How has the economy affected your diving?

[LeadTurn_SD]

It's a "nervous" time for sure.

I'm lucky in that we own our business, live minutes from good shore dives, and own all of our equipment. Business has slowed down for sure, but we can still afford to go diving locally.

 

[coyoteblastin]

I work in the Oil field so life is crazy right now. I just dropped a ton of money on a drysuit and thermals and then we get told the company is laying off 10% of us at the end of the month. I had to let all my contract crews go this week. Well at least I can look at it right. I have already cancelled my Bonaire trip this year. Hopefully things will pick up and I can make a quick trip to Cozumel. It's gonna be lake diving for a while. As long as diesel doesn't go up.

 

[seaducer]

I guess it may be affecting me in an indirect way. In attempting to buy a house I am forced to put down more money than I would have a few years ago. So, it looks like for the foreseable future some of the luxuries will need to be toned down a bit. I have a trip to Bonaire scheduled for February and that may be the only dive trip of the year, and certainly the only international trip.
I will need to be judicial with my training goals, and unfortunately the training I have in sight is the expensive kind. Same thing with gear, what I have now will be it for a while, even though I would love a dry suit and can light, it will have to wait.

 

[williama]

As soon as I heard about raise freezes about 6 months ago, I got a part time job delivering pizza. I then heard about lay offs during thanksgiving and got another part time job at a hotel I worked at before. I was lucky enough to get to keep my job but ended up with 3 plus teaching the occasional scuba class.

In the last couple of months of working like a mad person I as able to get my single tank rigs serviced. I purchase gear for doubles (cavediving and tech). I also completed a recreational trimix class and a couple of trips to the springs for cavern and cave diving.

2009 is looking pretty scary and while I still work like crazy, I am limiting my diving to local classes and saving my $$$ for cave trips. I am thinking quality over quantity. Instead of planning diving every weekend, I am looking at every other month to get the most bang for my buck.

 

[TSandM]

I still have my job, Peter is still receiving the payments for the business he sold, and places and charters are offering some stunning bargains these days. The trip we just came home from, we wouldn't have done at full price, most likely, but the discounts were irresistible.

 

[shoredivr]

Don't overlook local diving. I have wonderful diving 3 hours from here in the Great Lakes. Good diving 2 hours from here in rivers. Training diving 1 hour or less from here....I love it, it's diving.

 

[Silverback784]

Right now my job is holding out till at least May. But after that it looks dimm so I know my dive trips are canceled. Just trying to hold enough back for a cushion. May be lucky to do local quarries and the river but thats it.

 

[bamamedic]

I'm a paramedic (hence " bamamedic" ), and business is excellent right now. We've just hired a few more part time medics, actually. Worst case, my position might get cut if things get tight ('cause it's more of a luxury than a neccessity in the scheme of things), but I'd just get moved to a different position (on a 24 hour truck),so all's good.

I'm taking AN/DP this weekend, Cavern/Intro in April, DM sometime in the summer, and GUE Fundies in August so no slowdown for me!

 

[thunsaker]

I am fortunate to be in a profession that has better job security than a lot of jobs. People need their taxes done no matter how the economy is doing. I still plan to purchase my drysuit and do a lot of local diving. Even though California sucks with the budget right now and probably will issue IOUs for income tax refunds, they have many great dive locations including Catalina, Monterey, and San Diego which I plan to visit this year. I will probably do a dive trip Bonaire in November depending on how things go.

 

[Airleron]

Live in South Florida, man, am I lucky. My job seems find right now but hubby works for himself and we have definately cut back . We use to jump off a boat every weekend, but now are limiting that to once a month, and shore diving the other 3 weekends. I get in about 100 dives a year.