Scuba...the "rich man's" sport

[aznlmpulse]

renting gear has its costs too. 50-60 is the norm to rent the whole setup here...and that's for 1 day of diving. Don't forget the 65-90 dollars if you want to do a boat dive. Me and my dive buddies went ahead and purchased our gear as a personal preference, but I don't think it's going to pay its-self off anytime soon. Do I regret buying? not one bit.

do I think SCUBA is a rich mans sport?...not really, but it's definitely not for the broke.

 

[terrasmak]

Its only a rich persons sport if your one of the only take tropical vacations to dive people. If not once your set up its cheap fun at the local water hole.

 

[Lutta]

I figured I spent around $3,000 to get my basic OW cert, as well as all my equipment (well, everything but a tank anyways).

Damn, I spent just under a grand for all my stuff minus the tank. I traded my car for my wetsuit, then paid $30. I really miss that car by the way... I paid for my stuff with my tax returns and still had enough money to hit the bars for a couple weekends. I'm in the military though, I could exhaust my bank account two days after I got paid and live off the chow hall if I had to. So, I don't know if I have much room to talk then.
-Lutta

 

[asaara]

Compared to other hobbies I've had, such as horseback riding and keeping 7 aquariums at a time (of which 6 fresh and brackish water cost less to stock and maintain together than the 1 reef tank...), diving seems to cost less...but I'm not counting airfare in that, of course.

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

Scuba is like golf, it can be for the rich and for the not so rich. However, rich golf and poor golf are two different things --- playing at Doral country club for 200 bucks a round using Callaway Clubs isn't the same as playing at a public course for 20 a round using hand-me-down clubs. But a person can have fun and satisfaction doing both...rich isn't necessarily better.

It also depends on how dedicated one is to the sport. The wealthy can afford to have many hobbies. A poorer person can dive, but may not be able to do much else. Thus, a poor diver tends to be an avid diver. I suspect wealthy divers, like wealthy pilots, have more accidents. The rich can afford to dabble in things like scuba and flying, sports where dabbling may not be enough to be safe.

I dive at local quarries where the cost is 5 dollars per day entrance fee and 5 dollars for each air fill. The people there are of modest means and dive every weekend, even ice diving there on the winter weekends. Being a former surgeon, I also have friends who wouldn't be caught dead in a quarry, preferring to hop on a plane to the Caymans when they have the urge to get wet. To me, I like diving, I don't care where it is or who it is with, just as I love to golf, no matter whether it's on a club course or a pitch and putt.

I've been lucky in life and can afford to travel to places like Aruba or the Keys four or five times a year, but I still like the local diving.

 

[bubblemonkey]

I wouldnt say its a rich mans sport mut my wife and I like to dive in warm water and that means a diving holiday when we want to dive....

 

[RICHinNC]

One of the scuba rags did an article on the "average" scuba diver's profile.

Three things stood out in my mind....
One....the average scuba diver makes well into 6 figures
Two...the average scuba diver takes at least 4 dive vacations a year (to exotic places_
Three...I am old....I cant remember the third one....but it was about as wild as the first two.

I guess I will slog on being ''sub-average''

 

[matts1w]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

Let me check..............

Primary job= high school teacher

Part Time job= shop monkey/scuba instrctor

Location= South end of Florida

Conclusion= pretty much broke

 

[SwimJim]

Well, it seems that most people here get it. Diving is as expensive as you want it to be. I got certified back in the seventies and paid for my first gear set with money I made picking sweet corn and baling hay. Since that time I have "invested" my fair share into the sport. I do maintain other vices. I ride a road bicycle for example, which helps keep me in shape for diving by the way. Another sport with a healthy initial investment.
I am by no means what I would consider to be rich. I am a self employed contractor and I work my postierior off. It brings in pretty decent money, but I'm far away from six figures. Unless you count the zeros after the decimel point. Ha. I don't look at diving as to how much I spend on it. I dive because I enjoy it of course. I have experiences that joe blow on the street couldn't even imagine. Take last saturday night for instance. We were heading out of the harbor after a shower blew though and in the gap of the breakwater there was one end of a huge rainbow. The other end seemed to terminate six miles to the north, our destination. How cool is that. Something money cannot buy.
I am lucky enough to live on Lake Michigan which is home to world class wreck diving. I have my own boat, which cost me less then a set of doubles by the way and for a few bucks in fuel I can access five differnet wrecks easily, the farthest being about ten miles. I also belong to and am president of the local dive club where I have met many great people.
Diving a rich mans sport? I don't think so. I think it really boils down to what your willing to put into it. Thats not just cash, but time and effort. Success in anything really is something you have to earn. The more you dive, the better you get, the more people you meet, the more oppurtunities you get and so on. So like I always end my dive club notes and meetings, HEY LET'S GO DIV'IN !!!!!

Jim

 

[miketsp]

Well it's all relative.
I work like crazy to pay for 1 exotic dive trip per year plus 6 or 7 less exotic trips.
The guys that work at my local LDS work half the hours I do, earn peanuts, but do up to 4 exotic dive trips per year and at least double the local trips.