If you were to redo the scuba industry how would you do it?

[gmerick]

Sorry, but I don't like the government (or a governing agency) saying what I can or can't do. If it's just me and a trusted buddy with similar attitude, experience, training the C-cards and agency approvals don't govern. The certifications and agency approval does play a significant factor when I involve other people. The dive shop who rents me their equipment needs some assurance I can use it safely, and don't present too much liability risk. The 6-pack captain and dive guide need something to plan an appropriate dive. The LOB crew needs to know I'm not a risk to the safety of an insta-buddy. When joining a group of divers to explore, survey, repair I must show I'm qualified to join them. Last big trip on the AquaCat, I showed a couple plastic cards, had an interview with the Lead Diver, and did a week of solo dives. the Lead was satisfied I wasn't a risk to the operation, and saw I could plan, execute, and return on time from the dive. The dive brief included a planned dive time; I received a quiet individual "pool's open" message and I was off.
Please don't nanny state that approach to diving.

 

[VikingDives]

it was not fun taking down a 5'7" 280 lb ironworker in a Cascade sled from the top of the mountain to the bottom in a heavy snow day.

Was that you? thank you for helping me!

But seriously, this is true...

 

[MichaelMc]

The skiing analogy seems stretched to me.

A ski resort has:
- Ski patrol covering the slopes
- Likely a more advanced med team at the base, connected to roads.
- Air at all locations
(ETA: I meant breathable gas, not water, but life-flight with ground to land on is a difference as well)

Sure, you could catch a ski and wreck a knee or break a leg, or crash into a tree on the slope sides. I think the first two are not the same class as dive barotrauma injuries.

ETA: I'd put backcountry back-bowl closer to tech diving. Most are not doing it.

 

[NothingClever]

If price is a concern then maybe the industry overall needs to be smaller and better? Why does the sport need to be flooded with incompetent divers, ones who cheated or where cheated by a self regulating industry that has a record of poor quality control and slipping people through. What good does that do for anybody? Other than a few stuffing their pockets with cash.

Smaller, yes!

It doesn’t need to be flooded with unskilled divers.

None.

 

[VikingDives]

What a lot of the recent threads about the shrinking scuba industry (and the lack of registrations at your local high school) don't take into account is the fact that our population is aging and there are fewer "kids" than there are "boomers."

If I had my druthers, every scuba student would be able to hover in neutral buoyancy and trim, and every instructor would know how to teach a class in the same manner.

The fact remains, however, that the number of boomers is greater than the replacement population, so naturally, the number of divers is declining.

There was an unusual boom of births after the second world war, and we are regressing toward the mean. For those of us who've lived through this, it's an uncomfortable adjustment as we aren't used to having to search hard/long/far for what we want, but for future generations, we will likely be some significant anomaly who had everything, but squandered it on the excesses of youth...

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

The skiing analogy seems stretched to me.

A ski resort has:
- Ski patrol covering the slopes

Yes, and people at the top at each peak to ensure complete coverage at all times. If one patroller goes down, there is another waiting for additional equipment. And when deployed, patrollers go up to staff the peaks.

- Likely a more advanced med team at the base, connected to roads.

We have first aid specialists, but not more advanced training. However, patient is not laying on the snow getting cold. But ambulances are easily able to come up.

- Air at all locations

Yes, there is lifeflight. It is extremely rare, but weather permitting, helicopters can be there in 30 minutes or less (it was less than 10 for Mt. Hood and Portland, about 45 minutes to an hour apart by car).

Sure, you could catch a ski and wreck a knee or break a leg, or crash into a tree on the slope sides. I think the first two are not the same class as dive barotrauma injuries.

ETA: I'd put backcountry back-bowl closer to tech diving. Most are not doing it.

Yeah, that is a different scenario as there is no avalanche control, in which most people are killed by trauma.

 

[Fishdip]

You have more faith in people than I do. I predict many would believe they can learn all they need to know about scuba on the Internet. Watch a few Youtubes and you're off.

Also, if training were not required to rent gear/tanks or be taken on a dive boat, would that mean doing away with standards? Could anyone then call themselves a scuba instructor? How would a diver know how to choose an instructor? Sounds like a mess to me.

I actually love telling people that I just got my gear off craigslist, and I watched a few videos on YT so I think I am good to dive

 

[Lorenzoid]

im more along the line of it not being my business, someone doing something beyond their ability in scuba isn’t likely to harm anyone else, same with rock climbing unless someone falls one someone else, skiing actually poses greater risk to others.

Sure. No skin off my back, either. But if it really does become an issue of too many people dying, insurance companies may stop insuring dive ops, and dive ops as we know them may disappear, no longer provide fills, boats, etc. We might even see do-gooder legislators trying to step in (not that California would do that, of course). I don't know about you, but I don't own a boat or a compressor, and I kind of like the idea of being part of a sort of worldwide community of people who share a passion for diving. For the sport to thrive, there needs to be some way that enough people manage to do it without getting hurt.

 

[Lorenzoid]

The skiing analogy seems stretched to me.

A ski resort has:
- Ski patrol covering the slopes
- Likely a more advanced med team at the base, connected to roads.
- Air at all locations
(ETA: I meant breathable gas, not water, but life-flight with ground to land on is a difference as well)

Sure, you could catch a ski and wreck a knee or break a leg, or crash into a tree on the slope sides. I think the first two are not the same class as dive barotrauma injuries.

In addition to what you pointed out, I also think people are pretty good at self-regulating on a ski slope. Almost every ski resort has a well-marked array of slopes, from the bunny slope to double black diamond or whatever they call it (it's been a while since I skied). Most newbies know to try to the bunny slope first, then try progressively more challenging slopes. No matter where they are, they're able to feel whether they're about to lose control and fall. Falling down or crashing into something are innately understood risks.

Scuba diving may seem deceptively easy. They don't know all the things that could go wrong. There isn't often a dive site opportunity analogous to a bunny slope, or a well-marked spectrum of increasing difficulty. The new diver doesn't feel any different going just a few feet deeper, and so maybe they go another few feet deeper.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Speaking of rock climbing and several fatalities a year. The best cross over I can think of is freediving for abalone.
Neither of them require any certifications and both have several fatalities per year. Well, not abalone diving any more because they closed it, but it used to.
Every year we would have an average of 8 fatalities from the SF golden gate bridge up to the Oregon border. Most of them were in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties where the bulk of abalone diving was going on. Anybody could walk into a dive shop and rent all the freediving gear they needed and go out to the ocean without a lick of experience and kill themselves. No certification or experience required.
It happened all the time. The worst one was three friends went out one morning when the swell was running about 18’. Nobody with any experience would ever attempt to dive in conditions like that!
So here these three guys, one from the City, one from the Valley, and one visiting from China, they rent some gear at a dive shop in the South Bay, they drive up to Mendocino County to a beach and attempt to get in. Non of them had ever been in the ocean and none knew what bad conditions were or what they meant. They just thought you go in and get abalone.
So all three got killed, probably instantly or upon entering and shorty after. The recovery was gruelling because of the huge swells and crashing surf on the rocks.
The wife of one of them tried to sue the shop, the county, the state, etc. and have the whole sport and the beaches shut down, but she got nowhere.