divingyogini
Contributor
The bike industry is undergoing some changes and are trying to train bike shop staff to be more friendly to non-bicyclists. Walking into a bike shop, apparently many people feel like they don't belong to the "club", and encounter an us-vs-them mentality. There's a really good article about a new bike they're rolling out and how they're trying to change their entire sales approaches to greatly broaden the market: The Revolution Will Be Simplified - bicycling.com (Hint, skip down to the part about the bike guys going to Sephora - it is pretty interesting. I actually find the comment about how the people who don't bike consider the world of biking hyper competitive, which is probably the way a lot of people view the dive industry as well.)
When I first learned, 5 years ago, as I was taking my open water class, I was of course not familiar with lots of the jargon and in one shop in particular the kids working there would get very impatient if I didn't walk in knowing exactly what I wanted and ready to purchase within the first three minutes of walking in the door. Questions such as the difference between split and solid fins were met with eye rolls. Because I've learned a lot more about the lingo, I feel more confident in talking to dive shops, but I have encountered my share of "you're either a diver or you're not" mentality from somethough certainly not alldive shops.
I heard a stat in my open water class that 90% of the people who take the class will never dive again. I don't know the accuracy of that stat or how geographically-dependent it is, but to me that says the dive shops aren't doing the best job at retaining students.
I know some of you will respond by saying new people shouldn't be diving anyway, and if you didn't go through Navy Seals training you shouldn't be in the water at all. But to me, the more people who enjoy diving the more people who will actually think twice about dumping their trash directly into rivers, lakes and oceans.
So I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of initiatives by stores or manufacturers to do a better job in talking with the dive-curious or the "I just finished my very first class and no I don't know how much trim weight I'll need" crowd. Or, what do individual dive shops do to avoid talking down to the person who is just curious about trying it out and doesn't know the first thing about balanced regulators?
When I first learned, 5 years ago, as I was taking my open water class, I was of course not familiar with lots of the jargon and in one shop in particular the kids working there would get very impatient if I didn't walk in knowing exactly what I wanted and ready to purchase within the first three minutes of walking in the door. Questions such as the difference between split and solid fins were met with eye rolls. Because I've learned a lot more about the lingo, I feel more confident in talking to dive shops, but I have encountered my share of "you're either a diver or you're not" mentality from somethough certainly not alldive shops.
I heard a stat in my open water class that 90% of the people who take the class will never dive again. I don't know the accuracy of that stat or how geographically-dependent it is, but to me that says the dive shops aren't doing the best job at retaining students.
I know some of you will respond by saying new people shouldn't be diving anyway, and if you didn't go through Navy Seals training you shouldn't be in the water at all. But to me, the more people who enjoy diving the more people who will actually think twice about dumping their trash directly into rivers, lakes and oceans.
So I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of initiatives by stores or manufacturers to do a better job in talking with the dive-curious or the "I just finished my very first class and no I don't know how much trim weight I'll need" crowd. Or, what do individual dive shops do to avoid talking down to the person who is just curious about trying it out and doesn't know the first thing about balanced regulators?