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

[Rose Robinson]

I have no clue what you're getting at. Besides missing the point completely with the infinite tank and suggesting I'd look for another hobby, it's honestly quite pretentious to decide that people claiming it was a factor that made them decide to not keep diving, was just a lame excuse.

Fact remains, diving is a maintenance heavy hobby, sure there are hobbies that might ask more maintenance, there are plenty more that don't .

Anything worth wile involves work indeed, but driving 10 minutes to work is just objectively more interesting to the majority of people, than having to drive 1 hour and a half to work. If you could have exactly the same satisfacting from your job 10 min away as you could from the one 1h30 away, you would mostly or always choose the 10 min from home job no? The majority of people would anyway.

Joris,

I've never wanted to be part of the majority, and doing what I do, as much as I love my profession, quiet, me time is every bit as important.

I have , what I refer to as ''stay over suites'', at both of my operations, saves me a ton on hotel costs, but there's nothing like the ferry ride home, porpoises, whales, beautiful scenery, vodka tonic/Hoagie, no place I'd rather be.

We're all different!

Rose.

 

[divinh]

I went to school at UCSD from 1972-6, my best years for diving.

Oh wow, go Tritons!

 

[divinh]

Prior to OW, I did not enjoy the water. My mom had signed us kids to swimming class when we were in elementary school. This involved waking up early and being taught in a cold pool, which was supposed to be "warm". The chlorine eye irritation didn't help either.

Once in high school, my PE classes had swimming in the morning, which once again, involved cold water and chlorine, but added swimming laps and playing water polo. Getting pushed underwater was not a joy.

Many, many years later, I was traveling to Thailand and asked a co-worker for locations to visit. He suggested Koh Tao and said "everyone dives there". So, with about two weeks for Thailand, I went to Koh Tao and set on getting certified. The OW course was calm, except for the day we did pool in the morning, then ocean in after lunch (just felt rushed). Tropical ocean water felt like bath water and didn't sting at all. Although I was nervous, the sensation of weightless really drew me. I booked two more days of fun dives. I've planned my trips around diving since...

So for me, the initial aversion was lack of enjoyment in previous water activities.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Yeah, a better term might be "travel divers." Since it is the travel that is the point, not the vacation.

It's the diving that's the point. And I'm willing to travel to do it. Not in a car though to get to the freezing mountain lakes that I trained in and initially dove without hesitation.

Then, I began traveling to dive and that's when I became fanatical.

There were 4 young people, about 20 years of age in my home 2 weeks ago, as helpers getting me moved out of the home that I'd sold. 2 females and 2 males (one my niece). All the other helpers were older, golfers. Ha

The young people ski/snowboard, hike, camp, etc.and they're generally a pretty privileged gang. Of course, they're also all employed and enrolled in university.

They all saw my gear but only one of the guys got excited, really excited. I have no doubt that he will become a scuba diver and perhaps sooner than he would have had he not seen all my gear.

Meanwhile, I'm in my new temporary digs before my planned move to SE Asia for the winter (who knows in this Time of Covid) and during the discussion with my landlord's, delightful young couple, mid to late 30s with 16 month old baby boy.

They dive! He more than she but it's something that they both want to do more of but ya, did I mention the baby?

And they're moving to the west coast. I have no doubt that this is going to be a diving family!

There may be more going on than any of us are really aware.

 

[DBPacific]

And they're moving to the west coast. I have no doubt that this is going to be a diving family!

There may be more going on than any of us are really aware.

I think this is a really good point to bring up, especially as these "why aren't there more divers" threads keep popping up.

Every sport/hobby/group has a loud crowd that talks a lot about it and is very invested in what they do and how they do it. There's also always the quiet crowd, people who don't make as much noise and who often are separate from the loud crowd for various reasons, but still participate in their own ways. I'd definitely throw SBers into the loud crowd of divers. As others have pointed out too, even if perception of the numbers of divers is declining in the US and other regions, there are also increases in amount of divers in Asia.

Do people want more divers overall? Do they want divers in the loud crowd? Or are these threads coming from divers who want more divers like themselves to be active and available?

 

[scubadada]

..Once in high school, my PE classes had swimming in the morning, which once again, involved cold water and chlorine, but added swimming laps and playing water polo. Getting pushed underwater was not a joy...

I learned to swim in one of the baby classes in Southern California. I was a competitive swimmer from the age of 4. My favorite sport ever, was water polo. Now, my favorite activity is scuba diving

 

[Seville]

Do you have another activity in mind which is equipment heavy, expensive, involve some risk and yet more popular than scuba?

Yup! I fly paramotors! Scuba is cheap compared to a 9k machine and 3k wing! Dont get me wrong, i love it! I have 3 motors and 5 wings lol!

 

[chillyinCanada]

I think this is a really good point to bring up, especially as these "why aren't there more divers" threads keep popping up.

Every sport/hobby/group has a loud crowd that talks a lot about it and is very invested in what they do and how they do it. There's also always the quiet crowd, people who don't make as much noise and who often are separate from the loud crowd for various reasons, but still participate in their own ways. I'd definitely throw SBers into the loud crowd of divers. As others have pointed out too, even if perception of the numbers of divers is declining in the US and other regions, there are also increases in amount of divers in Asia.

Do people want more divers overall? Do they want divers in the loud crowd? Or are these threads coming from divers who want more divers like themselves to be active and available?

We may also note that with more people divingvduringvtye pandemic period, casual divers may have become more addicted.

This could be interesting, if only there was a real way to collect stats.

 

[DBPacific]

We may also note that with more people divingvduringvtye pandemic period, casual divers may have become more addicted.

This could be interesting, if only there was a real way to collect stats.

Anecdotally I have seen more threads from SBers about finally going out to try diving locally as opposed to old habits of waiting for a dive trip. I wonder how that balances out with landlocked divers/those of us who couldn't access dive sites because of travel restrictions and local ordinances

 

[jonhall]

We may also note that with more people divingvduringvtye pandemic period, casual divers may have become more addicted.

Without going back and rereading one of the articles posted earlier, so only based on my suspect memory, I'm pretty sure that I read the "stat" (lol) that core divers actually did more diving during the pandemic than casual divers. But if the definition of a casual diver is 1-7 dives a year, and if during the pandemic they got an 8th dive in, wouldn't they now be padding the core diver numbers??!!