Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
We have another club in our area that has been around for a fairly long time - from about 1987 I believe.
I used to belong to them, and also another one before that that completely disbanded years ago. The reasons I saw why they get lose members is one, because divers get old and quit and not many young people coming in to replace them, plus they tend to get very EXclusive with their core group and seem to only like new members for their annual dues so they can plan and do their own campouts, etc. Also, if there are young people getting into diving they club may be off their social radar being most dive clubs are comprised of old farts.
And then there's the monthly beer and pizza gathering to talk about diving, but then nobody ever goes diving as a club event, the core group ditches everyone and goes somewhere unannounced.
Then at the campouts where everyone seems to finally gather as a club to go diving for a few days up on the coast, the core group (with the boats) will decide to get up at the crack of dawn and make a run out to go salmon fishing, or better yet go 50 miles out to try for albacore.., and they are gone all day. People show up with the idea that they might get a ride on someone's boat to get to the good spots and it never happens. So as a result they wander off and feel used for dues.
Then like in my case when I started North Coast Divers, it went really well for several years. We had some great dives on our monthly planned dives. It was a challenge to hold it together. At various points I felt like it had been hijacked by some very overzealous types and I felt it was getting away from my original mission. But I just went with it to see where the natural progression took it. At one point we were the biggest club up here with sometimes in excess of 30 people showing up for Saturday dives, and for the annual big campout shindig we would get 50 -60 people show up.
But like I said, internet based can not always be so good. That's putting out to lot of people and I had some pretty strange stuff go on during the 6 or 7 year run I had the club. The problem is with the internet anybody can pretend to be anybody they want and talk a big game. When you meet someone in person you see it all within a few minutes with body language, etc. The internet doesn't give you that.
I can say one thing about clubs though. If it wasn't for various clubs I wouldn't be diving with a few really good guys I mostly dive with now. One of my best life long friends that came to one of my club parties in 2004 lives in L.A. and I have been in touch with him for years. We meet up for diving a few times a year or try to at least. And two other guys up here that were club members are my regular dive buddies. But it just so happened that we were all compatible and hit it off. And there are many others too that continue to be good friends long after I left the clubs.
In this area it seems that freediving/hunting clubs really are huge. Whenever you get a group of guys and gals that all have a similar interest, that tends to be the glue that holds the club together. In their case it's all about killing fish.
With scuba clubs there always seems to be a few polar opposite forces involved within the club like: Some like to hunt, some hate hunters, some are photogs and are worthless as buddies, some have boats, some don't, not everyone want's to beach dive, some people only want to beach dive, some are into tech, others are not into tech, some are control freaks and want to run everything - and some don't like to be told what to do or to be told that whatever they are doing is wrong...so how do you organize all this? it's like herding cats.
So then what happens is certain divers in the club will begin to hang out with like minded divers and before you know it you have the formation of a clique.
Then they end up diving together as buddies on their own and the club just lost two or more members. Why would they pay $50 -$60 a year to go once a month to Round Table to drink beer and eat pizza? (which they have to pay for anyway), they're not going to dive with any of those people again.
So this is what I see, at least around here.
I used to belong to them, and also another one before that that completely disbanded years ago. The reasons I saw why they get lose members is one, because divers get old and quit and not many young people coming in to replace them, plus they tend to get very EXclusive with their core group and seem to only like new members for their annual dues so they can plan and do their own campouts, etc. Also, if there are young people getting into diving they club may be off their social radar being most dive clubs are comprised of old farts.
And then there's the monthly beer and pizza gathering to talk about diving, but then nobody ever goes diving as a club event, the core group ditches everyone and goes somewhere unannounced.
Then at the campouts where everyone seems to finally gather as a club to go diving for a few days up on the coast, the core group (with the boats) will decide to get up at the crack of dawn and make a run out to go salmon fishing, or better yet go 50 miles out to try for albacore.., and they are gone all day. People show up with the idea that they might get a ride on someone's boat to get to the good spots and it never happens. So as a result they wander off and feel used for dues.
Then like in my case when I started North Coast Divers, it went really well for several years. We had some great dives on our monthly planned dives. It was a challenge to hold it together. At various points I felt like it had been hijacked by some very overzealous types and I felt it was getting away from my original mission. But I just went with it to see where the natural progression took it. At one point we were the biggest club up here with sometimes in excess of 30 people showing up for Saturday dives, and for the annual big campout shindig we would get 50 -60 people show up.
But like I said, internet based can not always be so good. That's putting out to lot of people and I had some pretty strange stuff go on during the 6 or 7 year run I had the club. The problem is with the internet anybody can pretend to be anybody they want and talk a big game. When you meet someone in person you see it all within a few minutes with body language, etc. The internet doesn't give you that.
I can say one thing about clubs though. If it wasn't for various clubs I wouldn't be diving with a few really good guys I mostly dive with now. One of my best life long friends that came to one of my club parties in 2004 lives in L.A. and I have been in touch with him for years. We meet up for diving a few times a year or try to at least. And two other guys up here that were club members are my regular dive buddies. But it just so happened that we were all compatible and hit it off. And there are many others too that continue to be good friends long after I left the clubs.
In this area it seems that freediving/hunting clubs really are huge. Whenever you get a group of guys and gals that all have a similar interest, that tends to be the glue that holds the club together. In their case it's all about killing fish.
With scuba clubs there always seems to be a few polar opposite forces involved within the club like: Some like to hunt, some hate hunters, some are photogs and are worthless as buddies, some have boats, some don't, not everyone want's to beach dive, some people only want to beach dive, some are into tech, others are not into tech, some are control freaks and want to run everything - and some don't like to be told what to do or to be told that whatever they are doing is wrong...so how do you organize all this? it's like herding cats.
So then what happens is certain divers in the club will begin to hang out with like minded divers and before you know it you have the formation of a clique.
Then they end up diving together as buddies on their own and the club just lost two or more members. Why would they pay $50 -$60 a year to go once a month to Round Table to drink beer and eat pizza? (which they have to pay for anyway), they're not going to dive with any of those people again.
So this is what I see, at least around here.
