Is Scuba A Sport?

[DivingsInMyBlood]

just seems more like a hobby

 

[TheRedHead]

Yeah but you can learn to sail and to be a cheerleader and neither require much endurance.

Try working out with some cheerleaders and see if you could keep up, particularly the dance routines. :shakehead

 

[k4man]

I know people who consider HS Cheerleading a sport (let the brick throwing begin), so scuba sure as hell is!!

 

[RoyN]

You SHOULD be fit to dive so no, it is not a sport.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Care to quote the rest?

Though even by that single definition, I'd say the athletic activity that is diving (which certainly requires skill), would meet your dictionary's definition of sport.

So, your evidence seems to contradict your point...

2. jest or fun: to say something in sport.
3. mockery or ridicule: to make sport of someone.
4. an object of mockery.
5. Informal, a sportsmanlike or accommodating person.
6. Informal, a person interested in sports as an occasion for gambling.
7. an animal or plant that shows an unusual deviation from the normal type.
8. of or for a sport or sports.
9. suitable for informal wear: sport clothes.
10. to play or frolic.
11. to trifle or treat lightly.
12. Informal, to wear or display, esp. with ostentation.

There are many un-athletic, un-skilled scuba divers in the world. If you are athletic and skilled you may be an athletic, skilled scuba diver. There are many tourist divers who only boat dive and mostly drift dive so all that's really needed is enough lead to sink 'um. I've seen a few divers that never got 50 ft from the down line; yah their good on air, but all they do is hover for over an hour. Around 500 dives, mostly drifts in coz, loves diving, not athletic and would probably laugh at anybody who thinks scuba diving is a sport.

 

[MeiLing]

sailing = not

Obviously, you've never sailed competively! Try taking a laser out for day in a place that has wind. It'd kick your *****!

As to whether or not SCUBA diving is a sport or not, who really cares! I don't really consider golf a sport, but they still air it on ESPN! Yes, it does take skill or talent, but I don't consider it particularly athletic! Not a question I'm going to spend time pondering!

 

[Sylvain]

DO you do physical exercise underwater, do you have special equipment, are you going against time during the activity to me the answer is yes to all of the above so it is a sport as much as golf, fishing, chess, walking, inline skates, archry target shooting and all the other ones. I am pretty sure that people know all kinds of sports that to them is not a sports but to us diving is a sport/relaxation time/be free and all the other stuff that we can think of.

 

[driftin' by]

It is what it is. Not sure where the urge to belong to a category comes from. Apparently, I struck a nerve with some folks.

Try working out with some cheerleaders and see if you could keep up, particularly the dance routines.

I wouldn't be so sure.... I'm very fit. I'd like to see a cheerleader keep up with me running an Ironman. LOL... I can't even see one finishing the 2.4 mile swim portion.

Obviously, you've never sailed competitively! Try taking a laser out for day in a place that has wind. It'd kick your *****!

I struggle with sailing.... I've done a bit myself and indeed, it's exhausting and requires a lot of endurance but it still boils down to that it doesn't require any talent that you can't learn. But whatever... I guess it comes down to if it kicks your ***, then it must be a sport? Hand mixing concrete will kick your *** too, so masonry work is a sport?!?!

 

[aquaticmatt]

SCUBA is a passion and/or lifestyle. Sport?? Not sure, but I think whether you think it's a sport or you don't think it's a sport, you're probably right.

 

[MeiLing]

I struggle with sailing.... I've done a bit myself and indeed, it's exhausting and requires a lot of endurance but it still boils down to that it doesn't require any talent that you can't learn. But whatever... I guess it comes down to if it kicks your ***, then it must be a sport? Hand mixing concrete will kick your *** too, so masonry work is a sport?!?!

Most endeavors that fall clearly into the category of sports, are also in that category of requiring talent that you can learn. If most of us devoted our life to a sport as most atheletes do, then we'd likely be pretty talented as well.

I'd say that, in my book, anything that you'd do for free and kicks your *** comes closer to falling into the category of sport. Hand mixing concrete. Well you'd have to pay me to do that or I'd do it for free only if I was improving my own home. By that definition, that falls clearly into the definition of work!