Question How old are you and how long certified? Poll- please take part!

[scubadada]

...I have long observed that veteran divers drift to such activities in order to maintain their interest. I tried photography and soon realized that I was really bad at it. I tried videography and got great results...

Funny thing, I have been quite actively diving since 1997. I went through a more serious photography phase, a video phase, a lobstering phase, a Lionfish elimination phase, and a spearfishing phase. Ultimately, I decided all of these things sucked up most of my attention and detracted from my peaceful enjoyment of the underwater world. For the last 6 or 7 years, most of my diving is solo drift in SE Florida, doing nothing more than looking around. I have never enjoyed my diving more.

On special land based or liveaboard trips, I will often take my nice point and shoot in a good housing to capture ambient light photos to share with my family and friends and to include in my ScubaBoard and Undercurrent reviews. However, I'm never just looking for my next shot, they are all around as you enjoy the pleasure of diving.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Ultimately, I decided all of these things sucked up most of my attention and detracted from my peaceful enjoyment of the underwater world. For the last 6 or 7 years, most of my diving is solo drift in SE Florida, doing nothing more than looking around. I have never enjoyed my diving more.

I call that "underwater hiking". It is my primary source of pleasure in diving as well. Topside I also love hiking. Just spending time in nature, getting some exercise, and observing nature. That is exactly what I love to do while diving. Thankfully while my wife is not a diver she is a hiker and nature lover. She therefore understands my need to dive regularly for my own wellbeing and enjoyment of life. Spending time in nature both below and above the water is my #1 passion and it brings me peace and tranquility like nothing else.

 

[Wookie]

I call that "underwater hiking". It is my primary source of pleasure in diving as well. Topside I also love hiking. Just spending time in nature, getting some exercise, and observing nature. That is exactly what I love to do while diving. Thankfully while my wife is not a diver she is a hiker and nature lover. She therefore understands my need to dive regularly for my own wellbeing and enjoyment of life. Spending time in nature both below and above the water is my #1 passion and it brings me peace and tranquility like nothing else.

+1

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

certifided in 1980 at 16. I am not sure what this polls shows. It might be that diving is a sport for old farts, because it is expensive and is not as tough on the knees as rugby. It might show that ScubaBoard is for old farts because it is low tech. I wonder how it would look if you did the same survey on FB or Reddit.

I was wondering the same thing.
Is this an accurate assessment of the age of the general diving population, or is this an example of the general age of the subscribership of scubaboard?

 

[graham_s]

49, and I certified in '94ish I think....
Chromed Aqualung reg, and a horse collar BC......

 

[Scott G. Bonser]

72 years old. Started diving in 1966. Didn’t get certified via YMCA until 1972. Still doing mixed gas staged decompression cave dives. Dove Ginnie Springs cave today.

Cool Beans, DogDiver, Ginnie is one of my favorite haunts, Chesapeake Diving Center and Aqua-Lung Diving Center in SE Virginia is where I did my PADI DM certification dives and training when not at the Coliseum Sand Pit or offshore. I really enjoyed the dives with my Dad there in the mid-late 80s before rheumatoid arthritis made him give up the SCUBA. I kept on diving until ‘hard times’ with only marginal vis diving and pool practice. I am ready to hit the warm clear calm waters. Limited, yes, but I am not finished.
giantfroginthepool
Scott G. Bonser

 

[lexvil]

I was wondering the same thing.
Is this an accurate assessment of the age of the general diving population, or is this an example of the general age of the subscribership of scubaboard?

To make this work we need to know how many people Vera ll were certified in each decade, how many stuck with it vs how many are getting certified in the past few years and will stick with it or come back to it in the future.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

To make this work we need to know how many people Vera ll were certified in each decade, how many stuck with it vs how many are getting certified in the past few years and will stick with it or come back to it in the future.

There’s also the fact that scuba diving in general is stupid expensive to get into. Look at the price of gear, a mid to upper end reg between $600-$1200, computers between $200-to over $1200, bc’s up to $1500! Then you have certification costs. Young people will spend that kind of money on a lot of other things before they will do scuba. Life is expensive enough just to survive. There are a lot of other things they need to spend money on before dumping thousands into a hobby for training and gear, and then have to spend thousands more just to fly somewhere to do it.
So this poll doesn’t surprise me at all.

 

[boulderjohn]

Is this an accurate assessment of the age of the general diving population, or is this an example of the general age of the subscribership of scubaboard?

I have long noted that the ScubaBoard population does not in any way reflect the general diving population.

This was made particularly clear to me more than a decade ago, when a participant who was a major dive shop owner revealed that scuba industry statistics indicated that fewer than 1% of all BCD sales in the USA were BP/Ws, yet if someone started a SB thread asking for recommendations for BCDs, the majority of responses would have been BP/Ws. I am sure that majority would be even stronger today, even though all across the country you will see dive shops that do not sell BP/Ws run by managers who have never seen one.

 

[EFX]

UHF was tricky, often would not come in well. Don't think we had UHF in my early TV career. PBS had not yet started when I was kid.

....and let's not forget fiddling with the horizontal and vertical rheostats in the back of the TV to get that better picture. However, we had to wait at least 5 minutes for the TV to warm up before doing that.