Is it good that scuba diving is not popular!

[Z Gear]

I find that there is a two sides to this subject that I can't quite decide which is better. Whether you are a consumer, manufacturer or retailer it always beneficial to have mass market appeal. Obviously for the manufacturer and the retailer this means more people and more sales. For the consumer it should also mean more demand which brings in more competitive prices and thus helps the consumer in this area. While this is all sounds great it also has consequences that I am not sure I would like. It kind of reminds me of surfing.

As a surfer I enjoyed surfing uncrowded local breaks for a while. Then even in my time that I started, which was in the early 90's the crowds of new guys and girls giving it a try went crazy. I think it was after the movie "Point Break". Every year I would see the amount of newbies (surfers call them kooks) would get bigger. Some would just try it for a summer or two and then give up, mostly because they couldn't hack it. It was just to frustrating for them. That sport takes a lot of effort before you can get the surfing bug to bite you. The movies and culture have done a good job of growing that industry. But most of the time I wish it was just a hidden sport like it was before.

Part of me thinks the same of scuba diving. I don't want to see a zoo of people at my local dive site. I am kind of torn on this one.

Do you want a lot more people to know more about diving ? Or would rather keep it as the mysterious hobby/activity, those guys do.

I am not complaining but for some reason the industry as a whole has done a great job at keeping this a niche sport/ activity.They really haven't tapped into to the mass market and ironically if there is a sport or activity that has the potential for highest merchandising, scuba should be on the top of the list. Because it actually has the most gear.


Frank G
www.zgearinc.com

 

[AfterDark]

I started diving in the late 1960's and I can assure you that here in NE at that time finding divers was like finding chicken lips. I was labeled as kinda weird because I wanted to dive, talked about diving and then actually went and got certified. Man what a weirdo! By the second year I was solo diving at times because I had one(1) dive buddy and when he didn't want to dive and I did I still did.

Back then equipment was sparse a suit, fins, mask, snorkel, tank, bacpac/harness, reg weights a watch and a depth gage. BCD's SPG were for the rich and computers were a dream. A diver first had to be a strong swimmer not just a good one.

The scuba classes were geared that way also, being an average swimmer could get you excluded from the class. The classes were not geared for the success of the student but to weed out the weak, not as brutal but similar to SEAL training were the object is to expose the weakness's, those that can't over come those weakness and get them to remove themselves from training. It didn't exactly have universal attraction, diving was less popular then you think it is now.

Four decades later I solo dive either because I want to or my 3rd shift schedule precludes finding a dive buddy free to dive when I am able, not for lack of divers. I can go here a week before I want to dive and find a buddy. That just was not the case years ago. I'd hangout at the dive shop some days waiting for someone looking for a buddy. My savior was the Bay State Frogmen Club a group of hardcore divers that loved diving as much as I do, most of those guys are gone today, they were all at least 10 years older than I some were quite a bit older.

The simple fact is there are people that won't go in the water outside the bath tub at all. Others have no interest in diving or the thought of being underwater frightens them (I married one of those), and there are some people that just don't have ability to dive due to medical issues and still others that don't have the financial ability to take classes and rent/buy gear. All things considered I would disagree that diving isn't popular it is very popular compared to a few decades ago. It is a lot more expensive.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I will confess I don't like to turn up at my favorite dive sites to find the water looking like a jacuzzi from all the bubbles of the divers. I just plan to dive when the least number of people are likely to be there.

I have been told by some of the people running dive shops that it is less popular than it used to be. Perhaps because of the economic situation

I Think that the more popular the sport is the more research and development will happen to make our gear options better. The more people who dive the more competition for customers so hopefully prices will go down. More divers are also likely to mean more interest in the marine environment hopefully bringing more awareness and protection of if.

I can't honestly see any down side to having more involved in the sport.

 

[NC Air Hog]

You have made a great observation Z Gear. I had never really thought about keeping the sport a secret of sorts. The industry numbers, from the sources I have looked at, show that the numbers have been flat for a while now. I would venture to say that we have another year or two of this trend while everyone continues to rebound from 2008. Like many other, I am torn. If more and more people get into the industry, I could likely sell more gear and actually retire one day.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

There's plenty of room in the oceans for all of us.
I have always (and will always) encourage family, friends and casual associates to at least try diving.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Yep altho some of our sites get awful crowded and some of them have really big problems with silting you can always pick a time to dive it when it is less crowded. Dr Simon Mitchell once said "I find it difficult to deny others access to diving because I enjoy it so much myself"

I feel sorry for those who can't dive. I love sharing the things I love. My favourite thing to do when someone.. especially children ask "What did you see?" Is to get my camera and scroll through the pics and see them get surprised and delighted because it is in THEIR world. The more they see the better chance they will value and protect it!

 

[Searcaigh]

I have one "local" dive site that is akin to diving in a shopping mall if you head there for the 0900 dive on a Friday morning.

Fortunately the dive op I use these days heads for this site around 1100 and it is peace and quiet at 30M. Even better I am usually the only person using Nitrox, and frequently have the site all to myself for around 10mins before ascending.

I think there will always be some dive sites that will remain "secret" I know of a few on the Saudi side of the Red Sea, and I hope they stay that way.

As mentioned though for companies who manufacture products for our hobby, there has to be a critical mass in order to make it worth while and of course the more people who participate in diving the cheaper some products will become.

Double edged sword sometimes, while popularity of diving is good for manufacturing it could be bad for the environment for some over dived sites, some areas of the Egyptian side of the Red Sea are an example to that.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Yep altho some of our sites get awful crowded and some of them have really big problems with silting you can always pick a time to dive it when it is less crowded. Dr Simon Mitchell once said "I find it difficult to deny others access to diving because I enjoy it so much myself"

I feel sorry for those who can't dive. I love sharing the things I love. My favourite thing to do when someone.. especially children ask "What did you see?" Is to get my camera and scroll through the pics and see them get surprised and delighted because it is in THEIR world. The more they see the better chance they will value and protect it!

I have a 3 year old granddaughter who often comes to my home office and makes it clear that I need to stop what I'm doing (like, say, ScubaBoard...) and look at fishes with her. She loves turtles, crabs and lobsters more than anything.

 

[NC Air Hog]

During the summer in our area, one of our quarries will be crowed. Many of the instructors seem to arrive with their students at 7 or 8 in the morning. I tend to show up with our classes at 1 or 2 in the afternoon. The crowed is normally 1/4 of the size by then. Plenty of room to spread out and not risk running into another group under water.

 

[RJP]

Is it good that scuba diving is not popular?

As Yogi Bera once said "Nobody goes there anymore... it's too crowded."

Is it "good" that it's not popular? Hardly.

Are things like uncrowded dive sites a bit of a silver-lining? Sure.

Things like uncrowded dive SHOPS, uncrowded dive BOATS, uncrowded dive CLASSES, uncrowded dive RESORTS... not so much.

The industry as a whole has not "done a great job at keeping this a niche sport/activity." They've done a sh***y job of marketing it. As a marketer I've long held that the word "niche" should be banished from general business language, since no one seems to know what the word actually means. More often than not it's employed as an excuse for poor performance by a brand, company, or even an industry.

Derived from an Old French word ("nichier" which means to "create a nest or home") the word niche actually means "a well defined place of prominence, usually to display an object of art or value."

Denotatively the word has nothing to do with the idea of "small" in any specific way, although it has come to mean that connotatively.

If we are going to use the term "niche" in marketing, we should at least define it as what it really means: "we can't get out of own way."