Is it time to kill DSDs and go back to the drawing board?

[Eric Sedletzky]

You wrote in your article "One of its purposes is to be a money-making activity for numerous resorts. The number of scuba tryouts done annually around the planet is significantly higher than the number of entry-level certifications — somewhere between 6 and 10 times more.

The second role of discover scuba diving (DSD) is to be a marketing tool we use to provide a chance to taste the underwater world, in the hope of recruiting students for the open water (entry-level) diver course."

What is the customer base's purpose for it? What does the customer want? For example, I wonder what % of people enrolling in DSD classes have which of these goals:

1.) Try it once out of curiosity, like people on a cruise parasailing or someone who wants to skydive once in their life. Bucket list.

2.) Try it out of curiosity, no clear expectation either way as to continuing. Want to know more about it. Personal enrichment.

3.) Try it on for size, hoping to make it an occasional activity going forward. Continuing source of experiences.

If we visited a cruise port parasailing operator and said >90% of your clients never parasail again so you're a failure, that wouldn't be right. But if most people taking a DSD would become long-term divers if they had a good experience, that's another thing.

So, it'd be useful to either find a DSD type program that you're confident really does a superb job, or pool people who've been through one and affirm they had a subjectively good experience. Out of this group, what % go on to get OW cert. and continue diving?

Or, just treat DSD along the lines of parasailing and leave it at that. Be happy there is a market for it. Make sure the instructors are good and people are safe and have a good time. If they move onto OW then consider it a bonus, but to call every person that does a DSD and doesn’t go onto OW an industry failure, I think is a bit over the top.
The ones that want to go on and get OW will. Not everyone is cut out to be a diver.

Still nobody has answered the question, why does scuba need to grow? Is it all about the money?
Growing scuba using the same model that’s been used up to this point obviously isn’t working.
I think the quality of instruction needs to improve or ‘grow’ before thinking about growing the scuba industry as a whole.

 

[stiebs]

From the article:

A guy who ended up with a free-flowing regulator at 110 feet on the open water portion of the scuba tryout adventure.

In what DSD do you take a diver to 110 feet?!?!

 

[Searcaigh]

First of all, I'm not an instructor, but my daughter is and I have many friends who teach diving including DSDs.

I've watched how they perform these classes and pretty much can't fault any of them in their approach and methodology.

Personally I think the DSD is a great way to get people into SCUBA, swim around with some pretty fish in reasonably shallow clear warm water.

In a cold quarry with nothing to see though isn't going to cut it with anyone, and I don't see how using surface supplied air is going to improve the experience in that scenario.

I do know a couple of instructors who teach OW using surface supplied air in a pool before getting them kitted out with BCD etc., and the results of that are really great when they do their first OW training dives in the sea ............ perfect horizontal trim and buoyancy.

Doing a DSD might be a once off for some people just because it's available at a holiday resort, like parasailing (tried that once ... meh) and I honestly can't compare it with scuba diving, it's not likely that when tourists go home they will want to get towed behind a boat to fly for 5 mins, but there's good possibility that if people are really interested in diving then locally they will be able to find an instructor who can take them to the next level.

 

[Ghost95]

I think you answered your own question in the article.

Make the quality of the DSD better. Was it your shop who had instructors taking people to 110', leaving students in their wake, or putting then in sub standard gear or were those contacts from other DSD operators? I wasn't sure.

Of course there would be a huge negative response to intros that were run that way.

Fix those issues and I bet the positivity would go up.

Also, DSD's are best done (in my i opinion) in warm, tropical resort areas where there isn't need for excess gear like wetsuits and the water is clear. Unless someone is already pretty committed to diving I don't think diving in a quarry with freezing water and 3' viz would be popular.

 

[Diving Dubai]

So a few points from me.

Firsty the horror stories recounted were all violation of standards - a DSD at 110ft!!!

DSD are a good source of revenue particularly for resort centres with pretty house reefs. You can buzz through quite a few in a day and easily generate more revenue/profit than a OW course

That might not be true in some cold inland mud pit

They do give people a taster. Some dislike it, some enjoy it as a single experience, some go further with other certifications. A few do multiple DSD's on vacations because they get the underwater experience without the time commitment

The negative side is that it requires experienced instructors to guide/teach. DSD's can be very unpredictable. Unfortunately lots of dive centres use their least experienced instructors, rather than those who've gained experience with students and have the mental bandwidth to deal with a sudden issue

I dislike teaching DSD, I've done it under duress, and only then as a 1:1 ratio


I think you made some sweeping statements to support your position which really don't hold water.


How to improve - Demand more experienced instructors only and lead OW DSD's - No DM's and smaller ratios

I think the most overlooked course is Scuba diver where the diver is qualified only to 12m with a Pro. For 80% of new resort divers this is perfectly fine, lots of pretty stuff and the ability to work on their basic skills for a few dives before upgrading to OW if they choose.

Dive centres of course love the upsell to OW

Is SSA a good thing, I don't know, certainly I knew a centre that ensured its divers were in the water at the same time and in the same location as the SSA divers - as a bit of a carrot

 

[Marie13]

I think non-resort DSDs are for adults unsure about going uw (me!) and want to see how they like it or for the kiddies, especially in the winter (indoor pool). I’ll be doing that for a good friend’s son (12) over the upcoming winter.

 

[Darcy Kieran]

That’s what I like about Scubaboard — nobody pulls any punches. I love it! Lots of food for thought. Part of the reason I write on Scubanomics is to “shake things up,” so… Keep it coming!

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

That’s what I like about Scubaboard — nobody pulls any punches. I love it! Lots of food for thought. Part of the reason I write on Scubanomics is to “shake things up,” so… Keep it coming!

I might be overly cynical here, but how do you expect to "shake things up"? One of the common comments here was lower ratio for DSD and Try Scuba. Do you really think you can get the two largest agencies, PADI and SSI, to reduce that ratio below 1:4?

Getting instructors to teach open water neutrally buoyant and trim, and not on the knees, is a Sisyphean task. If that is such an issue, I don't see how we can expect these introductory scuba experiences to change all that much.

The audience for this content is the dive center owner, the dive pro, that focuses on quality over quantity. They do exist, and they are successful. In my area (not a tropical location), there are a couple shops that I believe are exemplary in their quality. I hope existing and new dive centers look at such operations and ask themselves what they can do differently to be more successful. How far that trickles out, I have no idea.

Love the quote in your signature btw. Just noticed it.

 

[Darcy Kieran]

Do you really think you can get the two largest agencies, PADI and SSI, to reduce that ratio below 1:4?

Why not? SDI brought it down to 2:1.

Changes have to start somewhere. Voicing concerns and discussing solutions is usually a start.

And... Thanks! I like that quote!

 

[Outbound]

It seems to me that diving in general has a pretty high attrition rate. I'm not in the industry so I haven't bothered to find the statistics, but I was under the impression that the number of people who go on to be regular divers is but a small fraction of the number who either initially do a DSD or get their OWD cert. How many folks get certified only to never bother diving again after their initial trip? Some probably don't even bother doing their checkout dives and so never complete their certification (I know a few of those people). Many others are content with only being occasional vacation divers who do a handful of dives every year or two. Those folks probably make up the vast majority of certified divers.

Is this a good or a bad thing? I don't know. Maybe a little bit of both. More divers means the industry grows, theoretically giving us all better dive equipment innovations, more dive operators around the world, a better dive infrastructure, financially stable local dive shops, and, ostensibly, better competition and thus better prices. But it also means things like more cattle boats, more subpar divers who aren't as motivated to better their skills and training, etc.