State of Diving

[drrich2]

There are 'boundaries to push,' but the kind of exciting, adventurous novelty seeking you're after for market appeal runs counter to modern rec. (& I think tec.) mainstream dive culture, in my view.

On the forum, I see conservatism regarding risk preached pretty strongly. The basic idea is:

1.) Diving in relatively benign conditions when properly trained and diving responsibly has an excellent margin of safety.

2.) Diving outside your comfort and competence zone is foolish, dangerous and can kill you and make the sport look bad, leading to burdensome regulations or site closures.

3.) Scuba can be an unforgiving sport, by the time you realize you've got a problem, you may be 'in deep,' 'over your head,' choose your pun. In some sports, if you 'wipe out,' odds are you'll take a tumble without serious injury more often than not. In scuba, panic and drowning are all too likely.

The above views are hashed out well in threads discussing cave diving by people not certified for cave diving, as an example.

A young thrill seeker posting about limit pushing diving on the forum is apt to be met with considerable resistance.

Understandable; youth is often associated with over-confidence (the oft referenced alleged perception of being immortal or invulnerable), impulsivity, ignorance and excessive risk taking. Things that get can kill scuba divers.

Richard.

 

[TMHeimer]

I as well mentioned in the other thread (Why more young people don't dive, etc.) that at least half (probably more) of our OW classes are young people. As far as adrenalin, etc., I would imagine there are plenty of shore dives worldwide that provide this type of dive adventure if that's the objective. Just avoid all those ads in magazines for resorts/high end live-aboards, etc. Then there is solo diving (which I never recommend, but do myself), where you don't have to depend on someone else's objectives. I would imagine that if you work at it and do it safely, you and a buddy or 2 could find boats other than regular dive boats to take you to more challenging places. I hesitate to recommend this because you have to have a competent boat captain, knowledge of the site and it's dangers, etc.--but it could be an option. I too don't need the amenities, just the dives. If I were young I may seek more challenging dives, but I usually seek calm places where I don't have to "work" much.

 

[videofly]

I started diving in the early 70's and it was cool. From the 70's through 80's, I completed thousands of rock climbs, mountaineering trips, and I helped to pioneer the sport of frozen waterfall and ice climbing. I've got over 1,500 skydives behind me in the past decade and I've had my share of outrageous muscle cars. Two of my children in their twenties got scuba certified this year and the bottom line is; you may be mistaking. To me, scuba diving is more exciting now than ever. Equipment that I use now, which was not available years ago has opened new horizons and the thrills continue to motivate and excite me.

You may be reading the wrong magazines. Skirting death has never been a goal in any of my so called "extreme sports adventures", although in magazines it may appear that way. Instead, I have always sought challenges and made darn sure that I survived them. Sure, new rags cater to advertising clients, and many readers like me, have gray hair and secure paying jobs. But, my parachute rig sits next to my scuba gear in my den and neither holds rank in coolness over the other, and neither sport thrills me any more than the other. It is what you make it.

Life is too short to live it through magazines. Get out and create your own reality. Go for it!

 

[spectrum]

Yes we are a graying group but Dr Bill made me realize something. Many of us out there are graying but very few of us went the disstance.

Some like myself got to it as we approached the empty nest (at 48 for instance) when time and cash became more discretionary. Many were as you describe inspired by the likes of Sea Hunt and Cousteau. Oh and lets not forget dive advertizing before the days of political correctness.

Another group did get started young (as Br. Bill observes) but they drifted away in young adulthood and came back to it about the age where I began.

Very few of the divers I know have gone from youth to my age as regular divers, in fact, maybe none!

Scuba diving is a time guzzling sport if can quickly get squeezed out as you establish yourself in life. Even myself, after 5 years of obsession find myself backing off to make room for other prior and new interests that got pushed aside and to catch up on neglected work around the homestead.

Pete

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Diving is pretty boring in most places. After you tire of blowing bubbles and fiddling with the BC inflator and the knob on your regulator, you have to find something to DO.

Get a camera, a video camera or a speargun or polespear. You will be challenged for as long as you desire.

 

[Foxfish]

I'm one of the people who got into scuba diving later in life, after a number of years of freedving/spearfishing. I'd agree that scuba diving is not the same kind of raw adrenaline rush of some other sports. I still find it exciting and mostly do underwater photography.

For something more physical and heart stopping why not try freediving/spearfishing.

Best Dogtooth Action - Spearfishing for Dogtooth Tuna - YouTube

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I got into scuba to enhance my hunting options. I'm a fisherman at heart so freediving for abalone and spearfishing, and scuba for going deeper and looking for lobster, scallops, and big fish are my thing.

