Does Anybody Know?

[ProfessorAronnax]

Years ago, I remember a statistic that stated: 9 out of 10 diver were no longer active in the sport of scuba diving 5 years after becoming certified. Does anybody know what that statistic is today?

 

[captain]

Probably about the same. Diving has a very high dropout rate. The reason is too many dive shops have to fight over creating new diver and encouraging specialty courses to stay in business. As long as the new diver has the LDS keeping him diving in the specialty courses all is find, but once the diver can no longer afford or wants to do the specialty courses he is on his own and either loses interest, can't find others to dive with or easily accessable places to dive especially if he lives 100's of miles from divable water. Basicly for a lot of divers it becomes too expensive or too much of a hassle to get to diveable water. One of the threads asked what was the best diving accessorie you ever bought. My answer was a boat and a compressor. That is why I have been diving for 45 years. Without them I would have given it up years ago. It also helps that I live near divable water.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Years ago, I remember a statistic that stated: 9 out of 10 diver were no longer active in the sport of scuba diving 5 years after becoming certified. Does anybody know what that statistic is today?

Picking any specific number; "'7, 8, or 9' out of 10" is a WAG. People's reasons for dropping scuba vary wildly and too much can't be known about numbers (plus what do you call someone who dives four times on two vacations in over twelve years? Besides dangerous?)

That said, Captain's correct - the dropout rate, whether its 8 out of 10 or 9 out of 10, is extremely high. I suspect, though, that the drop-out rate isn't terribly different for hang-gliding, sport parachuting, or whitewater kayaking. Lots of folks do these 'for awhile', then find other things to focus on.

I don't think that a boat and your own compressor are the only answer, though it seemed to work for Captain. Reasons why people stick with diving are going to vary as individually as the reasons why people don't.

 

[Wildcard]

I think having no one to dive with is a big part of it. Esp among women divers. I have heard the story many times. Went diving with hubby of BF and loved it. Broke up and now have no one to dive with. That's part of why this board is so great, meeting new dive buddies!

 

[Kevfin]

I don't know what the real statistic is. The only way it could really be done, without speculation, is have all the certifying agencies contact all of their divers (with 5 or more years from certifying date) and ask how many of them are still diving.

I imagine though, that it is pretty high. Most of the divers I have known over the years have stopped diving. They have moved on to other things, like family, other hobbies, drinking, and crack cocaine.

 

[Divedoggie]

Maybe C-cards could have a bar code on them, and could be scanned when you get air or rent a tank. That wouldn't account for people with their own compressors, but it would track active divers fairly well.

 

[SwimJim]

My LDS doesn't promote diving. That is once your certified they have little else to offer. No tie ins to a club or charter boat. If I had to depend on them to find a dive buddy I'd be S.O.L. They used to have a wall of pictures of people that they certified to dive. I often wondered how many of these people were still active. Not very many I guess. They kind of offer specialty classes, but they are not offered at regular intervals or even every season. I liked there instructor and wanted to take a rescue diver course. I eventully gave up on them. Fortunatly for me, I happen to live right on Lake michigan and have my own boat. I have several great wrecks with in twenty miles and have no trouble getting dive buddies. For the "average" diver this just isn't the case. Therefor the dropout rate is going to be huge. Just my two cents.

Jim

 

[asaara]

Maybe C-cards could have a bar code on them, and could be scanned when you get air or rent a tank. That wouldn't account for people with their own compressors, but it would track active divers fairly well.

Frequent Diver Miles? Get gear and vacation rewards, and a referral system so if you get anyone into diving and they get hooked bad, too, you get bonus points for every certain number of points they get after they're certified (to avoid throwing all your friends into classes just to get free stuff - they have to keep diving, too!), miles accumulate no matter where you dive, because if all you can afford is local quarry diving, you probably need free gear more than the person who's able to take more frequent dive vacations... ;-)

 

[craborn]

WildCat, you or anyone else can come dive with me and my wife. We dive every weekend in Arkansas. We have anywhere from 2- 40 divers on the lake on weekends and we are a large family. we have a really great time. I usually have classes in the mornings then we dive for fun in the evenings. What ever you all of you do please dive, this is a great sport. I want to be like Captain and one day celebrate that have been diving 45 years. Captain I respect you buddy. Clay

 

[friscuba]

Years ago, I remember a statistic that stated: 9 out of 10 diver were no longer active in the sport of scuba diving 5 years after becoming certified. Does anybody know what that statistic is today?

I figured it was more like one year, as opposed to five.

IF you can get a diver to do some diving a couple years in a row, the odds are they will be hooked. The dropout rate in the sport ios all too high. I can understand it though. We need to be able to promote diving outside the local area (unless you live in Fiji or Papua New Guinea) so those who get their certification is a lake or quarry can see the potential that the hobby has - not that freshwater diving isn't any good, but there's a lot beyond it and some people are looking for the exotic.

It can be an amazing sport/passtime.

Later,