I Don't Understand Dive Shops

[Sam Miller III]

Good OLD @drbill posted:

I guess I've been really fortunate living in SoCal and diving here for 50 years. Our local dive shops are all very knowledgeable about diving here (Catalina Island) and offer both shore and boat diving. If I need help with gear (including video) they are also very helpful and knowledgeable. Owners of all shops are experienced divers (and instructors).
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I certainly agree 100 per cent !

I can not comment on the current Catalina dive operators- but the original Catalina shops were staffed by friendly knowable well trained individuals.-but no instructors

The shop you were you were certified, "The Aquatic Center" was founded in early 1950s by LA CO UW instructors Bob Retherford and Joe Mc Cabe in Bob's garage on the corner of Brookhurst & Cerritos in Anaheim. ( Bob was a great promoter he created the first UW signaling system in 1954 followed by the first UW Christmas party which was featured on national TV- read an article about Bob in www.portagequarry.com "Legends of diving" Joe Mc Cabe was a US Naval academy graduate, veteran of the Korean conflict (in those days we were all veterans) lost his life on June 4th 1950 diving at 200 feet while participating in salvaging a 7000 anchor of Abalone point in Catalina Island

The shop was moved to Newport Beach and sold to Ron Merker in the very early 1960s. Ron was a LA Co UW & NAUI instructor and business man in every sense of the term "business man." He his partner and the well trained staff, most who were LA Co UW instructors were very professional. --

I recall when a local named John Wayne came in to purchase equipment for his son Ethan. Ron waited on them assisting in selecting the proper equipment. After it was all selected and the price was tallied John wanted a discount . Ron replied "Do you go to the supermarket and ask for a discount ? " John had two options pay the established price or walk -- he paid.....and became a customer..

But Ron also had a sense of humor ...

It was early 1960s prior to the VIP requirements when only a hydro was required every 5 years. According to a story told by the then US Diver's representative who just happened to be calling on, Ron a customer came in carrying his SCUBA tank which he placed on the fill station counter and asked Ron about a special test that was required every 5 years .

Ron thumped the tank as if it was a watermelon picked it up placed it on his shoulder and struck it with an abalone iron and stated "High C - Its ripe - that will be $5.00 ! "

And so it was …

The shop which was the second dive shop in then very bucolic Orange County, California has been in existence since about 1955, perhaps 65 or more years and although it has been sold several times to a variety of owners it has remained the premier full service professional dive operation in that county and is expected to continue providing great service. A tribute to a professional dive operation
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@drbill also stated

"Back when I first used SCUBA in the 60s I was in Illinois and there wasn't a dive shop in my vicinity (tanks were filled at fire stations!).'

Bill, as you know I am just a slow talking slow walking, even slower thinking broken down diver therefore I have difficulty in comprehending your statement ' Back when I first used SCUBA in the 60s I was in Illinois and there wasn't a dive shop in my vicinity (tanks were filled at fire stations!).'

Bill,
As I recall you were from the windy city of Chicago which was one of the early dive centers

The great Chicago "Dive Master Company" was a giant in the diving world. They were what would be called a full line dive shop today -- only more so.-- Dive Master manufactured their own brand of regulators,(very rare now!) They offered a Dive Master mail order diving course (Your very close friend Zale Parry carries Dive master Card #10) and the produced a very complete mail order Dive Master catalog from 1955 to the company's demise in early 1960s.-
( I have all the Dive Master catalogs in my library )

Recall the early organization Underwater Society of America aka USA held its 1950s conferences in Chicago,

Ray Hoagland a Chicago native authored a very complete and popular dive instruction manual which was offered by the Sears every summer in their dive catalogs from 1956 to 1974

Skin Diver Magazine May 1958 edition contained a World wide Underwater Club Roster. The majority of the pages were devoted to the numerous California clubs since the sport was slowly migrating eastward.
Chicago proper had 9 dive clubs listed in the magazine, with another 8 listed in areas near by as well and a listing for a very active Council of Illinois diving clubs

Skin Diver Magazine January 1963 edition also contained a revised and enlarged World wide Underwater Club Roster.
In its pages Chicago had 10 dive clubs listed, with another 17 listed else where in the state for a total of 27 dive clubs

John Cronin, the Chicago US Diver representative Ralph Erickson, an original NAUI Instructor and local swimming coach ,. Bob Chow and others created PADI in a snow storm in 1969 in Chicago.

I am surprised that with all the diving activity in your home city of Chicago that there wasn't a dive shop or a dive club near by and you had to rely on the Chicago fire department to fill your SCUBA tanks, which transferred a tremendous lability to the department since you had no recognized dive training .

just wondering....

Sam Miller, III
@Marie13
@Akimbo

 

[TMHeimer]

How dare you say that. Cold water diving is awesome, it’s an area you clearly don’t have experience in.

Well, just an opinion. Probably 95% of my 750+ dives have been cold--some really cold. Maybe 98% if you count like, South Carolina in the winter as "cold" 60F water. Agree that there are far more "colorful" northern dive areas than the places I've dived on the East Coast. Sure there are those who'd say diving in BC or Washington State is better than in Aruba--I would probably not be one of them. wetb4 mentioned Port Hardy (BC). I've been there but before I was a diver. Don't care what it looks like uw, I'll still take Antigua (haven't been there).