I see your point about how diving was portrayed back in the 50's and 60's. It was considered an extreme sport.
It wasn't easy to get certified (after certifications became the norm).
You had to do a lot of swimming and jump through a lot of hoops not to mention the harassment they put you through. When people saw a diver they were in awe because it wasn't easy, not everybody could do it, and it meant something.
Nowdays just about anybody can get certified, the mystique is gone.
Gear back then gear was minimal and not easy to use. There were no BC's to float you on the surface and make things nice and neutral underwater. To be a diver you really had to want it, you had to work for it.
Some of the gear now days is made to cover for a lot of peoples' shortcomings in training and fitness. Just look at the BC's and fins.
A lot of gear has gotten way better too though. Masks have come a very long way since the oval or round face plate.

There is an up and coming group of young freedivers that are doing some extreme type stuff. Down in Southern California freedive spearfishing has really taken off. It's the new surfing. Young people have taken to it because of the challenge, the fitness level, the economy of not much gear, the food payoff. Young women are into it also.

 

[villesci]

Thanks for the input everyone, really interesting comments. I would like to clarify after re-reading my post that while yes I look for excitement I absolutely want to have a safe experience diving and I frown on anything that pushes the very real, physical limitations of the sport just for "danger." And I will add that other "adventure" sports have a much poorer safety record of people doing stupid things, pushing their and nature's limits consciously while diving accidents seem to contain more factors that might be beyond a diver's control. I guess I'm just looking for new niches in the sport that aren't beyond my training and experience but which can still give the thrills...someone mentioned shore diving, and I have to say I began shore diving in Maine a year ago and thus far has become one of the most exciting and challenging areas of diving I've been able to explore. For now, that'll have to do!

 

[ermaclob]

Ok not sure if this can go here but I wasn't sure if it goes in any other category.

I've noticed, as I'm sure everyone else has, that the sport is a graying one, full of people who were inspired by the daring and unknown of early diving a couple decades ago. There's nothing wrong with having an older base in a sport - that's where experience and wisdom is passed on to newer generations. But I don't see that many young people like myself getting certified, and I feel like every time I read dive magazines and I look at advertising I see diving portrayed as a fun, easy, accessible hobby and not as a source of transcendent adrenalin or adventure that it was in the '60s. Are we losing the next generation of divers to an increasingly, I find, cushy and bland imagery of scuba diving as something fun you do when your family goes on vacation.

I realize that this might be great for some people, to have an easy and comfortable experience. But for me, and for pretty much anyone like me under 30 who have adrenalin, time, and a sense of exploration, this isn't enough. I compare this to looking at dive magazines I get compared to some other "extreme" (I normally object to this term) sport magazines like Whitewater Kayaking or Climbing. In these sports there is an older pioneering base from the 60s and 70s, but the sport hasn't stayed stuck with that generation. New generations of kayakers and climbers have constantly evolved the sports with new gear and techniques, but they also have evolved the image of the sports to stay young, flashy, sexy. I look at my recent diving magazines which have articles about travelling in comfort and where "exotic" dive destinations are classified not by the difficulty of access or chances of exploration but by the number of hours you have to fly from LAX or BWI airports. And yet when I look at other sport's magazines, ads, forums, stories, etc. the idea of adventure and risk and exploration are still huge tenants of the sport culture and the idea of bushwhacking days away from civilization to find the new crux walls or the un-run waterfalls. Scuba currently I see as always trying to become more like ski resorts in creating the image of wilderness and vistas while in reality providing a hot tub and a three course dinner at the bottom of the slopes.

The only component I see of this in Diving is in Tec and cave diving, which are relatively small subsets of diving as a whole and which I think are under-represented enormously when we try to get younger generations to try scuba, and at the same time I feel frowned upon in recreational scuba circles as "too intense" and not an appropriate goal for people (especially younger people) getting interested in Scuba. At the same time, has Scuba diving itself lost forever its sexiness? Is there no new ground to cover, no new horizons to cross and explore? Is the entire world one entire five star luxury dive resort, or are there still places where groups of young divers can go and live like dirtbags for a few weeks creating and pushing new limits to the sport with the knowledge of danger still present?

