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

[Chavodel8en]

for all my friends and girlfriend who started diving, but didn't keep diving, the answer was very simple.

Scuba diving is a Hassle.

It's as simple as that. We like to pretend it's not the case, but it's a hobby that involves tons of prep/maintenance and hauling around of stuff before you can do the actual diving.

I agree. My other hobby is playing hoops. Prep for hoops is buying sneakers and going out to a local park and playing. Years ago, the first time I touched a basketball, within minutes I was a full (if still not very good) participant in a basketball game. Scored my first hoop and thought I was Sleepy Floyd (dating myself here).

There are alot more amateur basketball players than scuba divers.

To dive I have to have been certified, bought all my gear, rent tanks (or air), arrange a buddy, drive 2 hours to Monterey/Carmel (or fly to tropical area). It takes all day just to complete 2 dives.

Its absolutely a hassle for most everyone, I dont understand folks who contest this. Some days, when the diving isnt very good, I question why I even did it.

How many folks do a Discover Scuba, but do not keep diving? They happened to be near a premium dive area - that's half the "hassle" gone. Discover Scuba is specifically designed to lessen the rest of the hassle. A short training, rental gear facilitated, and you are diving with the pretty fishes.

But for folks to continue diving? Especially when you live landlocked? Nah, too much hassle, unless you really love scuba.

I count myself lucky that I lived 2 hours from good ocean diving. If I added even 1 hour further away - say Sacramento, I dont know if I would have gotten into diving when I did. 6 hours driving round trip just to get in some dives?? Thats alot of hassle.

 

[tursiops]

People have always lived close to the water, and far away from the water. That hasn't really changed.
The issue is (1) has popularity waned, and (2) if so, why?
I'm not sure it has waned, but if so there are likely a couple of really GOOD reasons:
(1) the demographic entering the possible-scuba diver arena has very different interests that they used to (already mentioned above), and
(2) there are many more possible diversions today available to people. Kind of like there used to be only 2-3 TV channels....now there are hundreds.

You defeat (2) by working hard to make the sport accessible and affordable. PADI has actually tried very hard to do this. You do NOT have to buy equipment!
You can't defeat (1), but you might be able to roll with it. Look at the number of social-media diving apps now....the game has evolved from diving to sharing diving.

Old-line LDSs that sit around whining need to go away. Time is taking care of that nicely.

 

[UODuckman2002]

Expense, whether perceived or actual, is what kept me from starting until just now. I waited almost 30 years to learn because I was afraid of the cost. While it's still expensive, it's not as bad as I perceived it to be. It helps, though, that my income allows me the ability to buy a "super watch" for ~$300 and up that I'll wear only a few times per year.

 

[Cert1967]

@Darcy Kieran wrote a nice article in April of this year about SCUBA industry metrics. His reasoning and conclusions seem credible.

On SB there are lots of mfgs marketing products - few touting their numbers. Many LDS are little more than hobby businesses, likely unable to pay their owners a reasonable return on their investment/risk.

The most reliable statistics would seem to be those of publicly traded JOUT - diving is busted out by sales and profitability - a reliable metric from a leading industry vendor.

Scuba Diving Participation Rate & Statistics 2021

Unfortunately, when you try to analyze the dive industry, the first thing you notice is a severe lack of dive industry market data — and low reliability on the statistics you actually find. Let’s imagine that running a business is like sailing. It’s hard to bring the yacht to port in a storm, while being blindfolded, with no GPS. You get the picture. And that is precisely what it is like to manage a business with no data.​

The SCUBA industry? Highly fragment user base, charactarized by many non-public reporting companies, served by self-promoting certification groups. Reliable data? Maybe not so good.

ScubaPro as a proxy? I don't know of a better indicator of industry health - do you? JOUT's SEC filings can be found at

https://www.johnsonoutdoors.com/sec​

JOUT is a publicly traded company and their results are audited and certified by their management. If JOUT had private equity ownership - the dive segment would be sold by lunch-time. Don't think so? Sum up the total profits from 2014-2020 - brutal. They might keep the watercraft and camping segment as a compliment to the money making, high growth, fishing segment - maybe not.

If a proxy for the industry - 2020 Sales down 20%, Profit off by $5m.

Own a LDS? Perhaps you would like to share your numbers?

