Just an observation

[freewillie]

That attitude is what is killing dive shops and the industry. Not yours but the people in the shop. Those of us whose majority of diving is local are often more skilled, better diving educated, own more gear, and provide far more support to local shops. Vacation divers usually don't buy tanks, drysuits, multiple regs, lights, etc.. So take comfort in being what many of us consider to be a diver. Not an underwater tourist. I prefer to train people like you who will likely dive locally and support me and the other shops I work with to produce skilled safe divers who dive locally.

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Are you implying that if you are a local diver you are automatically a better and more skilled diver than vacation divers? That because I dropped a big chunk of change on a fancy top of the line regulator I'm just a fancy pants and don't really know how to dive because I make a comfortable living and do most of my diving on vacation? Sounds like "elitism" of a different nature.

To the OP. Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt.

I'm not sure what you mean by a serious diver. I also don't know what has been said about not being able to afford exotic trips and not being a serious diver.

I would consider myself primarily a recreational vacation diver. I get most of my yearly dives in during vacation. I have a pair of split fins which I really like, an Air2 (well, actually an Atomic SS1) as my alternate air source, and a back inflate BC. At least I don't use a snorkel when diving.

To many here on SB my gear is unacceptable for GUE findies and cave diving. But I have absolutely no interest in either type of diving. I dive locally off the shore only because I can't afford to travel all the time, just about once a year and only for about a week. In 15 years as a professional I've taken off two weeks only once. Limits my choices to Hawaii and the Caribbean for most of my vacations (and yes, I do realize those are very nice places as well.)

While I've bought some top of the line gear for myself I'm constantly on the lookout for very good gear at reasonable prices for my daughter. I won't put her in junk, but I'm not buying her an Atomic T3 either. I hang out at the LDS because much of my stuff needs intermittent service. My dive computer needed a new battery, I need tank rentals, etc. I'm also looking at some of the places they plan trips like Yap this fall. I'd love to go but can't for the price and the time they are going. No one in the shop thinks less of me for not going. The owners know how much I spend in their store and appreciate my business and support.

Diving in general to me is just fun. I don't care if I'm in local cold waters full wetsuit or tropical waters in rash guard and board shorts. The former is just to get my diving fix, the later is a real treat on occasion. It doesnt really matter if you show up with all rental gear or own titanium everything. If you are having fun then that's all that counts.

Just have fun and stay safe.

 

[Tortuga68]

Just to put another angle on the local vs travel diving...

When I lived in Australia, dive gear was very expensive (>$1000 for a Halcyon BPW, $300 for an AL80), diving was expensive (up to $200 for a two-tank dive), nitrox was expensive (up to $35 a tank), you had to travel a long way even for local diving (petrol was also expensive, over $1 a litre), training was expensive ($600 for OW) etc. etc. In short, for a week's diving it would not be any more expensive to travel to, for example, Indonesia - including flights & accomodation - than to do 5-6 days of local boat diving, and you'd do more dives & enjoy the warm water and a holiday to boot

Also around Asia I met a lot of people, typically from the US or Europe, who would work 6-9 months at home scrimping and saving so they could spend the rest of the year diving in the tropics (often working as a DM or instructor to extend their savings).

So in summary, travelling overseas to dive isn't always about having bags of money

 

[XS-NRG]

You know what makes a diver a serious diver?..... all his/her gear matches color LOL. I just realized ALL but my mask is the same red/black/white combination. I think I'm hooked LOL (now time to get a red and black mask haha)

 

[Storker]

Is this when I should mention what a DSLR UW camera setup cost?

Please don't. So far, I've been able to be sufficiently fuzzy in my answers to keep my wife in the dark about that.


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Sent from my mobile. Typos are a feature, not a bug.

 

[RJP]

Funny situation in that dive shop. I tend to look at the folks who only dive tropical locales as the ones who aren't "as serious of divers". It sounds like the folks you are talking about should quit hanging out at the dive shops talking about diving and actually go diving. Get away from those pretentious kooks and make some friends with folks that will help you develop as a diver.

Same here. In NJ those of us that dive locally are "the elitist snobs" and we laugh at the people that travel to dive.

:d

 

[chillyinCanada]

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BOO. I always miss the good stuff . . .which really is amazing since I'm so often on Scubaboard cuz none of my non-diving friends want to talk about it and like Quero said, I don't bother to talk to them anymore.

 

[The Chairman]

But when the atmosphere is such that unless you can afford at least one or more out of country dive trips a year then you must not be serious about diving it can become discouraging.

Diving is one of the most competitive non-competitive sports there is. It's not just about travel, it's about air consumption, gear snobbery, trim snobbery, expensive cameras and so on. Divers find so many areas to be the best in that it just boggles the mind.

[tongue in cheek] BTW, lest you're duped by some in this thread, the real serious divers come down to Key Largo where the pool is always open. [/tongue in cheek]

 

[Hawkwood]

Diving is one of the most competitive non-competitive sports there is. It's not just about travel, it's about air consumption, gear snobbery, .....

Haha...so true.

I tell my students that when they see something they are not familiar with, ask. Divers love to talk about their gear.....particularly how much better their gear is than your gear.

 

[ScubaSteve]

.......But when the atmosphere is such that unless you can afford at least one or more out of country dive trips a year then you must not be serious about diving it can become discouraging........

I actually feel the other way. If you are a serious diver then you will dive where ever you are and whenever you can. I would rather dive with someone who braves the cold waters (fresh as they may be) many times a year but never leaves to dive warmer and clearer water any day. A "vacation diver" is more of a problem in my opinion than someone that can only dive at home. If someone does not dive anything but warm water and rarely goes on trips, then I would prefer a different buddy because if do not use it, you definitely do lose it IMO.

 

[danvolker]

Well, I have been diving since the 70's, and have done more diving than most on this board.... I am very sure it has always been about the fun I can have, in trying to get new and even cooler experiences.
In the 70's to the 90's, it was often about spearfishing, and was always about seeing huge marine life--and wanting to see it as close as possible to the way the oceans may have been 10,000 years ago...thus my diving in less dove areas, and my getting to technical depths in the 80's and 90's, where big fish were common, and divers were not...and where fishing was less effective.

Today I dive for Videography rather than spearfishing, and I still have the same excitement with big fish, huge clouds of fish, and primordial looking underwater wildernesses.

I don't think of myself as a serious diver, because I do this for fun....but I do this a lot

If I am a serious diver because I do so much of it, there is the mission oriented deal about my search for what I think is fun....I found caves boring--there were no fish....I don't usually want to dive most places with low vis, as the videos don't look nice without 70 to 100 foot viz--they look too green.
I won't dive a place with few fish....so for me, if I moved back to Buffalo ( Eden) where I grew up, you would not find me diving the Niagra river or Lake Erie, because what I think is fun, would not be happening for me in these places( which I did dive in the past)....So I would then have to take a dive vacation, every couple of months....and I would dive the way I do now, but always concentrated at 7 to 14 days at a time, instead of one or 2 days a week, most weeks.

So by these metrics, I guess I am not serious either