What is the fundamental reason that prevents scuba diving from becoming popular?

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Finances, geography, work and other hobbies are all major factors that play a major part in my past diving.

I didn't start recreational diving until 1987, and my forays underwater were limited as I was living in the middle of a large desert. A couple of trips to the Red Sea, and to Thailand and Malaysia before I moved to Jeddah in Saudi after Gulf War I in 1991.

The last 30 years diving up to last weekend.

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Bit of a thread-jack here....and maybe this has been discussed elsewhere on SB...

I noticed quite a few posters were calling SCUBA a sport. What? It's a hobby, right? Obviously it can be a profession too.

In general, a sport basically has 3 things...athletic effort, rules to compete, and competition. SCUBA has one of those, maybe two?

Spearfishing makes it sporting. There's mental and athletic effort needed to be successful, though not as much as freediving. Two tank lazy dives? Yeah, you're not going to have a lot of success spearfishing. Try 6-8 drops on 6-8 spots. I did 6 to 120 Saturday. It's work and I'm beat by the end of the day. Some species are hard to land. Some have evolved to know what's going on when you're present. Rules? There's fishing regulations and tournaments. Competition? We're always trying to be the top shooter on the boat and keep track of who landed the largest fish. Saturday there was a small club tournament and everyone landed on the beach to weigh fish. I had the largest. :) I call it sport, but do it for healthy food and the adventure. There's just that special feeling you don't find with any other activity while hunting underwater. The excitement, off the beaten path, always some new discovery, and that little feeling in the back of your head that you're not the top predator down there.

They call offshore hook and line fishing, sport fishing. I'd say offshore spearfishing is the ultimate sport fishing.

Otherwise I agree there's not much sporting about a sight seeing scuba dive. It's underwater tourism. I'd add though I am okay with fewer people in and on the water. Better for the reefs and environment. I used to try to convince my friends to get certified and get into it. Now I don't and just remind myself how fortunate I am to be able to do this. If they only knew.
 
Cost was always the factor for me when I was young and broke. I'd walk into a shop and learn I'd have to hand over several hundred dollars to get certified while earning $5/ hour making pizzas or handing out towels at a resort pool. I just said to myself, I'll do it another day when I'm older and have more money.
 
I liked your graph. At the end of 2001, I changed jobs, gave me more time and income. At the end of 2011, we bought our townhouse in SE Florida. At the end of 2014, I retired and had significantly more time. We all know what 2020 was.

I moved to Dubai in mid-1997, started new companies in 2002, 2007 and 2010, and will be retiring at the end of this year.

2020 wasn't too bad for me, but all my dives were in one country.
 
I moved to Dubai in mid-1997, started new companies in 2002, 2007 and 2010, and will be retiring at the end of this year.

2020 wasn't too bad for me, but all my dives were in one country.
I moved to Dubai in mid-1997, started new companies in 2002, 2007 and 2010, and will be retiring at the end of this year.

2020 wasn't too bad for me, but all my dives were in one country.
I actually got in 81 dives in 2020, all in Florida. I was grateful for the opportunity, had much more planned :(
 
Otherwise I agree there's not much sporting about a sight seeing scuba dive. It's underwater tourism.

I think this is similar to my need to have a camera in my hands. I may not be 'hunting' for something to bring home, but I'm hunting for a picture of a creature I've never seen or never gotten a really good shot of before. When I get a really good shot, it's a trophy for me. I have to constantly work on my buoyancy, timing, and ability to spot a good shot. When I look at one of my really good blennie shots and compare it to others, I'm determining 'whose is better'. I look at other photographers pics and hope someday I'll be that good - and others and think how much I've learned along the way. I also have this internal voice saying 'make this good enough you will never be tempted to do post processing so it looks better - even cropping'. More challenging.

But ya know, there's nothing wrong with underwater tourism either ... it seems that's what most of the deep dives are about. It's cool to see the huge coral heads, looking up from 90' - and surreal to look out over the deep blue. Yep, sight-seeing. No longer my cup of tea, but at one time it was.
 
There a many reasons & causes that prevent scuba diving from being more popular.

Loving being in & under the water is a must. It’s an big draw for me! If you don’t love it, the diving drawbacks can quickly overcome any enticing diving moments.

Drawbacks: Mentally one has to overcome the mental and discomforting challenges of diving. The process and reality of (scuba) diving is it is very laborious. It takes finding a buddy, scheduling, packing, hauling gear, unloading, gearing up, getting in the water, fighting for good trim & comfort under the water, getting out, loading up to leave, unloading gear, washing off & drying gear, gear maintenance and getting air fills. Divers have to be committed to put this much effort into a sport where the prep time far exceeds the dive time. Most important, a safe diver spends a measurable amount of effort learning to dive and mentally preparing for a safe dive.

Diving is an expensive sport, even in comparison to golf, snow skiing or mountain biking, where one can reduce the event cost of the sport by doing it often. Few people have the ready access to dive often to significantly reduce their per dive cost.

I’m lucky having two local dive shops. Without local dive shops this sport would not have the widespread popularity it does today.
 
It takes finding a buddy, scheduling, packing, hauling gear, unloading, gearing up, getting in the water, fighting for good trim & comfort under the water, getting out, loading up to leave, unloading gear, washing off & drying gear, gear maintenance and getting air fills.
You list 14 problems. Most vanish if you travel with a compatible group, especially on a liveaboard.
The point is, diving CAN be hard, but it does not HAVE to be.
 
And to add one more point,
Scuba diving has never been popular and never will be. It’s a very small niche sport and will remain somewhat exclusive.
They’ve tried many times in the past to artificially popularize it and it always returns back to it’s natural state of a small group of dedicated followers.

The OP's question assumes that there is a great deal of untapped popularity for scuba. Im sure there is some people held back by cost, lack of exposure, geography, etc.

When I talk to folks about scuba diving, I get a few folks who seem really interested and excited, I get a few folks who think its crazy or stupid to scuba. The vast majority of folks either show a polite level of interest, or no interest at all.

If someone talked to me about golf, or rock climbing, I'd show some polite interest, even some genuine interest in learning new information. But I dont golf, and cant see myself ever get into rock climbing.

There's lots of fun stuff to do out there - hiking, golfing, yoga, volleyball etc etc. Not everyone will be into scuba diving.
 
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