Percentage of divers who go beyond openwater?

[Schwob]

The last survey was some years ago - but it indicated that the average length a diver to remained active in the sport was 2.9 years !

I may have just beat that 2.9 years by a week or two or so. Should I celebrate or worry?

 

[Sam Miller III]

@Schwob
Since you are from the windy cold city of Chicago -- Celebrate!

SDM

 

[Bob DBF]

I may have just beat that 2.9 years by a week or two or so. Should I celebrate or worry?

Both


Bob

 

[broncobowsher]

If I were not diving as much as I do, I would have enough money to dive as much as I do. Because I dive as much as I do, I don't have the money for it and am habitually broke.

I remember having issues of having plenty of time to do things, but not enough money to do anything. Then work my butt off and I had money to do things, but no time to do anything. That balance in the middle can be hard to achieve.

Just watching the cliental through a few shops that I have been associated with I would say that diving tends to be a bucket list/big vacation item. Got the card, dove the tropical location on vacation/honeymoon and move on to the next thing. Percentage wise, 50-90 stopping after open water would be a starting point.

Now it does get fuzzy in the respect that standards have changed over time. When I got certified there was no stack of specialty cards. Here is a set of tables and they go to 130'. Go dive. Today that is 3 levels into the card collection. And Nitrox was an evil voodoo gas. The 90s were not that far back.

 

[drbill]

LA Co UW program creates divers not people who just dive

You should have observed enough divers at your park to know by now there is a big difference

SDM

Indeed, Sam. Totally agree.

 

[Sam Miller III]

@broncobowsher

It is noted that you are from the Arid Zone state- I always had a soft spot in my heart for the desert

I spent the later part of the Korean war as a Air force officer in Phoenix-.
While stationed at LAFB there was a small group of pioneer spearfishermen/divers. We banded together and made crude but effective Barada Co2 powered spear guns from surplus & salvaged USAF items. I authored a rather detailed article on the adventures we had in my dedicated column "The way It was" in the now deduct dive magazine Discover Diving (as I recall it was published almost 25 years ago - time flys ! )

Therefore I am certain we were the very first Spearfishermen /divers in Arizona.

The first shop was established in Phoenix and in Arizona was about 10 years later in about 1963 by a pioneer NAUI Instructor Boris Innocente

your statement
"Here is a set of tables and they go to 130'."
FYI - the maximum depth established many years previously for a diver using a singe 70 (or 72) Cuft cylinder was 130 to avoid the bends and/or decompression. The tables were possible USN and allowed considerable greater depths.

Thanks for posting -- it made me dust off some long forgotten memories

Cheers from a hill top in California over looking the blue Pacific Ocean - where my dog Lucky and I are headed

Sam Miller, 111

 

[Schwob]

@Sam Miller III
Oh, good, Pheeew!

@Bob DBF
So true!

@boulderjohn @broncobowsher
So true!

I hope that some day the diving industry will figure out how to make a living with an approach that effectively does not only chase after those that need not worry how much they spend. Diving will never be cheap... but it often could be more affordable... especially as a self driven diver, not diving as a "consumer", guided only, catered to... .willing to live in clean and safe less than 5* or 4* accomodations... ... and then again, maybe that just is that oddball dying segment that at present it appears to be ... to me...
but...
... still kicking...

 

[yle]

a question came up in a tangent to a post last week. What percentage of divers go beyond open water to AOW, Rescue, Nitrox, Divemaster etc?

Thanks,
Jay

I posted these numbers in the other thread also. A couple years ago PADI published some stats in the current issue of the Undersea Journal (their magazine for DMs and instructors.) They didn't explain the details behind the numbers; the intent was to emphasize how much potential opportunity there was to sell continuing ed.

It said somewhere between 15 and 20% of divers move on to AOW, and roughly 5% move beyond that to take Rescue. With that kind of progression, it would be fair to assume less than 1% become DM's or instructors. They didn't offer stats on specialty courses like nitrox.

The numbers didn't suggest how often any of these people actually dived, only what level of training they had achieved. And of course these were PADI numbers only, although it's reasonable to assume the other agencies have similar numbers.

 

[gert7to3]

I am a mere pup, just 17 years using my super power of being able to breath underwater. My Chicago dive buddies all have 25+ years, except Bob. Bob has just 8 years. OW, AOW, Nitrox, Solo soon

 

[Aris Penaranda]

It said somewhere between 15 and 20% of divers move on to AOW, and roughly 5% move beyond that to take Rescue. With that kind of progression, it would be fair to assume less than 1% become DM's or instructors.

Wouldn't it be more reasonable to assume that a high percentage of the divers that invested the time, effort and money to reach rescue diver level will upgrade to at least the DM level?