 

[TMHeimer]

I have noted this many times in the past. Many ScubaBoard posters are absolutely incensed that professional instructors expect to be paid for their work. It should be a free service in their minds. In the United States, when you pay for a course, the bulk of the price you pay goes to the shop, and in many cases that instructor you resent so much is not even making minimum wage. Tipping instructors is pretty rare, but when I have been tipped, that "little extra" I was given usually amounted to more than I was paid for teaching the class.

Agree completely. You've seen me rant that it's the same with musicians. How dare someone want decent pay for something you're supposed to just do because it's "fun". Yet as you say, Golf is fun also......

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

“I don’t understand dive shops”.
Oh, I do!
Whenever you have an extremely small niche hobby industry like diving where small retailers depend on each and every small sale at full retail just to stay alive, and an overlord style manufacturing/supply model that dictates the retail price plus territory boundries, you have a recipe for a sitting duck waiting for slaughter by any online or catalog discount seller that isn’t bound by such rules.
I’ve seen it in excercise equipment in the 80’s, I’ve seen it in art supplies, and many other hobby industries.
Scuba is probably the smallest and most obscure out of any of them. Knitting and archery are bigger.
Lack of demand means the established powers in charge can continue to rule the industry as they wish. Not unless more demand and an increase in end user participation happens will there be enough volume to create a competitive environment that will foster a more democratic atmosphere.
However, there are many things local dive shops could do to increase local interest in local diving, but my opinion is that they are just burned out to some degree and either don’t have the energy to do anything or are just not seeing clearly through their funk. They need younger blood to come in with some energy and fresh new ideas.
For instance, like around here we had our sport abalone diving shut down. This has had a huge impact on every dive shop in northern California. But very few have switched to heavily promoting local scuba diving instead, or even trips!
As a result they are not stocking their stores because they’re afraid nobody will come in to buy gear. I went in to look for a suit for my buddy (since he’s new) and there is nothing in stock, and all their inventory has a lot of holes with missing sizes, etc. I am forced to send him online after he was willing to pay more shopping local and support them, but they didn’t have it.
The problem with local diving is people won’t do it. Too cold, too dark, too threatening, too many sharks,...whatever.
I do it and my group does it, but we’re kind of freaks of nature. Anybody who dives around here is considered a freak apparently. It’s way beyond what the general public has the stomach or the nerve to try.
But somehow I don’t think our local dive shops have found and addressed all the freaks of nature that might give local diving a try.

 

[taimen]

This rant that local diving is lousy/cold/low visibility/only for freaks is strange. You can hear the same arguments all around the globe, only exception being a few popular tourist diving sites. Maybe it is the industry to blame after all. OW course materials have only pictures of divers in sunny tropical locations and many dive shops promote dive travel more than local diving. This seems stupid. Local diving is often pretty good. People who dive all year round locally tend to support local shops and buy more gear.

 

[drbill]

Sam, when I lived in the Chicago area there were no dive shops within reasonable distance of where I lived. The Chicago are encompasses a lot of turf. I wasn't able to drive until 1964 and my parents wouldn't let me drive into Chicago. By 1969 I was diving in SoCal.

 

[divinh]

The closest dive shop to me, 15 min walking distance, wants $100/hour to use their pool so that I could test my equipment before a trip. The next closest dive shop, 30 minutes by car, wants $6, the cost of a tank fill, and I can use their pool for as long as I want. (Of course, with both, I would have to work around their teaching schedule.)

 

[TMHeimer]

The closest dive shop to me, 15 min walking distance, wants $100/hour to use their pool so that I could test my equipment before a trip. The next closest dive shop, 30 minutes by car, wants $6, the cost of a tank fill, and I can use their pool for as long as I want. (Of course, with both, I would have to work around their teaching schedule.)

Wow--$100...Then again what does a house cost in SF?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Wow--$100...Then again what does a house cost in SF?

Not smart business in my book. If they are a customer, it should be free, as long as they don't interfere with classes. That's the practice in my area. One shop has a pool, the others you have to drop in during their classes when they rent pools. But a single person is going to be able to stay out of the way.

This kind of service is going to win more in sales. I am pretty sure that @divinh is more likely to give business to the shop 30 minute drive away.

 

[scubafanatic]

The closest dive shop to me, 15 min walking distance, wants $100/hour to use their pool so that I could test my equipment before a trip. The next closest dive shop, 30 minutes by car, wants $6, the cost of a tank fill, and I can use their pool for as long as I want. (Of course, with both, I would have to work around their teaching schedule.)

I've got 2 shops locally with indoor pools, Scubatoys offers free pool time for things like gear testing, etc but they are in N. Dallas so close to an hour drive one-way. The other shop is a much easier/closer 20 min drive one-way, they charge $25 flat fee (not hourly), which includes free use of their AL80 tanks/weights. I use the closer shop as their fee is very reasonable.