Good Job, PADI!

[Trace Malinowski]

During the DEMA meeting at Beneath the Sea, there was a lot of agreement that local diving deserves more attention than it is getting. As many "old salts" have witnessed, many of their local dive centers have closed within the last few years. Sure the struggling economy, online retailers, and a younger generation less interested in physical activity have played significant roles in the decline of local diving. But, I think the fact that the industry began to advertise dive travel as being the goal of diving rather than one of the many fun aspects of the sport did the most amount of damage to local diving.

If local diving becomes restored as a "respectable" activity again it can boost the ranks of divers who will remain active, support local dive centers, buy more equipment online, travel to resorts, seek education and be seen diving by others who may decide to try it - because it is available in their towns and not just at a resort. Local diving may help raise the bar on dive training standards which were also severely criticized during the meeting because some local conditions warrant more time than most resorts. When Southern California was the litmus test for entry level education rather than the tropics, IMO, entry level education was adequate for most temperate climates.

As a step in the right direction, I just received a newsletter from PADI Americas discussing "muck diving" as being just as interesting as their vacation spotlight look at Indonesia. They provided a "Dive Anywhere Map" link to padi.com. While I'm a training director for two competing agencies (PSAI & PDIC), and currently employed by PSAI HQ, I want to give PADI credit for this first attempt at calling diver attention to their own backyards. Often that's where the real adventure of diving is anyway! Many divers here on SB do not know what it is like to find a sunken boat no one knew was there, pull a brand new outboard motor out of the silt, or discover 1800's railroad memorabilia along railroad tracks. When we dive on those far off reefs, the experience is a lot like taking a guided tour of Italy looking at the same things many others see day in and day out. That pond near your home may have secrets to unlock - the very kind many dreamed of discovering. In 1962, Lake Winola gave up one of the oldest Indian dugout canoes to Frank Murphy, the deceased president of PDIC. It is on display in the family home.

During the 1980's, I saw both PADI and Skin Diver magazine move the marketing of the sport away from local diving toward the resorts. If this begins a journey back to diving being a consideration anywhere we find water, it will truly benefit the sport. With the current economy, I don't think the sport has a choice if it is to survive and thrive. Good job, PADI for promoting muck!

 

[Peter Guy]

Interesting Trace.

I tell my students it is my personal goal to convince them that our local diving is far superior to anything they'll see/do in the tropics. They laugh at me until they see their first GPO hunting!

 

[Pauly854]

Very interesting...and very true. In 15 years of certification, I have never even been in the ocean. I have been confined to local quarries, lakes and mud puddles...and have had a blast. Yes, I WANT to experience the ocean reefs, and have my first trip scheduled this summer...but local diving is still my main staple. It is good to see the local diving being promoted as a positive experience. Thanks for sharing.

 

[nielsent]

I can think of nowhere else in the world that diving tourists can get to see so many amazing things as here in Canada... The pacific northwest was the place I first started to learn to dive and I count myself lucky to have had that as my training ground. Now I live in Newfoundland, and I can't think of many places that can advertise their local diving as including icebergs, beluga whales, and some of the best shipwrecks in the world.

 

[TSandM]

Promoting diving locally is a wonderful thing for so many reasons . . . not the least of which is that people who dive locally will dive more often, and keep their skills sharper. I really appreciate the magazine (I think it's Alert Diver) which has the "Dive USA" section, highlighting quarries, lakes and rivers which are available to dive all over the country. All you really need to dive is water, and with the exception of the desert areas, most people are close to some of that SOMEWHERE.

 

[bleeb]

Promoting diving locally is a wonderful thing for so many reasons . . . not the least of which is that people who dive locally will dive more often, and keep their skills sharper. I really appreciate the magazine (I think it's Alert Diver) which has the "Dive USA" section, highlighting quarries, lakes and rivers which are available to dive all over the country. All you really need to dive is water, and with the exception of the desert areas, most people are close to some of that SOMEWHERE.

Are you thinking of Dive Training Magazine's Diving USA column and web site?

 

[Crush]

No doubt about it - local diving would certainly help LDSs with sales and service.

Where I live people always ask me incredulously "Where can you dive around here?" It seems as though 40 F and 20 foot vis (max) has limited appeal to many, but not to me. I have read on SB that divers can be roughly divided into "fliers" and "sight seers." There is nothing wrong with being a sight-seer, but personally I a firmly a flier so an absence of stunning scenery doesn't bother me so long as I can fly. I suspect that there would be more local diving in challenging climes if we could appeal to nascent fliers.

