Dive/snorkel Experience Research

[stiebs]

1. Both
2. Friend dragged me a long to the high school dive club. He lasted 2 weeks, I'm still going.
3. I love the water
4. Watching a whale shark swim past me only metres away
5. "You should give it a shot". If they need more convincing, they shouldn't be pushed into it.
6. It really irks me when I see people littering the streets, because we all know where it ultimately ends up
7. 20-30
8. On and off for 18 years
9. Male
10. 30
11. Scubaboard
12. If I haven't been diving for more than 6 or so months, I don't really miss it that much. But once I'm back in the water, I get the urge to go just about every week.

 

[stiebs]

Maybe I missed the point, but I think they want us to send the answers to them as they described. Placing your responses here might be interesting for everyone else, but they need them sent to their address.

Nothing wrong with also posting them in the forum though..

 

[Diveral]

1. Do you mainly snorkel, dive, or both?
I do both. I love to snorkel shallow reefs and dive deeper reefs and wrecks. I often will swim with a snorkel during my surface interval.

2. What drew you to snorkeling or diving initially?
Jaques Cousteau

3. What caused you to continue?
I've never lost the passion or the wonder of what's around the next bend. I am still amazed at the life and sights underwater. I have never failed to see something new or to learn or re-learn something on my dives. This year I am diving several places that I last dove 17-18 years ago. I am looking forward to seeing what has changed, what is the same, and what i missed last time.

4. Please describe one or more of your most memorable experiences while diving or snorkeling.
Snorkeling around the USS Massachuesetts. It is a Spanish War era battleship, an awesome dive. Saw my first shark there. Live aboard trip through the Bahamas awesome reef diving and snorkeling. My dive on the U-85, a piece of history. My grandfather and serveral of my great uncles had to make perilous trips against boats such as this. The Orcas that swam over me in Puget Sound. The first time I saw the Giant Pacific octopus. When the Ghost fleet in Lake Champlain emerges from the depths.

5. If you were trying to persuade someone to take up diving or snorkeling, what would you say?
Show them a video.

6. Do you see in yourself any link between your snorkeling and diving experiences and environmental concern? If so, please describe.
I see some pollutants and trash during many of my dives. Of course trash that was dumped 100-150 years ago we now call artifacts. I try and enourage others to be aware and careful when diving reefs.


7. Approximately how many days do you dive or snorkel each year?
20-40

8. How many years have you been diving or snorkeling?
30

9. Are you male or female?
Male

10. What is your age?
41

11. Where (in what outlet) did you find this survey?
Scubaboard

12. If there is anything else you would like to tell us, this would be the place.



Please feel free to forward this questionnaire to anyone you know who is interested in snorkeling or diving. Also, if you know of other listservs or clubs that might be interested, please let us know.

Thank you very much for your help with this exploratory study. You may send your responses to jvining@uiuc.edu by email or by mail to the address listed above. If you would like to see a summary of the results, please provide your email address below. As we noted above, any identifying information will be removed from your response.

A

 

[DallasNewbie]

You may refuse to answer any of the questions without penalty or simply stop at any time and choose not to submit your survey responses.

Well thanks for that...I thought I might be getting into some sort of trouble by ignoring your post and muttering to myself ...'Well, that's another one of those market research posts masquerading as a genuine benign interest in what a cross section of scuba divers like doing with their time/money'

That's most likely a standard disclaimer they are required by their schools' ethics committees to give to any human research subjects. That also applies to the part about how long it will take, and what the risks are.

 

[jvining]

I understand your skepticism, especially given the number of faux surveys out there, but this is legitimate psychological research. It is not marketing research, nor will the results be used for marketing of any kind. It is funded only by our interests, thus we are conducting it through websites, message boards, and listservs. If any of you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at jvining@uiuc.edu, or the Institutional Review Board at the University of Illinois, Urbana (they are responsible for reviewing research involving human subjects and have approved our study). We anticipate publishing the results in scholarly publications and will post a brief report on the Scubaboard when we complete our analyses.

You may refuse to answer any of the questions without penalty or simply stop at any time and choose not to submit your survey responses.QUOTE]

Well thanks for that...I thought I might be getting into some sort of trouble by ignoring your post and muttering to myself ...'Well, that's another one of those market research posts masquerading as a genuine benign interest in what a cross section of scuba divers like doing with their time/money'

How much are you getting paid per thousand submissions guys?

Phil TK

 

[spectrum]

1. Do you mainly snorkel, dive, or both?
1/3 SKIN-DIVE, 2/3 SCUBA
Probably a slighly hight % scuba for 2006

2. What drew you to snorkeling or diving initially?
Enjoyed snorkeling as a kid, Cousteau, Seahunt all the usuals. Forgot what swimming was for 30 years. Got back into skindiving since time and $$ were not right for scuba. Got certified 6/05

3. What caused you to continue?
I love beng in/under the water regardless of what I see or find. Intense relaxation.

4. Please describe one or more of your most memorable experiences while diving or snorkeling.
Meeting up with POCO the whale was cool
http://home.gwi.net/~spectrum/poco.html

5. If you were trying to persuade someone to take up diving or snorkeling, what would you say?
Be weightless, 3 dimensional and relaxed while enjoying an adventure with nature.

6. Do you see in yourself any link between your snorkeling and diving experiences and environmental concern? If so, please describe.
I get a perspective of what is realy down there for rubbish and life that few see first hand. Some is better and some is worse than I excpected.

