Future of DiveShops?

[MrCultureJammer]

So...what'd you learn in Vegas?

 

[Rusty Roo]

gotta say if the customer service continues with my lds (dive machine in tonbridge) then it will live long and prosper. i took a list of items they don't stock to the counter and said "can you get these?" well not only could they get them, they could beat the online price from divelife.co.uk and they seem to be the cheapest for most gear. sure i have to go pick it up, but if anything goes wrong i don't have that issue of posting stuff etc.

 

[RJP]

So...what'd you learn in Vegas?

The three most common phrases I heard were:

"Well, but..."
"That's not how we've done things historically..."
"What you need to understand is..."

:c

 

[cerich]

yeah that is what I said

The three most common phrases I heard were:

"Well, but..."
"That's not how we've done things historically..."
"What you need to understand is..."

:c

 

[boulderjohn]

The three most common phrases I heard were:

"Well, but..."
"That's not how we've done things historically..."
"What you need to understand is..."

:c

I am sure everyone knows some parable about how some deep-seated and thoroughly entrenched tradition had its roots in a reason that is no longer valid. It is remarkable how quickly an activity as young as scuba developed such traditions.

When we wrote the article advocating ending the tradition of teaching diving skills on the knees, we researched to find out how and why the practice started. We learned that it was present from the start, a natural consequence of using gear that included nothing for buoyancy, not even a wet suit. today we have equipment that allows us to teach divers while buoyant and in horizontal trim easily from the start, but breaking that old practice is a real problem.

Decades ago it made sense to teach divers what it felt like as tanks began to get near empty. Instructors in the pool would turn their air off so that the lousy regulators of those days would get harder and harder to breathe. Today's regulators do not do that in the depths of a swimming pool. They just stop giving air suddenly. We are still required to do the air depletion exercise, though, even telling students that they are experiencing what it feels like to be running out of air at depth, which has not been true for a very long time.

It would be interesting to catalog how many outmoded practices we follow because it made sense in a past era.

 

[billt4sf]

For the LDS to survive, a shift in business model is necessary.

As is the case for virtually every enterprise in the age of the internet.

- Bill

 

[kensuf]

I am sure everyone knows some parable about how some deep-seated and thoroughly entrenched tradition had its roots in a reason that is no longer valid. It is remarkable how quickly an activity as young as scuba developed such traditions.

When we wrote the article advocating ending the tradition of teaching diving skills on the knees, we researched to find out how and why the practice started. We learned that it was present from the start, a natural consequence of using gear that included nothing for buoyancy, not even a wet suit. today we have equipment that allows us to teach divers while buoyant and in horizontal trim easily from the start, but breaking that old practice is a real problem.

Decades ago it made sense to teach divers what it felt like as tanks began to get near empty. Instructors in the pool would turn their air off so that the lousy regulators of those days would get harder and harder to breathe. Today's regulators do not do that in the depths of a swimming pool. They just stop giving air suddenly. We are still required to do the air depletion exercise, though, even telling students that they are experiencing what it feels like to be running out of air at depth, which has not been true for a very long time.

It would be interesting to catalog how many outmoded practices we follow because it made sense in a past era.

Open the valve all the way, close it a quarter turn.

 

[RJP]

As is the case for virtually every enterprise in the age of the internet.

- Bill

I think that the internet (gear sales particularly) is the LEAST of the LDS's problems.

I have a refined theory based on

• being very "into" the industry for 8 years as a diver/DM/boat crew/Instructor, plus
• eight years of ScubaBoard participation, plus
• 25yrs of sales/marketing/market research/advertising experience, plus
• now "officially" being in the dive industry (for almost a month!) with my new company, plus
• attending DEMA and talking to literally hundreds of people, plus
• becoming a DEMA member so I could access and review all the available current market research

The industry's problem is not that there are challenges... but rather the problem is that the industry doesn't know how to identify, prioritize, and address challenges in a rigorous, strategic fashion.

My theory: From an overall perspective, the industry has ONE main problem. However, because no individual shop, agency, manufacturer, or the industry as a whole has the expertise, resources, ability, or even desire to fix the MAIN problem... everyone hyper-focuses on two ancillary problems. Both of which would probably be obviated by properly addressing the ONE main problem.

