How To Avoid Scuba Boredom?

[Hillmorton Scubie]

I keep meeting fellow divers that are bored with diving. The common opinion is they concentrated on the big stuff then on the small, and now its all boring. Is that why people get into cave diving and other extreme adrenaline pumping aspects of diving?.

 

[Hank49]

I think a lot of people try diving just to see what it's all about. If you're not stoked about just being in water, there's only so much you can do diving that's new. Walking in the forest is akin to reef diving. If you're not into the nature part of it, it's boring. Some can do it their entire life and enjoy every minute of it.
But I also think that there are "water people", and other types of people who just aren't that stoked about being in water, for whatever reason. Water people will continue to dive. That's my take on it.

 

[robint]

I keep meeting fellow divers that are bored with diving. The common opinion is they concentrated on the big stuff then on the small, and now its all boring. Is that why people get into cave diving and other extreme adrenaline pumping aspects of diving?.

I think you are hanging around the wrong people!!! Good thing you found SB. You won't find those people here.

If you consider the stats on diving, most people who get certified don't continue after awhile. I think I remember the stats being that most divers never pass 25 dives. Those people just weren't really divers, they never got it. It was a fun thing to try once or twice, or they had a bad experience and never went back. I have met a couple of divers over the years, who got into underwater photo because they were getting bored and it made them completely rediscover diving. Other than that, the divers I meet are all very excited and love to talk about it.... In fact, most divers I know talk about it all the time!

 

[Divedoggie]

Yup, and if you get a little bored on Scubaboard, you can join "the pub."

 

[Gilldiver]

The thing about diving is that after a while just being in the water doesn't do it anymore. What you need to do is make diving a tool to do something else.

The fact is the vast majority of people will be inactive within 3 years and totally out of the sport in 5.

That something may be exploration of caves or wrecks. It could be photography, or science of fish and reefs. Some get into the archaeology of wrecks.

For some diving will become what you do between breakfast and 18 holes on their yearly vacation in the islands and that is fine all by itself.

You must find that something that does it for yourself. Or, in 3 to 5 years you will be selling your expensive new diver gear on Ebay or this site.

Next year is 30 years since I got my cert and 32 since I started diving. My thing is wrecks and the history of them. What is your thing?

 

[RumBum]

The thing about diving is that after a while just being in the water doesn't do it anymore. What you need to do is make diving a tool to do something else.

The fact is the vast majority of people will be inactive within 3 years and totally out of the sport in 5.

That something may be exploration of caves or wrecks. It could be photography, or science of fish and reefs. Some get into the archaeology of wrecks.

For some diving will become what you do between breakfast and 18 holes on their yearly vacation in the islands and that is fine all by itself.

You must find that something that does it for yourself. Or, in 3 to 5 years you will be selling your expensive new diver gear on Ebay or this site.

Next year is 30 years since I got my cert and 32 since I started diving. My thing is wrecks and the history of them. What is your thing?

Great answer. We have to keep learning or we stagnate. I find stagnation boring.

 

[Skeeter1097]

I think Hank is right. I think people just don't see it. They are just there looking. I have Buddy's that wont to lobster and the rest is nothing to them. If you just like been in the water like me. the rest is a treat.

 

[NOVIZWHIZ]

I relic dive as a hobby, I'm licensed by the state as a hobby diver, share information about what I find with the state, follow the law - I can dive a spot and a month later, dive it again and it's a different situation - shifting sand, changes from the current...find some amazing things...it's like new everytime I dive. Find a bottle or jug that was tossed 200 years ago and gotta wonder what the story behind it was... I wear a fossilized shark tooth around my neck that's millions of years old ...I wonder what the world was like then? I like the clear-water diving in the springs and Mexico, Bahamas, etc., but that's because I rarely have viz and don't do it very often....

 

[NudeDiver]

I keep meeting fellow divers that are bored with diving. The common opinion is they concentrated on the big stuff then on the small, and now its all boring. Is that why people get into cave diving and other extreme adrenaline pumping aspects of diving?.

Yeah, I can see it. I got certified and then went off to Australia for 50 dives. It was great!! But I think it spoiled me. I've since been to Hawaii, Florida and Egypt and found it all very boring. I thought maybe it was the difference between liveboards (my Australia dives) and day boat dives (everything else). I wonder if there is really a difference in the overall experience, or if it's just a matter of the day boats not having enough time to get somewhere interesting, or the hassle and overhead of making only two dives in the course of a whole day just makes it not worth while.

I've found that learning something new really helps. Generally speaking, no matter what sphere we're talking about, if I'm not learning something new, I'm probably going to be bored, or get bored rather quickly. I think owning your own equipment helps. Personally speaking, I feel that I have all this money tied up in equipment, I had better damned well go use it. That's not the best motivation for diving, I'll admit, but it can be effective. Although, I will admit that recently I've been wondering about the wisdom of spending all this money on dive equipment. But hey, at least it's not beer and cigarettes.

Anyway - I can definitely see how getting into specialty diving staves off boredom. I wish we could do cave diving up here, I would definitely want to get into it - but then of course, that's even more money. It's a vicious cycle. You could try treating diving as something like camping or hiking - something to do to "get out" and do something different for a while. In the summer, we combine camping and diving trips when we can. It makes for an enjoyable "away from home" weekend.

It would be really interesting to see a really in-depth, academic quality study on the economics of diving, in terms of students who get an initial cert, how long they stay with the sport, how many get later certs, how many of THOSE stay with the sport, how much money different levels of divers spend, etc. etc.

Good luck!
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[ohmdiver]

I like working with students, I have no desire to be an instructor but I stay active as a pool aid. Help out at my LDS Scuba experiance nights, go to Dutch Springs, and do as much diving as possible.