Considering Hanging it up...but...what to do after scuba??

[Trace Malinowski]

Some respondents have mentioned doing things with kids or as a family. I know several divers who hung up the fins and became involved in activities the kids wanted to do. One of my friends quit tech diving and does mountain bike racing now because his son got him doing it. It could be the next thing you take up just happens because of the kids.

One of my doctors took scuba as a course in college and didn't do a whole lot of diving afterward. His son wanted to dive as a young teen, so my surgeon got back to diving because of his son. His kid became so passionate about diving, the kid took the SSI Dive Con course.

So it works both ways.

It might be time to just try a lot of adventures and "live like you were dying" as the country song goes until you find something else that makes you feel alive.

 

[boulderjohn]

Snow sports? Really? The seasons are getting shorter and more unreliable and the lift tickets are getting more expensive. Only a few are going backcountry and with even that small increase, it really isn’t so back.

Someone supposedly suggested to Yogi Berra that they go to a certain restaurant for dinner, but he said no. He explained, "Nobody goes there anymore--it's too crowded."

As nonsensical as that sounds, it actually describes the skiing situation in Colorado. I used to be an avid skier. I stopped in part because knee replacement would (in theory at least) keep me off the slopes I liked best, but I mostly quit because of the crowds on Interstate 70 going to and from the ski areas. Hours of stop and go traffic on an Interstate highway ruin the fun of skiing. That's also true of a lot of people I know. Still, the fact that the roads to and from the ski area are so overwhelmingly crowded suggests that the sport is even more popular than ever.

The Department of Transportation talks about changes that will alleviate the pressure of the current volume of ski traffic, not considering that there are many thousands of people who would add to that volume if they were to alleviate it.

 

[Nemrod]

I take the option away from them when it comes to those things. "Were going and doing this" is generally not up for discussion. They can participate or not, but they will be there. If they feel that an attitude is warranted then they can be there and stair at the clouds because I've taken and locked their phones lol.

This was especially true in our trip to Hawaii earlier this year. Hiking, snorkeling, seeing the volcano erupt at night, ATV tour on South Point. Most things they had zero interest in but ended up smiling and laughing. Family memories will last until old age takes them from us. Who knows, they may even have a few selfies of it along the way.

And perhaps, those kids are going SCUBA diving even if they think otherwise then that is reason enough to continue diving.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Someone supposedly suggested to Yogi Berra that they go to a certain restaurant for dinner, but he said no. He explained, "Nobody goes there anymore--it's too crowded."

As nonsensical as that sounds, it actually describes the skiing situation in Colorado. I used to be an avid skier. I stopped in part because knee replacement would (in theory at least) keep me off the slopes I liked best, but I mostly quit because of the crowds on Interstate 70 going to and from the ski areas. Hours of stop and go traffic on an Interstate highway ruin the fun of skiing. That's also true of a lot of people I know. Still, the fact that the roads to and from the ski area are so overwhelmingly crowded suggests that the sport is even more popular than ever.

The Department of Transportation talks about changes that will alleviate the pressure of the current volume of ski traffic, not considering that there are many thousands of people who would add to that volume if they were to alleviate it.

Ha! Try going up to Tahoe in the winter on either 80 or 50 from the Bay Area,
You got nothing!

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Snow sports? Really? The seasons are getting shorter and more unreliable and the lift tickets are getting more expensive. Only a few are going backcountry and with even that small increase, it really isn’t so back.

I was hired to be a snowmaker for Vail Resorts this winter. I'm coming on board at a time when the pay and the perks reflect how essential the job is and will be. I was planning to just earn some coin and relocate to build back my diving career, but Vail is now treating snowmakers like gold and a serious career in mountain ops is something my boss thinks I might want to consider.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I can’t see ever giving up diving.
I’ll be turning 60 at the end of the month and I’m just getting started. I’m visualizing slowing down my business, only taking on jobs that I want to, and slowly phasing out on an integrated retirement. I keep in shape the best I can so my body holds together to be able to do this for years to come. As I get more time I plan to do way more diving, and a lot of it during the week with another buddy who is ten years ahead of me and still in great shape. I also have plan to finally get to some warm water locations to see what all the rage is about. So far I’ve only been to Aus. GBR and Hawaii a couple times and to be honest I like it here better. I’m an avid hunter and seafood is one of things that keeps me diving. So I’ll wait and see on the travel part.
I’m planning on taking a part time job at my LDS as a service tech. This will help keep me involved in the dive scene through the store.
‘If’ one day I decide I’m too old and decrepit to go diving then I will get out my oil paints and my outdoor easel and go plein air painting, but it will be out at the ocean doing seascapes.