Whether because of denial, naivete, selfishness, emotions, whatever... the industry "feels better" when allowed to talk about all the related issues and side effects of the singular main problem. Nothing gets better, but don't dare suggest that we focus on that!

[video=youtube;-4EDhdAHrOg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg[/video]

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I think that the internet (gear sales particularly) is the LEAST of the LDS's problems.

I have a refined theory based on

• being very "into" the industry for 8 years as a diver/DM/boat crew/Instructor, plus
• eight years of ScubaBoard participation, plus
• 25yrs of sales/marketing/market research/advertising experience, plus
• now "officially" being in the dive industry (for almost a month!) with my new company, plus
• attending DEMA and talking to literally hundreds of people, plus
• becoming a DEMA member so I could access and review all the available current market research

The industry's problem is not that there are challenges... but rather the problem is that the industry doesn't know how to identify, prioritize, and address challenges in a rigorous, strategic fashion.

My theory: From an overall perspective, the industry has ONE main problem. However, because no individual shop, agency, manufacturer, or the industry as a whole has the expertise, resources, ability, or even desire to fix the MAIN problem... everyone hyper-focuses on two ancillary problems. Both of which would probably be obviated by properly addressing the ONE main problem.

Whether because of denial, naivete, selfishness, emotions, whatever... the industry "feels better" when allowed to talk about all the related issues and side effects of the singular main problem. Nothing gets better, but don't dare suggest that we focus on that!

What is the singular main problem?

The way I see it is you're right, the internet isn't the thing killing shops and the industry as a whole. All the internet is doing is taking some business from the LDS by a very small group of people who have discovered better deals on the net. These people are relatively small in number as compared to the certified masses. And it's not even "masses" if you look at the global content and compare diving to other activities.
I think we're in a transitional phase right now. Diving is a young enough sport that it's seeing it's first real drop/blip in popularity since it's introduction.
Many of the original people who started/bought dive shops in the 60's thru the 80's are still the ones owning and running them. There hasn't been a big change over to the younger crowd who are fresh and full of energy with good ideas. I think a lot of what we're seeing is the tail end of an era of people who remember the "good 'ol days" when scuba was at it's height in popularity and they didn't have to do anything but stand behind the counter and sell gear at full price. They essentially rode the wave of popularity of the times and had very little to do with perpetuating the sport, they just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
If you look at the diving populace as a whole, what percentage are on the internet and what percentage of those people shop online for gear? I'll bet very few if you look at it on a global scale. Most people world wide never heard of scubaboard/ DRIS/ Scubatoys/ or any others.
We think this is the real world because we're here, but it's really not.

It's like the industry (or what's left of it) is fighting over a few measly crumbs after the grand feast, and they have no clue of how to get more food.

 

[Bob DBF]

Decades ago it made sense to teach divers what it felt like as tanks began to get near empty. Instructors in the pool would turn their air off so that the lousy regulators of those days would get harder and harder to breathe. Today's regulators do not do that in the depths of a swimming pool. They just stop giving air suddenly. We are still required to do the air depletion exercise, though, even telling students that they are experiencing what it feels like to be running out of air at depth, which has not been true for a very long time.

You would find out that if you shut off the tank valve on an old unbalanced reg, you would find little, if any, difference between the two regs because of the small air volume involved. In other words the new exercise is not the same as the old exercise, which was to breathe a tank until it is empty, the shortcut of closing the tank valve makes the exercise invalid. Also should you breathe a tank down with a modern balanced reg there is a time near the end of the tank it will breathe harder before it quits but it is only for a short time, so much shorter than the unbalanced that you probably wouldn't notice it unless you were looking for it. In addition, it is not because they were lousy regulators, it is because they were unbalanced regulators.


I agree that training can use some changes and it seems you are on the right track, however blaming it on entrenched tradition when the traditional exercise is no longer done is a bit much. A lot of the folklore of diving is passed on by instructors trying to get students through a class as fast as possible and has no time for SCUBA history, so only bits and pieces are passed on whether correct or not and are now considered the truth.



Bob
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Trained when J-valves solved the OOA problem.