7. Approximately how many days do you dive or snorkel each year?
120

8. How many years have you been diving or snorkeling?
2 since returning ito it seriously. Skindiving with regularity since 1995

9. Are you male or female?
Male

10. What is your age?
49

11. Where (in what outlet) did you find this survey?
ScubaBoard

12. If there is anything else you would like to tell us, this would be the place.
I'm glad I dove in.

 

[AllenG]

1. Do you mainly snorkel, dive, or both?
Mainly dive, but do also snorkel

2. What drew you to snorkeling or diving initially?
Wanted to see marine life up close and personal.

3. What caused you to continue?
Got to see marine life up close and personal.

4. Please describe one or more of your most memorable experiences while diving or snorkeling.
Floating along side a wall in Roatan for about 30 minutes while a turtle was munching on some sponge and coral growth.

5. If you were trying to persuade someone to take up diving or snorkeling, what would you say?
Imagine floating in the most colorful space in the universe.

6. Do you see in yourself any link between your snorkeling and diving experiences and environmental concern? If so, please describe.
No, but I've been diving for 25 years, so I do regard myself as a reef-friendly diver.

7. Approximately how many days do you dive or snorkel each year?
10-15

8. How many years have you been diving or snorkeling?
25

9. Are you male or female?
Male

10. What is your age?
52

11. Where (in what outlet) did you find this survey?
Scubaboard

12. If there is anything else you would like to tell us, this would be the place.

 

[Thalassamania]

1. Do you mainly snorkel, dive, or both?
Both

2. What drew you to snorkeling or diving initially?

Back in the 1950s my father decided that we’d learn to dive to do some archeological exploration where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers come together.

3. What caused you to continue?

I enjoyed doing it, I was excited about what I saw, I loved the physical sensation of “flying” and I enjoyed that status that it gave me as a child (no other kids were doing this).

4. Please describe one or more of your most memorable experiences while diving or snorkeling.

I was diving with a hotel owner in Cayman back in the early 70s. We entered a hole in the reef at about 60m. The hole went back about 5m and then turned straight up to the top of the reef. As we started up I blew the best air ring I had ever blown and it moved up through the shaft, illuminated by my light. I kept it’s shape through the length of the shaft until it was lost from sight.

5. If you were trying to persuade someone to take up diving or snorkeling, what would you say?
I would not try, you do it or you don’t. There’s not need to proselytize.

6. Do you see in yourself any link between your snorkeling and diving experiences and environmental concern? If so, please describe.

I am quite concerned and commited to enviromental issues, but no diving is more a part of that than is breathing.

7. Approximately how many days do you dive or snorkel each year?

Several hundred.

8. How many years have you been diving or snorkeling?

50

9. Are you male or female?

Male

10. What is your age?

56

11. Where (in what outlet) did you find this survey?

scubaboard.com

12. If there is anything else you would like to tell us, this would be the place.

 

[knotical]

1. Mostly scuba now, but when young and poor it was mostly snorkeling.

2. Jacques Cousteau’s book Silent World, and the TV series Sea Hunt.
(i.e. adventure)

3. The serenity.

4. An early dive off La Digue Island in Seychelles, saw an agglomeration of several species of fish (all about a foot long). I swam gently into the middle and they closed ranks around me, never seeming stressed. They were so plentiful that I could barely see the reef. Sublime! I had never expected more than one species to “school” together, but some do.

5. It’s not for everyone, but if you are comfortable in the water and enjoy marine life or excitement, come by the shop and we’ll get you into a free Discover Scuba or Snorkeling Experience. It can be as adventurous or relaxing as you make it. Being able to see and move under water opens up a new world. Scuba and snorkeling are like a driver’s license, enabling you to travel to a variety of “destinations”, including marine life, underwater scenery, wrecks, etc.

6. I’ve seen the rape by both commercial fisheries and subsistence fishermen first hand. I’ve seen pollution and its impacts. Most of the polite “solutions” and “recommendations” put forth by pontiffs tend to ignore two key issues:
- Our huge and expanding population dooms us. Until we fix that, we are trying to extinguish a conflagration with a water pistol. Yes, I know this is not a popular position.
- Water pollution is insidious because it eventually mixes with waters worldwide.

7. 30 – 60.

8. 47

9. Male

10. 62

11. ScubaBoard

12. I look forward to your summary report.

 

[homo maris]

1. Do you mainly snorkel, dive, or both?
Both

2. What drew you to snorkeling or diving initially?
Food. I used to spearfish. I am French and grew up watching the undersea world with Jacques Cousteau

3. What caused you to continue?
Variety of marine biodiversity.

4. Please describe one or more of your most memorable experiences while diving or snorkeling.
Snorkling: Bringing in lobster for lunch on Sunday beach outings in Haiti. You have to snorkle for hours around the reef and spot the thin antennas perking out of the overhang. The attention to that small detail forces you to observe everything, to see every detail. Every so often you have to catch a fish and i you keep it attached to you it attracts the baracudas. There are sharks in the channel between the reef and the shore so you have to go from the peacefulness of the reef to the dangers of the lagoon.
Diving: Diving Kimbe Bay in PNG and seeing a pygmy seahorse on a red gorgona. The micro bioodiversity is fascinating and diving with a magnifyin glass is a new experience.

5. If you were trying to persuade someone to take up diving or snorkeling, what would you say?
It is the last part of the world to explore

6. Do you see in yourself any link between your snorkeling and diving experiences and environmental concern? If so, please describe.
Yes. I work for a conservation organization. As part of my work I help conserve marine biodiverstiy. This is what got me diving.

7. Approximately how many days do you dive or snorkel each year?
30-40

8. How many years have you been diving or snorkeling?
Snorkeling: 20
Diving: 3

9. Are you male or female?
Male

10. What is your age?
mid 40s

11. Where (in what outlet) did you find this survey?
Scubaboard

12. If there is anything else you would like to tell us, this would be the place.
I would like to read the results of the study