Scuba instruction has always been in a catch 22 situation as far back as I can remember.
Either it's cheap enough that people can afford it but then it's all about time frame because time is money snd skills are rushed through or missed entirely.
Or it's too long, to thorough, and too expensive so nobody can afford it and / or they don't have the time.
It's a tough situation.
They want to balloon the industry and make some money (all of them do from the dive shops to manufacturers to agencies) but at what expense?
I'm seeing what's happening on the ground here in Norcal. The dive scene has been severely damaged by recessions, the pandemic, and overall increase in the cost of living.
There are many freedivers because it's relatively cheap to get involved. We even have some free donated gear for people to get started but they have trouble affording even new masks and decent wetsuits and fins. These are people that join us through social media so the word is out for anyone interested in local diving.
When we mention about scuba classes and basic OW, then basic gear set ups it's an absolute deal breaker. These are young people from the city that join us for urchin diving. This is the new guard so to speak, the newest generation that is supposed to take our place. We lose them when they learn that basic OW is around $600. They can't imagine anything should cost so much. Then when they see the cost of gear they just about faint.
So I am seeing first hand what is actually holding people back.
But then down in Marin County (one if the most expensive zip codes in the country) those people do fine. They will buy all the latest greatest stuff, take all the classes (including wives and kids) but they are vacation only divers so we never see them.
There is a hard line between local broke divers and wealthy vacation only divers and the two are living and participating in two separate universes.
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