How many divers are there?

[GrumpyOldGuy]

The dropout rate is sad, but true IMO. Many of the agencies minimize training and lower the criteria in order to appeal to the largest possible audience and maximize profits. This works for them ($$) and fits with the demand for instant gratification we tend to fall into, but encourages a lot of people to enter the sport who are not prepared to spend the money, time and energy to master it to a reasonable extent. Diving is not brain surgery, but there is a significant learning curve that demands a chunk of time and resources many are not willing or able to devote to it.

 

[elmer fudd]

A more indepth study by DEMA claims that 5% of the US population dives (14.9 m). To get to the 1.2m active divers, only 8% of those divers would be considered active. To me this percent sounds low.

You do live in Florida though. My guess would be that only Hawaii has a higher percentage of active divers. If you were to go someplace like Ohio or Kansas, you'd probably find that less than 1% of the population was certified and that 90% of those certified only dove while on vacation.

 

[Stu S.]

Here's an informal survey, from the Orlando, FL area. My workplace is part of a major corporation and has 1,000 people. (Probably half are college graduates.) Three employees are active divers, and another 5 are "once a year types". There may be others, but that's all I have found. That's less than 1%. There are plenty of folks who got certified but no longer dive.

When we have the company golf tournament, 140 people sign up, and that's not all the golfers, just those who can make it.

 

[Walter]

Not only is this unknown, it is unknowable.

What is a diver? Someone who has a c-card? Someone who dives once in their life? Someone who dives every five years? Someone who dives every two years? Someone who dives every year? Someone who dives at least 10 times per year? Someone who dives at least 100 times per year? Someone who has diving as part of their lifestyle?

Even if we define the term, there's still no way to know. Even if we use the certification definition, how many certs have been issued to people who are no longer alive? How many people have more than one entry level certification? There is no way to ever know.

 

[Hatul]

When I started diving about 15 years ago I thought scuba would be much more popular than it is. I meet a lot of people who have dived in the past but have not dived in years, and also those that only dive in warm waters on vacation.

I think a lot of it has to do with the weight and bulkiness of the gear-- the awkward wetsuits, all the lead weights and the heavy cylinder.

Adam

 

[widget]

When we have the company golf tournament, 140 people sign up, and that's not all the golfers, just those who can make it.

Yeah, I think that about sums it up.:depressed:

As others have said its very difficult to ascertain, the training agencies numbers dont tally with equipment sold, and those numbers dont tally with charter and day dive operator numbers.

From my own experience and this is just a personal observation of 30 years in the industry, for every 10 divers certified, 5 would drop out directly after certification, 3 would do one further course and 2 would buy equipment, support charters and improve their skills diving regularly, however, of the 2, maybe 1 would still be active (more than 5 dives a year) after 24 months.

As I say this is just my personal observation, I have no proof, but I personally know quite a few manufacturers and they do not sell anywhere near those kind of numbers in even basic mask and snorkel equipment annually, in hard gear (thats regs, Bcs etc) I would seriously doubt the numbers even register 10% of those figures amongst all the manufacturers including the generic resellers.

 

[Leadking]

I think PADI counts each certification, i.e. open water, advanced, divemaster, etc. As most active divers generally hold more than one certification-you can see where I am going.

My observations are that only 2% of Americans will become divers in their lifetime and of that only a small portion will remain active over an extended period.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Leadking, how did you come up with 2%? Do you have any basis for this? I'd love to know where, what your source is..if you have one. Thanks in advance.

 

[fjpatrum]

While it is an interesting question (and there will be fewer divers off the Gulf Coast of the US in the months ahead), I have to ask "Who cares?"

I am not being flip here, but really, is there a reason to know how many of us there are and "classify us?" It is like the old NAUI/PADI debate. Once you have your card, you are a diver. I admit that I haven't dove as much as I would like since the birth of my daughter and probably could use a refresher, but I consider myself a diver and I am interested in those things that are related to diving. I am not as focused on it as perhaps I am the issues that affect Amateur Radio or my job, but there you go.

To anyone trying to make a business case for a product this is huge information and can be the difference between getting funded (Angel investor or Venture Capitalist of some other sort) and not getting funded. So I'd say this is very good information to have specific verifiable numbers about.

 

[Leadking]

The numbers were generated when I was on the BoD of DEMA in the mid 1990's. We (DEMA) had a number of surveys generated as well as surveys from the Sporting Goods Marketing Association (SGMA). I would contact the SGMA, http://www.sgma.com/reports/84_SCUBA-Diving-Participation-Report-2010 for more detailed information as DEMA has done a very poor job of preserving its past research. You may ask DEMA if they have this information available for its members.

As you will see the link states a current 1.1% participation rate (2008)