 

[TMHeimer]

People have always lived close to the water, and far away from the water. That hasn't really changed.
The issue is (1) has popularity waned, and (2) if so, why?
I'm not sure it has waned, but if so there are likely a couple of really GOOD reasons:
(1) the demographic entering the possible-scuba diver arena has very different interests that they used to (already mentioned above), and
(2) there are many more possible diversions today available to people. Kind of like there used to be only 2-3 TV channels....now there are hundreds.

You defeat (2) by working hard to make the sport accessible and affordable. PADI has actually tried very hard to do this. You do NOT have to buy equipment!
You can't defeat (1), but you might be able to roll with it. Look at the number of social-media diving apps now....the game has evolved from diving to sharing diving.

Old-line LDSs that sit around whining need to go away. Time is taking care of that nicely.

Both you and Cert1967 make good points.
Too many ways of looking at this. In my short 4 summers as a DM I witnessed a majority of OW students being young (18-30?) with the odd older one.
I also figure there are quite a few other activities that require "work", planning, etc. Cert1967's "Let's Go Skiing" may be one of them.
I too played an awful lot of hoops in my youth. Didn't scuba dive until we moved to the ocean in 2005.
About your no.2-- People have been saying that for decades now. There were way more than 2-3 channels by 1990 or earlier (and more than 2-3 in NYC before cable). And video games 30 years ago.
I remain amazed that school Band programs continue on their merry way long after I retired from teaching. No technology involved there (well there is, as I find it curious on the Band Director forums that people have apps for teaching that a quarter note gets one beat). But, I doubt school Band is any MORE popular than when I was in it as a student 50 years ago, nor do I think it will ever be.
You also ask "IF the popularity has waned. I agree, that's a big IF-- depends where you are.

 

[MrVegas]

@Darcy Kieran
The most reliable statistics would seem to be those of publicly traded JOUT - diving is busted out by sales and profitability - a reliable metric from a leading industry vendor.

Really interesting numbers -- thanks for finding that. Obviously, diving generates a relatively small amount of revenue compared to a lot of other activities.

On the other hand, I would certainly say that diving is popular. Millions of people dive every year. You could pick any number of Olympic sports that have lower participation rates, but about which people are still enthusiastic and for which companies still make equipment. (How many lugers or modern pentathletes do you know? Fencing is a complicated sport with expensive, finicky gear, but still has many thousands of dedicated participants.)

Diving was certainly popular at a local quarry last weekend. We were lucky someone was packing up when we arrived -- we would not even have gotten a picnic table to set up on.

The "James Bond" appeal of diving has certainly waned, I suppose. If you watch some early Cousteau TV shows, some of those "exotic" locations are regular diving spots for tourists now.

 

[Subcooled]

1. very few find constricted breathing (that thing in your mouth) pleasant and breathing under water can be scary.
2. those who can deal with a breathing apparatus may not like the cost involved (not just gear but travel and certifications too!)
3. water is cold

 

[Subcooled]

Money. Bottom line. It ain't a poor man's sport.

It can be.

Once you have the gear, which will indeed cost a bit (but you only pay once), diving is free.
There is no need to pay for liveaboards when you can jump into the local river or lake.

Oh, you will need a compressor of course, but that's why dive clubs and associations are founded. I am talking about real associations, not the "dive clubs" run by commercial companies.

 

[boulderjohn]

water is cold

In the mid-1960s, the Los Angeles county dive instructional program noted that many divers were getting OW certified and then quitting diving altogether not long after that. They created the AOW program with a variety of dive experiences in the hope that they would find an aspect of diving that would keep them going.

My opinion is that the people in the Los Angeles/San Diego area donned the wetsuits that existed at that time, got into the water, and said, "Damn! It's too cold!" I suspect that was the primary factor in the high diver dropout rate.

 

[scubadada]

In the mid-1960s, the Los Angeles county dive instructional program noted that many divers were getting OW certified and then quitting diving altogether not long after that. They created the AOW program with a variety of dive experiences in the hope that they would find an aspect of diving that would keep them going.

My opinion is that the people in the Los Angeles/San Diego area donned the wetsuits that existed at that time, got into the water, and said, "Damn! It's too cold!" I suspect that was the primary factor in the high diver dropout rate.

I was certified by LA County in 1970. I had a custom 1/4 inch Bayley wetsuit. I dived actively in LA, Orange, and San Diego Counties from 1970-1980, when I moved out of California. I went to school at UCSD from 1972-6, my best years for diving.