local Diving.

Agree. That's all I've been doing since 2017.

If it hadn't been for local diving, since I started back in the olden days, I could have never afforded to dive my whole life. I did do some trips to SoCal for diving, any other trip I took was for a different reason but I fit in a dive if I could.

My gear is old, a lot of second hand, some might say crap, but I make it work and enjoy any time underwater whether out on the NorCal coast or at a closer lake. It's always a new adventure, and if it isn't, I'll go back another time anyway.


As far as the new generation, I had a buddies son that was interested in scuba and got certified. Now, other than thermal protection, I can outfit another diver, but in the last two years he hasn't shown any interest in getting togather and diving. I guess he just wanted the bragging rights of having a c-card.

 

[EFX]

Deleted.

 

[DBPacific]

Only you can change that. Find a better job, get an independent instructor, buy use equipment. You can do it I know that you can.

No amount of cheap gear can make up for not enough free time or energy