Are we really the minority??

[fisherdvm]

I find the marketing hype is what create this holiday diver mentality. The "safer than bowling" mentality which you still hear dive instructor boasting on this site .... I've tried very hard to dissuade my nephew from continuing diving, but it didn't work. He's an accident waiting to happen. I've never got hurt bowling, but sure have had enough scratches, falls, and minor injuries from the divings I've done.

 

[vshearer]

I'm stuck about as dry as can be right now sitting in Baghdad. There's a big man-made lake around Saddam's palace here. I told a guy the other day, 'ya know...if they sunk a bunch of tanks and anti-aircraft pieces in there and let me dive in it even once a week...I wouldn't mind being here.'

If you could swing a way to get some diving in Kuwait on your way out that would be a lifetime memory. Thanks for being there too, sometimes it seems like we forget over here, but we do really have a lot to be grateful for in our servicemen. (and women)

 

[drbill]

Z... you definitely are a spoiled diver. I'd love to be living in Australia. But then, you have other warm reasons to dive warm water, at least in the Philippines!

 

[ev780]

Life moves in cycles.

It may seem surprising to a younger diver who is relatively new to diving, but over a 30 year period you will likely find yourself moving away from, then closer to, diving regularly many times as different things change in your life.

If you're really into diving then the feeling never really leaves you entirely - but as all these others have already noted, life certainly has a way of interfering with your continuous pursuit of additional dives!

Perhaps the best way to look at it is as an evolutionary process from season to season. You'll get more from some than others, but if it sticks with you through the years you will always have something to come back to in your life that promises to fascinate you - and this can be particularly therapeutic when your life turns completely upside down.

(don't think it won't happen to you... Very few of us make it through 30 or 40 years without a few scars! )

Dive safe,

Doc

Well stated!!!

I got certified to have a common interest with an old girlfriend. Promptly got dumped and didn't go near the ocean for five years. Caught the bug again and have been going strong ever since.

 

[El Orans]

That looks awesome for training or for a quick fix . . . are those prices per 45 minute session?

It's actually a 55 minute session. The first 10 minutes are spent snorkelling/freediving.

Have you seen this thread?
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/western-europe/56498-you-want-go-deep-very-deep-indoor-nemo33.html

There is also the "spoiled diver"...

People like me who, once having dived the tropics with 80 degree plus water, 60 or more feet of vis and vibrant colours and amazing creatures, just can't be bothered diving in a freezing quarry - or even the semi reasonable dive site of Sydney for that matter - anymore, because it just doesn't compare.

I'm married to one...

 

[jupitermermaid]

I'm married to one...

A spoiled diver or a freezing quarry? Sorry, I couldn't resist!

 

[nereas]

Z... you definitely are a spoiled diver. I'd love to be living in Australia. But then, you have other warm reasons to dive warm water, at least in the Philippines!

Who is talking about spoiled divers? Santa Catalina??

 

[Blackwood]

Damn, I made up my annual quota in a day sometimes!

Aye


And now allow myself to correct... myself. It wasn't an article about dive computers (that was the next article), and they didn't use the word "avid."

An estimated 1.2 million Americans are active recreational divers, "active" being arbitrarily defined as making five or more dives per year³.

Endnote 3 pointed to an Undercurrent piece from 2007 by B. Davison entitled How Many Divers are There, available here.

So I'll repeat my answer to DivingPrincessE: Yes. Those of use who make 200+, 100... even 50 dives a year are in the minority.

 

[tedwhiteva]

I think a lot of people get OW at a resort or on a cruise, and then only dive on vacation. Some of those people are also repetitive Discover SCUBA people at a resort. I know people that are the same way, and I think that we have just been bitten by the bug. That is why Lake Millbrook is the haven that it is, with it's 8ft of vis and sub 50 temps!

I think we are the minority, but hey, to each their own. If they are happy logging 3-4 dives a year, good for them. I am not happy without 3-4 on a weekend anymore!

By the way, I love your Boondock Saints tag! Not many people I know have seen that movie! I love that movie...

Speaking of Millbrook, don't forget the chilly willy dive on Jan 26 - no thermocline

 

[DeputyDan]

Sorry, if this is a bit windy but I've read the thread with interest and apparently I'm one of those pesky majority divers.

When I was a kid, I lived for the Jacques Cousteau specials on TV. For a kid 1700 Km from the nearest ocean, I had a steady inventory of cheap masks, snorkels, and fins over the years. Every summer I'd chase pike in the shallows of our local lakes and recover fish hooks from the rocky bottoms. But kids grow up and it's a big world with lots of cool stuff. Being 200 Km away from the LDS and being a teenager with no car might sway you into looking for other things to do, especially since the snow and ice part of our winter seems to last for half the year.

So then you grow up, get an edumacation, and move to the big city. Now the LDS is only a few Km away but you've already got these other things to do and a bunch of other people to do them with. Maybe, just maybe you get married, have a family, buy a vehicle, buy a house, or may all of the preceding. The ocean didn't move, it's still 1700 Km away.

Then, as if someone was paying attention when you were a kid, an opportunity comes along when you're approaching "middle age" and you end up certified. You're still married, you still have a family and they want to get edumacated. You're still paying for vehicles and a mortgage. You're pretty happy about the whole thing too, you just need to put your newfound interest in perspective with the rest of your life. So you dive when you can. You get a chance to go on a trip to the ocean and you want to dive. You check your logbook and realize that it's been a while, too long, since you blew bubbles. So you head to the pool, you spend a few nights working on buoyancy control. You head to the lake for checkout dives with the LDS. You buy a little more gear to add to the pile. You look forward to the trip and you promise yourself that this will be the year to dive more prairie puddles to keep the skills up. And that's what you hope for because it's supposed to be fun.

I envy those of you that live near the oceans but that's not where the truly important things in my life want or need to be right now. I think I understand those of you who live a "diving lifestyle" to the exclusion of other pursuits but I've always been a life, not lifestyle kind of guy.

BTW, I promise to go to the pool at least twice more before the cruise so I'm not that guy silting up your bottom . And I promise to hang around here for inspiration to get out and dive more.

My life except the cruise part - My wife is OK with dive trips "like a liveaboard" even though she is a non-diver!