How to Engage Younger People in Diving?

[drrich2]

A big question for young adults is one of priorities. I spend some time on Quora, where a lot of social issues are discussed. In the U.S. today, a lot of young people are entering the workforce with around 30 grand or so in student debt, and starting earning in life a few years later than the Baby Boomers did. That's presumably the ones who actually got degrees; one poster indicated about 45% of high school grad.s today go to college, but some don't make it through, and some who do end up 'underemployed.'

Also consider private section job pensions are all but extinct. And we have the rise of the FIRE movement - financially independent/retire early mentality. In a society where people often change jobs multiple times over their life course.

A youngster better be loading up a 401-K and get him/herself a mutual fund portfolio or other investment vehicle and start wealth building, learning to live frugally well within one's means in order to save and invest toward retirement.

Hobbies that tend to clear the 8 grand/year level can be trouble.

Also, people today are often geographically mobile due to school and work issues. I am blessed to take about 2 1-week dive trips per year. That's great. That's 2 weeks off from work I could go visit my out-of-state elderly parents and maybe take their granddaughter to see them...and don't.

Recreational scuba diving is competing with more than just video gaming and skiing.

I wonder if scuba being predominantly a sport of people in the 30-40+ demographic in some areas is just the natural way of things and not cause for alarm? Aside from the small portion of players in professional sports, baseball, basket ball and football are overwhelmingly dependent on young participants. Who worries about how to get more 40 and 50 year olds into local amateur baseball teams?

I have some skin in this game. I've got a little girl, she's 6 years old, and in addition to becoming a cop and an artist, she wants to dive with me when she grows up. I'd like her to travel and see some of the world, and I'd love for her to dive. But there are a number of things to think about.

 

[Marie13]

I didn't read the full thread but just the subject title makes me cringe. Why do we need more people underwater?

My kid learned to scuba but moved on to freediving, I figure once they get old and tired will go back to scuba, assuming the ocean hasn't been fully covered with plastic by then.

Really?

 

[Angelo Farina]

Cynical, said before, tongue firmly in cheek...

I-Phone 100M + UW Wifi, if we build it they will dive.

But there is some truth to it, as a father of three diving teens I know two of them would be a lot more into it if they could bring their phones.

Well, here is the solution, then:

Seashell SS-I Underwater Housing for Apple iPhone 3G/3GS/4/4S

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

We should be listening to @DBPacific. Lots of wisdom in those comments.

One of the mistakes is assuming that all people of younger generations are alike. Another mistake is not considering the completely different financial situations that based on statistics younger generations face. Let's be honest, the ability to go to a public university, live on or off campus close by, work part time, and not take out loans are pretty much gone. One of my roommates at the University of Washington did this in the early 90s. I don't see how anyone could do the same thing today with the growth of housing costs and tuition being far greater than wages.

Even though I had a good career and no debt, I didn't get into diving after doing a DSD at the age of 29 (which I absolutely loved). I already had skiing (volunteer ski patroler), landscape photography, backpacking, hiking, waterskiing/wakeboarding) that consumed a lot of my free time. Why add another expensive hobby? My skiing was free/a tax deduction. The barriers to the other things were low (decent car, gas money, film/development costs). Cold water diving is not cheap.

Now looking back, I regret not getting into diving earlier.

I'd like to hear about realistic ways to attract people to diving. But let's not kid ourselves, for it to become a lifestyle, it is expensive.

Edit:

Some shops are still good and some shops still pretty sleazy.

<snip>
... a predatory style dive shop.

I'm stealing that for "Support your LPDS!"

 

[Esprise Me]

I hope the mods don't close this thread, actually. Lots of good responses coming now. Why let the haters have the last word?

 

[Skulmoski]

True it may be hard to find a dive buddy, but it is easier to find a dive buddy, than a bagpipe musician looking for a drummer to jam with!

But when I look at the data (PADI 2019 Worldwide Statistics - TREND BY AGE GROUP), for each of the last 5 years, there has been growth in certifications for both ages 10-19, and 20-29. Therefore, while some young people might face challenges to start or continue diving, according to PADI, certifications of young people is steadily growing that is contrary to your experience "I am concerned for the longevity of our sport because I see fewer young people becoming divers."

https://www.padi.com/sites/default/files/documents/2019-02/2019 PADI Worldwide Statistics.pdf

Perhaps some of the growth, are frustrated bagpipe musicians taking up scuba!

Best wishes in the new year!

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

True it may be hard to find a dive buddy, but it is easier to find a dive buddy, than a bagpipe musician looking for a drummer to jam with!

But when I look at the data (PADI 2019 Worldwide Statistics - TREND BY AGE GROUP), for each of the last 5 years, there has been growth in certifications for both ages 10-19, and 20-29. Therefore, while some young people might face challenges to start or continue diving, according to PADI, certifications of young people is steadily growing that is contrary to your experience "I am concerned for the longevity of our sport because I see fewer young people becoming divers."

https://www.padi.com/sites/default/files/documents/2019-02/2019 PADI Worldwide Statistics.pdf

Perhaps some of the growth, are frustrated bagpipe musicians taking up scuba!

Best wishes in the new year!

