I too am an instructor and I believe that buoyancy is a core skill. But whether you teach someone in the pool in the first few lessons to get comfortable breathing underwater on their knees or neutral has little to do with the discussion on how to get more people into SCUBA and have them stick. If you can't get new customers it doesn't matter. Jus' sayin'
The length of the course isn't an issue either, it's about getting people to do it. When I certified in 1972 the YMCA course as like 10 weeks long. At 15 years old these courses were LONG. If my dad wasn't so interested I doubt I would have passed. It was BORING.
There has to be a balance between the knowledge needed to get you diving and the knowledge you need to become a GOOD diver. I believe that the biggest certifying agency has removed much of the cachet out of diving by promoting how easy and safe it is. IMHO a little negative selling works with scuba just great. "SCUBA is not for everyone! The ocean will gladly let you get hurt or killed, it doesn't care. If you're willing to accept that fact, we can teach you how to avoid the risks but it ultimately comes down to applying what you learn, consistently. Can you do that?"
i also think that you should be able to washout of a scuba class if you demonstrate that you are dangerous to yourself, others or the environment. This everybody's a winner attitude is not good for the sport either.
This has been beat to death in this thread already from every possible angle, but Why not say it again, it's raining and I'm bored.
Diving went from being an adventure sport only done by a few brave people (mostly men) that had to go through gruelling military style training to be able to do it. They were envied for their macho and swagger.
Now days scuba has evolvbed to a family activity that anybody can do thanks to relaxed teaching standards, abreviated courses and new gear innovations that make it much easier.
Young people don't want that, they want extreme and adventure.
Snowboarding, wakeboarding, dirt bikes, mountain bikes, surfing big gnarly waves, and even freedive spearfishing within a small but loyal community of 20 and 30 somethings is what they're doing.
I even know groups that are into shooting and hunting.
Scuba is off the radar of young people because of the lack of adventure, extreme fun for lack of better words, and the safe family label.
Not to mention the cost of getting geared up for very little payoff in their estimation.
Back in the day all it took to get into scuba was a tank with straps on it and a double hose reg attached and you had a scuba unit ready to go. Divers were already freediving or "skin diving" so basically all they had to do was throw this thing on and go. There were no expensive BC's or computers, gadgets, expensive fins, etc. You could get everything you needed for a few hundred bucks.
I know an old guy who started diving up here in the 50's. Him and his buddy were skin divers and they spearfished (like most divers did then). They remember going down to the city and going in together to buy a brand new Aqualung two hose reg and a tank. One guy would use it while the other one freedove around then they would trade. It was quite novel at the time.
There were no certification agencies then, all there was was an intsruction card in the box that said "never hold your breath underwater while using this unit".
These were the adventure times in diving and the only way for the sport to go was up.
These days there is no more "diving frontier", it's almost like it's run it's course. The people consistently doing it are loyalists that will be around for a long time. Unfortunately there aren't that many of us around. Maybe diving is rebounding to it's natural balance?
That may not be a bad thing.
The industry will have to adjust.