 

[Crush]

I think the fact that the industry began to advertise dive travel as being the goal of diving rather than one of the many fun aspects of the sport did the most amount of damage to local diving.

PADI seems to have a sound business model. I may not like it, but I can sort of admire it, which lead me to consider the following: which has a higher profit margin - teaching someone basic OW scuba, or an intro to scuba course? In tropical climates I suspect that the local resort would love to keep pushing through intro to scuba customers as the ratio of money paid to training time must be fantastic.

 

[drrich2]

Since local diving is often quarry diving for a lot of people, I'd like to see more species variety in the quarries. Yes, catfish, blue gill and bass are good to see, but how about a large alligator gar (or other large gar)? A large pike?

I realize poaching of fish from quarries is a problem. I don't know how practical it is to offer such a range of species. At Vortex Spring in Florida, a few years ago, I saw Koi, some sort of larger fish in the distance (a type of carp maybe?) and there were eels in the cavern (I didn't see them, but my wife & our friend did). Things like that really spice things up.

Richard.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I can think of nowhere else in the world that diving tourists can get to see so many amazing things as here in Canada... The pacific northwest was the place I first started to learn to dive and I count myself lucky to have had that as my training ground. Now I live in Newfoundland, and I can't think of many places that can advertise their local diving as including icebergs, beluga whales, and some of the best shipwrecks in the world.

You're absolutely right! When I walked into my first dive shop in 1981, the shop carried three magazines, Skin Diver, Diver (Canada), and Ocean Realm.

With the exception of Ellsworth Boyd's wreck diving column and a few brief articles in the back of the magazine, Skin Diver would have readers believing that scuba diving was something that was only worth doing in California and in the tropics. Occasionally, the magazine would cover New Jersey, but the underwater photography was often unflattering. Skin Diver eventually made local diving disappear, California disappear and signed their death warrant when they started criticizing nitrox as being a death gas. It turned into a glitz and fluff travel ad disguised as journalism to promote its advertisers. Hasta la vista, baby!

Ocean Realm was pure quality, but expensive and published quarterly, if memory serves. For a kid who could barely afford gas for his 1978 Firebird Esprit, the places and adventures portrayed in that magazine were the stuff of dreams. The magazine cost as much as an air fill at the time and I would browse it, but not buy it because it was torture to dream of diving under arctic ice, following Stan Waterman, Al Giddings, or Sylvia Earle on true expeditions when watching the gas gauge plummet on the way to a local lake.

On the other hand, Diver magazine from Canada was my all-time favorite! My first dive trip at age 15 was to Canada to dive the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. From coast to coast, Canada is everything a diver could want! The articles in the magazine portrayed prolific marine life from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, wrecks from the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes to clear mountain lakes. Myth, mystery and history sailed off each page. It was the first dive magazine to which I ever subscribed. Everything from the Breadalbane to the Rockport Wall to the Giant Pacific Octopus and orcas seemed possible - even an underwater habitat back in the day!

The way Canada represented diving validated everything I was learning in the lakes, rivers, quarries of my home state. Hoping to experience what I saw in photos from Nova Scotia, I started spending my gas money to drive to New England and shore dive. It was all I could afford. But, I never felt like I wasn't a real diver. In fact, I discovered the opposite to be true. Northeast diving gave me a broad education because there is incredible diversity within driving distance. Every time I have moved away, I became bored of diving - even when I lived in the Keys, California and the Caribbean.

I dove Lake Ontario a lot since my teens and then rediscovered the St. Lawrence a few years ago. On my way back to Alexandria Bay from Canada recently, a U.S. Customs officer gave me a huge hassle about having lots of tanks in my truck. I explained to him what I do for a living and why I had so many doubles and deco bottles in the truck. He continued to give me a hard time. I told him, "No problem. I'll turn around and go back to Canada. They have prettier girls, health care and awesome diving!" Unfortunately, at that point he let me back into my country.

Diver magazine eventually did the same thing other scuba periodicals did and became a travel rag. The Caribbean, the Red Sea, and the Pacific Rim took over with less and less about the mysteries to be discovered beneath Canadian waters. I stopped my subscription. After living in England, I subscribed to Diver (UK) because it also focused on local diving. I'd ascend from the reefs I worked on in the islands and be totally stoked to find Diver had arrived at my house. Diver Canada was the best!

Wow! I can't wait to return from teaching in Florida to dive Canada! I think I need to go explore Nova Scotia, British Columbia and Bell Island.