I wonder if there is a good way to track how many people are actually diving and how often. A lot of people don't go beyond OW. Some get nitrox. Some get AOW.

I watched this video: . Haven't watched this one yet: .

Certifications is a good metric, but it still paints an incomplete picture as many people stop taking courses. I haven't taken a course since I took normoxic trimix in 2018. I'm going to be taking a rebreather course starting this year, but afterwards, it will be quite rare that I take a course. Many of my dive buddies who dive recreationally only, they haven't taken a course in years, in one case, decades.

 

[Jcp2]

That is a percentage of total certifications. But what is the absolute number of certifications? What is it by geographic area on an absolute scale?

 

[maadJurguer]

So, I learned later in life and my wife learned early in her life....we're still both the youngest folks by far on trips we generally take...so here is my take on what held us both back from diving when we were younger...if this is TLDR material, then stop after this paragrpah - Perception of the activity and money involved are what held us back.

Me: I've had easy access to diving for most of my life and was fortunate to have a good paying job that could have supported diving earlier in my life. I did not learn until I was 39, and only after meeting my (now) wife who had been diving since she was a teenager. What held me back from diving in my twenties was my perception of the activity. I was, and still am, into very active pursuits in the outdoors such as backcountry skiing, riding mountain bikes and other self-committing, self-powered things where I push myself physically. Diving never seemed to be one of those things to me. The whole, follow the leader, group trip perception further held me back from being interested. I only wound up getting certified because my then girlfriend, now wife, turned me onto it. I've since learned that it can be a self-committing thing depending on what you are diving, but still don't see it as a very active thing...it's a calming thing for me. Half my dives have been self guided and that's still the part that appeals to me. When we do dive in groups, I'm fairly selective of where I do it just because again, I like to do my own thing, set my own objectives and challenges, and work towards those goals....group diving seems mindless to me and it's still kinda a turn-off (above and below the water).

My wife: She was fortunate to learn early in life, but only through the benefit of having parents who made quite a bit of money. She stopped diving when she went to college because she was then supporting herself and....money...it's an issue with diving unless you are on the water, which she was not. She only got back into it about a year before she met me when she got to a stable place in her earning profile to start spending money on trips to go dive. She's a very risk adverse individual, but I feel she would have still learned to dive had her parents not introduced it to her. By chance, we took our honeymoon in Bonaire and fell in love with diving and getting away from people. We don't go for the all inclusive resorts...and the few times we have been in one of those places, we've walked away feeling like we missed out on what we truly need.

So there you have it....my perception of the activity held me back from being interested for the longest time, and the money issue for my wife, was what kept us from really engaging in our twenties. Hopefully this adds some quality observations to the conversation rather than the, "In my day...." and "OK Boomer" quips.

 

[DBPacific]

So, I learned later in life and my wife learned early in her life....we're still both the youngest by far folks on trips we generally take...so here is my take on what held us both back from diving when we were younger...if this is TLDR material, then stop after this paragrpah - Perception of the activity and money involved are what held us back.

Me: I've had easy access to diving for most of my life and was fortunate to have a good paying job that could have supported diving earlier in my life. I did not learn until I was 39, and only after meeting my (now) wife who had been diving since she was a teenager. What held me back from diving in my twenties was my perception of the activity. I was, and still am, into very active pursuits in the outdoors such as backcountry skiing, riding mountain bikes and other self-committing, self-powered things where I push myself physically. Diving never seemed to be one of those things to me. The whole, follow the leader, group trip perception further held me back from being interested. I only wound up getting certified because my then girlfriend, now wife, turned me onto it. I've since learned that it can be a self-committing thing depending on what you are diving, but still don't see it as a very active thing...it's a calming thing for me. Half my dives have been self guided and that's still the part that appeals to me. When we do dive in groups, I'm fairly selective of where I do it just because again, I like to do my own thing, set my own objectives and challenges, and work towards those goals....group diving seems mindless to me and it's still kinda a turn-off (above and below the water).

My wife: She was fortunate to learn early in life, but only through the benefit of having parents who made quite a bit of money. She stopped diving when she went to college because she was then supporting herself and....money...it's an issue with diving unless you are on the water, which she was not. She only got back into it about a year before she met me when she got to a stable place in her earning profile to start spending money on trips to go dive. She's a very risk adverse individual, but I feel she would have still learned to dive had her parents not introduced it to her. By chance, we took our honeymoon in Bonaire and fell in love with diving and getting away from people. We don't go for the all inclusive resorts...and the few times we have been in one of those places, we've walked away feeling like we missed out on what we truly need.

So there you have it....my perception of the activity held me back from being interested for the longest time, and the money issue for my wife, was what kept us from really engaging in our twenties. Hopefully this adds some quality observations to the conversation rather than the, "In my day...." and "OK Boomer" quips.

Thank you so much for adding in your experience. It's interesting that you never saw diving as a very physical activity. That was the lens that I always saw it presented through until I actually started diving and it changed from a 'be daring, explore the dangerous ocean' to 'meditate while you swim with the fishes.'

I've seen a lot of people on this board mention the calming and meditative feeling they get when they dive and recommend it for those effects. Perhaps that could be another marketing angle to get people interested.

(In my defense, I never said 'OK Boomer' no matter how enticing it was)