I used to play golf and I used to ride a road bike (bicycle not motorcycle), and got bored with golf and decided riding a bicycle out in the backroads was too dangerous. So I took up rock fishing from shore, which lead to freediving for abalone, which eventually lead to scuba diving.
I grew up around the ocean and always being close to, on, or in the Pacific so it’s in my blood.

 

[DavidFL]

I was coerced into taking a SCUBA certification course in 1967 when I was a plebe at the Naval Academy and the upperclassman that I "served" at the time used me as a sherpa for his gear; got certified; became an instructor; dived and taught from ships in SE Asia for about 6 years; stopped more or less when I started my family; started up again when my son turned 13; stopped more or less when my son went away to college; restarted again in about 2005 when a colleague at work was looking for a dive buddy. I have been diving again pretty regularly since then. Broke a hip mountain biking; finally had to give up alpine snow sports after a later hip replacement but love cross country skiing.

You can put it away and pick it back up again. As your family changes, your income (and expenses) change, your mental health changes, diving may pop up regularly as something you want to do again...or not. Turns out human beings are amazingly adaptable and neuroplasticity is a thing.

I read or heard somewhere a long time ago "it's hard to be depressed while riding a bicycle", and I have found that to be true. Cycling has been a constant for me since my first ten speed in the early 1970s, and I'm still averaging around 1500 miles a year. I have passed on all the super expensive bicycles since the competition is within myself. I can and do routinely ride the same safe routes but have learned to see how they change every day, and when I get bored with that, I can keep trying to optimize cadence, power, gears, heart rate.

Ironically, I still have a double hose and single hose regulator from the 1970s that are up and running again. Oh, and I had to figure out what comes after flying single-seat jets off of aircraft carriers for ten years.

I live in Florida, but I'm a native of the Pacific Northwest, and while I like the simplicity of warm-water diving I have a dry suit and keep trying to get a chance to dive God's Pocket in BC. I'm 74 now, and doing what I can to be able to dive for at least another ten years or so.

 

[boulderjohn]

Ha! Try going up to Tahoe in the winter on either 80 or 50 from the Bay Area,
You got nothing!

...which further supports my claim that winter sports are growing.

 

[boulderjohn]

I was hired to be a snowmaker for Vail Resorts this winter. I'm coming on board at a time when the pay and the perks reflect how essential the job is and will be. I was planning to just earn some coin and relocate to build back my diving career, but Vail is now treating snowmakers like gold and a serious career in mountain ops is something my boss thinks I might want to consider.

Check out the housing situation.

The housing problems for employees at Vail are all over the news here. There are lawsuits being filed about attempts to build affordable employee housing in places where the land could instead go to luxury homes. (They are pretending it is all about bighorn sheep habitat.)

An item on the news last night was about the Department of Transportation trying to build affordable housing for mountain area employees.

BTW, being a ski area employee is indeed a year-round job. You have to do different things in the warm months, but there is always something going on that requires employees.

 

[Nemrod]

The solution to employees is pay. I think if housing prices are unaffordable then the employees need to be paid relevant to the local cost of living. Oh, that will raise lodging and lift and meals and other prices, well, so be it, balance will be found. All the help wanted signs everywhere would go away if places paid a living wage. How much should a bell hop be paid, I am not sure, I guess enough to buy or rent a decent place to live and have transportation to and from work and save a little for the inevitable old age. How much should the tourists and seasonals have to pay to visit, enough to support the infrastructure which includes employees.

I think winter sports are more popular than strapping on an ugly mask and stuffing a regulator in one's mouth. I mean, for the selfie generation, what is prettier for a photo op, sleek, sporty and cool looking snow gear or ugly rubber junks strapped all over.