The Comparative cost of scuba, including instruction

[cerich]

Much has been written on ScubaBoard about the cost of scuba, including instruction, and many of the posts talk about the excessive costs keeping people away. One of my sons had an experience a few days ago that had me making a comparison.

I live in Colorado, one of world's premier locations for skiing. When my children were young, we went frequently. We put the children in lessons regularly, and they became avid, expert skiers as a result. We could easily afford this, even though my wife and I were teachers, a profession not noted for wealth. We are now much older, and as a result of knee injuries, we have not skied in a very long time, and we lost touch with the Colorado ski experience.

This past weekend one of my sons took his wife and two children skiing. They put both children in lessons, just as we did when he was young. Here is the cost breakdown for one of the less expensive of the major Colorado areas. Ski lessons were $250 for each child, for a total of $500. They also needed to buy $200 lift tickets for each of the children, bringing the cost of one day of lessons for those children to $900. He and his wife paid $250 each for their lift tickets, far below the cost of the more expensive areas like Vail. They ate lunch together, and the cheapest item on the lunch menu for the kids was $26. I am not sure what the total cost was for equipment rental. Counting travel costs, one day of skiing for a family of four was nearly $2,000.

Adjusting for inflation, he makes more than my wife and I ever did, but he can't afford that. That is why he has barely skied in the past few years, and why his children will rarely get to go. Again adjusting for inflation, that is many times what my wife and I paid years ago. We could not have skied back then if the prices had been comparable to what they are today.

So is the high cost of skiing keeping skiing from thriving in this economy? Not in the slightest. In order to get to most of the slopes from the Denver area, you have to travel I-70, and the traffic--even on weekdays--is so packed that my son knows of three cases in the past two weeks of friends who gave up after a couple hours on the road, turned around, and went home. My son beat the traffic by going up in the afternoon the day before and spending hundreds of dollars to stay one night in the area. Add that to the cost of his day of skiing. The Colorado ski slopes are packed to overflowing, despite the astronomical costs.

I don't know where all those people are getting all that money, but they clearly aren't among the people starving because of the high cost of eggs. I assume that the overwhelming majority of them have no thoughts of taking scuba lessons, and I am equally sure the cost of lessons is not the reason.

Diving is cheaper than it has ever been, half to a third less in real inflation adjusted dollars to the late 80's early 90's during diving's most rapid growth. Diving was also marketed to and consumed by a much higher economic demographic than now.

Cost isn't killing diving, the diving industry is

 

[kinoons]

Diving is cheaper than it has ever been, half to a third less in real inflation adjusted dollars to the late 80's early 90's during diving's most rapid growth. Diving was also marketed to and consumed by a much higher economic demographic than now.

Cost isn't killing diving, the diving industry is

Quite possibly some truth to this.

My daughter and I dive in Maui when we visit. We have our own gear, so there was some upfront cost, but renting weights and tanks and shore diving on our own is the cheapest thing we do on the island.

 

[lowwall]

Skiing is not a great comparison. What has happened with skiing is consolidation. Two companies (Vail and Alterra) have bought out most of the ski areas in the US (and a growing number outside). To ensure a reasonably consistent cash flow and to keep skiers within their properties, they offer season passes at fairly low prices in the summer. The price ramps up as you get to the season, but is always less than around a week of full price day passes.

These cheap season passes are the reason for overcrowding on the slopes on holidays and weekends.

OTOH, the price of day passes (and private classes and on-mountain lodging) is insane. The change in wealth demographics in the US that has occurred over the past few decades (mostly due to tax policy changes that greatly favor the wealthy) means you have around a million people with a net worth over $25 million. They have basically unlimited money for minor luxury goods and activities. Thus prices and offerings in that market have increased well beyond inflation and population growth. The ski area duopoly realizes this and prices day passes for this group. The hills that are still independent have followed right along with the percentage price increases of the big two, although the base is a bit cheaper.

FWIW, it appears the duopoly has gone too far. The middle class is giving up and even the decimillionaires are cutting back. The number of skiers dropped this year and earnings were flat despite big price increases across the board. New skiers starts are way down. Something has to change or they are going to end up in a downward spiral of trying to extract ever more money from an ever shrinking customer base.

None of this is really applicable to scuba. Ski areas are huge capital investments and will always be limited in number so it's possible for a couple of companies to corner the market. That's impossible in diving. Except maybe in the luxury liveaboard space, but that's too small a market for PE or Wall Street to be interested.

The real question is why scuba hasn't pulled in the same luxury market. I think it's because the barriers to entry are just a bit too high because of the fragmented way we do dive training and travel. A little too much training and a little too difficult to figure out destinations/flights/ops/lodging. The Instagram crowd can get what they want from a DSD at a resort they'll be at anyway without all the additional work.

 

[jadairiii]

Owning a boat (or two) is really bad as well but to quote the old credit card ad, the freedom to dive when, where and how I want to is priceless.

Sold our last boat about 2011. Today I'm priced out of owning a boat. Of course, I'm just 10 min from the beach and can beach dive whenever I want.....which is "priceless". Not to mention, beach access reefs run from Hollywood to Boca Raton.

 

[Tracy]

Owning a boat (or two) is really bad as well but to quote the old credit card ad, the freedom to dive when, where and how I want to is priceless.

Come on, you know you want one. You can't have too many boats.
One of mine is for sale, turn key ready to go. I can leave the ladder if you want.

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[Still Kicking]

Come on, you know you want one. You can't have too many boats.
One of mine is for sale, turn key ready to go. I can leave the ladder if you want.

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Oh i have three at the moment...one has to go but the little one is too much fun (1-2 divers) and the new big one is just awesome and will be for multiday trips to the Channel Islands. I guess four if you count the 15' inflatable I gave to my son and still use for Nor Cal trips.

But you're right, too many boats isnt a thing lol

 

[Lorenzoid]

I used to ski when I lived out West. Now I don't think I could afford it even if I lived closer to the slopes. For a while, I tried to keep in the sport, flying out once a year. Then I got out of skiing and more into diving. More bang for the buck to me.

The reason diving is affordable is competition. If only two companies owned the seas, they could charge a lot. Recent article in The Atlantic:

How the Ski Business Got Too Big for Its Boots​

How the Ski Business Got Too Big for Its Boots

A recent strike at a major resort has put the spotlight on what a bad deal both workers and visitors are getting.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[lostsheep]

Regular skiing or snowboarding is only viable with a season pass, lift tickets have gotten absurd. I quit riding when Vail bought out Kirkwood. **** Vail resorts

 

[BoltSnap]

'm just 10 min from the beach and can beach dive whenever I want.....which is "priceless".

Tell us exactly where you live, please. We will come to hangout and go diving there.

 

[lowwall]

Come on, you know you want one. You can't have too many boats.
One of mine is for sale, turn key ready to go. I can leave the ladder if you want.

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As far as I can tell from the thumbnails, that's both a beautiful and practical boat.

Are the pictures anywhere other than FB? I don't have an account.