I'm asking this as a 20 year old who still wants to believe in a world where diving is sexy and more like planning out multi-day climbing expeditions. I'm the co-president and founder of my college's dive club and this rather long (sorry!) post was inspired the need to get people interested in diving again, because they no longer see it as a sport pushing boundaries. What do you all think? Am I just a young whipper-snapper (and in which case I would remind you that you too were or are one currently) who has no head for safety or am I observing something that is very real in the sport today?

i think you make some interesting points, as i to have seen some of these trends. im 21 and run the dive club at my university for 2 years new with a few others. the club generally gets people from 18-25 years of age. Along with the club the school also has a dive program. looking at the numbers over the semesters you find that retention in the hobby/sport is very low with younger individuals. we usually get ~10-15 people sign up for the club and pay the membership. Out of those individuals, 10-6 may show up for 1 event and perhaps 4-1 may show up for more then one event out of 5 - 8 diving activities done in the semester. Now you take a look at the following semester we see that there is at best a 2 person roll over from the last group. So most people do not continue on diving with the club, which i assume also means they are not diving any where else as $30 to go diving is hard to beat in Miami. When u look at the certification levels of these individuals u see that ~75% are Open water divers that have just got certified at a shop or at the school and 25% are advanced certed but have not dived in a year or so at the level or just got to that level. Also most people in the age group do not have personal equipment. people that are older 25-26 tend to be the ones that potentially continue. tho there have been a notible few that keep diving even tho they fall in a lower age/ $$ group. A similar trend can be followed from the dive programs side. Basic open water class gets packed ~30 students. Advance class 12-6 students.

Now as i compare this with the dive boats and people i encounter that do do diving very regularly, they fall in a much older age group from 35-65, most around what i would say 45-55. Most of these people have equipment and also have a higher level certification any were from advance open water to Full Trimix or Cave. Speaking about tech, ive yet to meet any one other then me and a friend that with in there twenties that has any technical certifications, i suspect that this is due to every one being broke, not that they dont exist. Which i think is on of those things that limits diving for younger people. As i see it tech and cave would be as close as a comparison as you could make to diving and another adventurous sport (ex. mountain climbing or snow boarding etc) i bet its not as expensive to do these other sports in gathering equipment training etc then going out and getting good at it. compare this with tech just getting to the entry level requires a big up front investment and then some to keep doing it.

so essentially i face the very same problem as you, very few people our age grasp an interest in diving. the dive club at my school has been dieing out lately :/

they seem to see it as a one time thing that they want to try kinda like something on a bucket list. Some of them get into it but then loose interest for some reason or the other. i dont think any of them see scuba as u mention something to push limits, mostly because they dont teach it with that attitude you want to make new people think diving is safe and doable when they start of, not dangerous and scary. Essentially diving is seen as a calm relaxing past time that anyone can enjoy.

i understand what you mean by you what to "believe in a world where diving is sexy and more like planning out multi-day climbing expeditions." tho sexy is not the right word to use lol. i personally don't find to many thing sexy about scuba, tho Ive yet to see a hot girl my age in a bikkini in a set of doubles

 

[Diving Dubai]

I've said this previously but I'll say it again. I think the perception of ageing divers is down to the location for which you draw your perception. Take my dive club - we have members of all ages but the most members are in the 40's - 50's. Why? Because most people living in Dubai have made the jump to expat as they've gotten older, gained work experience and thus become a valuable asset to companies. However when we see the commercial boats the majority of divers are 20's to 30's

If you go to the Red Sea or Thailand you'll see the majority of people on resorts doing their OW etc are younger - now whether they keep it up depends on where they live. Quite a few divers just dive on vacation in the warm. I personally never dived in the UK as I wasn't dedicated enough to dive in cold and low vis.

Go to the Maldives and you see less younger divers and more older as it's expensive to travel there...

Go on a liveaboard and once more the demographic is for the older diver, as you need to have achieved 50 dives. Getting the required dives requires a few years of vacation diving OR being dedicated to dive at home. Also you need your own gear thus cost and disposable income once more rears its head..

I'm sure the variance of younger divers changes a lot between say Florida and Oregan? Where does someone living in Kansas dive for instance - how costly is it for them to dive the Caribbean? I'm guessing they would activities that they can more easily engage in frequently rather than diving.

Also ask the question - "What is considered a frequent diver?"

I remember a survey about people visiting the theatre - and it transpired that people considered themselves a "frequent visitor" if they went once in 18 months!

What is the frequency of divers on SB? Sure there will be some like me who get to dive weekly, some only monthly or bi monthly etc etc. If you argue that other activities may be weekly at least then Scuba becomes for most an irregular activity vis a vis - why invest loads of money in something you practice in frequently?

So while the question and perception may be valid if you take a small sample of people in a small area but when you view it as a world wide activity then I think the numbers will change.

One further thing. I believe that the BSAC club system fosters people better to continue diving given that there is a weekly or monthly club activity which is both social as well as diving. Our club for instance has 200 + member but only a core of 20 are regular divers (at least monthly) Others dive when it suits them considering a work/life/other social activity balance, yet all own their own gear and could dive as often as they like.

Make of that what you will...