Making scuba a real "sport"???

[mdb]

by your own definition scuba is a sport: it is an activity governed by a set of rules and customs. some people choose to ignore/break them, just as in any sport. the words "often engaged in competitively" is also correct, as is does not say "always".

you dont have to have cameras, and audience, and over paid athletes to define a sport. the fact that people think that is so is sad.

Well, SCUBA DIVING is no more of a sport than ant farming, it is just a great activity that many/we can all enjoy.

Sports involve competition etc. It does not seem that divers are in competition with each other. While, maybe some want to be, does not make diving a "sport"-simply a recreational activity.

 

[Kingpatzer]

The typical American male sees everything as a competiton; however, conventional diving is not a true 'sport'.

One quality Americans tend to have in spades over and above their competitive streak, is simple ignorance.

This is entirely a question of semantics. For semantic questions, we can look to authoritative sources that track usage. "Sport" is a word that has been used since the 1400's to describe any past-time that provides pleasure or amusement. By the mid-1500's it came to denote any pleasant physical activity and has been used in that fashion ever since.

The reason that competitive sports require the adjective "competitive" is precisely because of the denotative meaning of "sport" does not require competition as part of the activity.

The notion that the term 'sport' requires competition as part of the definition of the term is relatively new, and while it may have supplanted the more antiquated meaning as the primary definition of the term, it has not supplanted that older usage completely. As noted earlier, for example, the phrase "competitive sports" is still relatively common, and indicates that "sport" does not require competition (else this usage would be redundant). Certainly the original usage is not in some way voided due to the newer usage. 'Sport' defined as meaning mere physical activity appears in every English dictionary I have.

 

[grassyknoll]

One quality Americans tend to have in spades over and above their competitive streak, is simple ignorance.

And the quality of making nasty generalizations about other nationalities is soooooo much more attractive.

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

It's fascinating to watch threads devolve. I don't know what the "ignorance" of Americans has to do with injecting some element of competition into scuba.

Aside from the William Safire-esque interpretations of the word "sport" from the language snobs, and the suggestion that this has all been covered before (as if anything on this board has never been discussed before), the main point is: when a so-called recreational activity (skiing. snowboarding, karate) becomes a popular competitive sport with a television audience, money and interest flows into that sport at unprecedented levels. The result? The equipment and venues surrounding that sport increase in quality immensely. The activity isn't corrupted or denigrated, it is enhanced. And those who chose to ignore the competitive aspect and pursue the activity purely for fun are free to do so, only with better equipment, better destinations and, in a real sense, far more prestige than they did so before. In the 1970s, skateboarders were stoners and weirdos, now they are respected athletes.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Scuba is most often enjoyed around the use of a limited natural resources. Over commericialization of these resources will destroy them. Marketing to the masses will encourage non-qualified people to dive. You all complain about PADI now being a C-Card mill, just wait until Scuba is on EPSN-15 or whatever. No Thanks!

I think gear will continue to evolve as they have over the past 40 years because there are enough people who truely love diving without the need for over hyped sporting events to get more big money corporation involved.

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

Scuba is most often enjoyed around the use of a limited natural resources. Over commericialization of these resources will destroy them. Marketing to the masses will encourage non-qualified people to dive. You all complain about PADI now being a C-Card mill, just wait until Scuba is on EPSN-15 or whatever. No Thanks!

I think gear will continue to evolve as they have over the past 40 years because there are enough people who truely love diving without the need for over hyped sporting events to get more big money corporation involved.

In other words, scuba should be reserved for the few elite who deserve it rather than the great unwashed grunion who don't? The great increased interest in winter sports has obviously "destroyed" the alpine areas? I think not. And equioment does not get better because people love diving. It gets better because more people want to buy better equipment. The companies don't improve their products as a public service. More money = more competition = better products at lower prices.

If scuba venues were essential for multimillion dollar events, the commercial incentive to preserve them (and to create new ones) would be much greater than it is now. What is the incentive to keep dive sites nice now, or to cultivate new ones? Love of diving? Please... that only goes so far. It takes money to sink big wrecks and maintain accessible dive sites.

If scuba were more popular, things would probably be much nicer, for us and the environment, than they are now.

I've been to the US Open (tennis) when no one cared about tennis, and most recently, last week. The facilities thirty years ago were mediocre, now they are gorgeous. As Gordon Gecko says, greed is good. Money gets things done and for a sport to have big money, it must generate big interest.

I sense the old Sierra Club mentality, that too many people + money= bad. The evidence shows this to be elitist rubbish. The big concern here is the same concern that my friends had when golf became so popular: will I still get MY tee time? Now that's GREEDY. Somehow, golf courses were supposed to be maintained in excellent condition, but no one but ME should be allowed to play on them. It doesn't work that way.

So I guess equipment manufacturers are supposed to make safe, good, cheap equipment and dive operators should run frequent, uncrowded, comfortable boats that go to pristine reefs for those worthy, proud and highly select few who LOVE the sport?

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Hey Shakey,

Even the Sierra Cub gets it right sometimes (darn those tree huggers). Mans greed (gobs of money) + unthinking people = bad.

If you think I am elitist because I don't whish for Scuba to become a super sport and grow at an accelerated pace so I can buy shiny new gizmos, then so be it. I am happy to let it continue to grow at a reasonable pace and evolve as it has.

 

[Kingpatzer]

And the quality of making nasty generalizations about other nationalities is soooooo much more attractive.

Actually, I'm making a generalization about my own nationality, thank you very much.

 

[Kwbyron]

OK! Answer to the original question, here is what we do:
1st, build a stadium, one per city is all that is needed, and since shops need pools for training anyways, build one that can do more then that:
Have a footprint of a standard competition pool, maybe not olympic size, but good for lap swims. and 30-40' deep. Submerge half the pool below ground, the other half above and large viewing windows along the length of the pool. This provides advertising for people that wonder into the shop, they can watch a class in progress, or maybe team practice. A platform could be lowered on winches or assembled in the pool easily to allow for shallower class lessons and adjusted as the class progressed. Viewing windows also allow filming from outside the arena.
Each lds in town has their own team and they compete in the local stadium.
possible sports:
u/w football using toypedos - allows for games without the expense of fancy equipment
"laser tag" (would need to develop water tight equipment, but easy enough I'd immagine) - bunkers could be added like in speedball, the 3d environment would be a blast, and the sport would provide the specialized retail sales that paintball has.

with 30-40' depth, EANx could be utalized for safty margins with maybe 60cf tank to limit bottom time.

could be fun, Local dive shops are finding it harder and harder to compete with internet sales and convince people to come to thier shop. A specialized pool and organizing a local league might real people in and they can lease out pool time to other teams. This would also promote diving in land-locked locations that lack much of a dive scene.