The future of dive travel vs local diving.

[Eric Sedletzky]

I think the decline in diving is due to the cost of equipment and the focus of the industry on destination diving. When the average Joe/Joan walks into a dive shop and sees $1200 BCs, $2,000 regulators, and $300 fins s/he will have sticker shock. When they see trips to far-off locations in the thousands then they may reconsider and try another hobby. Very few people have that much disposable income to spend on recreational activities.

You forgot the cost of training.

 

[MidOH]

Not cheap. But not bad.

I won't be considering the dive industry when I retire, for sure.

 

[Trilobite]

I wouldn’t characterize 3.5% of anything as “pretty big”… in fact I’d consider that “pretty small”. Definitely not anything I’d focus on if trying to drive an improvement in until I solved the actual big % root causes.

Well, 3.5% of a billion dollars is $35 million; I'd say that's a pretty big sum of money, wouldn't you? In any event, if you put things into narrow categories, most everything is going to be a small percentage; so if you ignore smaller percentages, you are going to end up doing nothing. Transportation as a whole is about 25% of energy related CO2 emissions according to the UN.

 

[Joneill]

Well, 3.5% of a billion dollars is $35 million; I'd say that's a pretty big sum of money, wouldn't you? In any event, if you put things into narrow categories, most everything is going to be a small percentage; so if you ignore smaller percentages, you are going to end up doing nothing. Transportation as a whole is about 25% of energy related CO2 emissions according to the UN.

OK... since some folks like to twist intended context here: sure, $35 million is a decent amount of money (though not at all in relation to $35 billion).

My obvious point was that aviation, at only 3.5% of total, is not the place to focus first. In addition, it's one of the hardest to crack as I don't ever see long haul electric aircraft and biofuels still create the CO2 emissions that folks are crazed about. Hydrogen might be the best solution if it can be generated cost effectively (a much better solution for cars than EV's as well).

 

[tarponchik]

One other factor we may consider is the decline in quality and quantity of marine life in tropical destinations. It makes no sense to fly across half the globe only to discover the red slime over the dead corals. The promised Whale Shark never shows up, the turtles had vanished, and the barracudas and the groupers are more likely to be found in your plates in local eateries than underwater during your dive. But the old fire truck will still be waiting for you on the bottom of your local lake, if you are into this kind of stuff.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Nobody has answered one of the original questions:
If travel became too restrictive for any reason to where it became impractical or impossible, would you as a diver seek alternative venues including local diving or cold water diving? I’m trying to establish a baseline here to see how many would choose to continue diving or not to dive at all if it meant no cream puff diving.

Do I need to do another poll?

 

[MidOH]

Gonna say no. Quiting diving.

Cold water diving alone, doesn't make the hobby worthwhile.

 

[Marie13]

Nobody has answered one of the original questions:
If travel became too restrictive for any reason to where it became impractical or impossible, would you as a diver seek alternative venues including local diving or cold water diving? I’m trying to establish a baseline here to see how many would choose to continue diving or not to dive at all if it meant no cream puff diving.

Do I need to do another poll?

I already do local/regional cold water diving with a once a year trip down to FL cave country. My MX trip for full cave in 2022 was maybe a one-off, I’m not sure.

My motto is pretty much “If I can’t drive, I don’t dive.”

I did a similar post during the pandemic. People would pretty much rather give up diving than dive locally/cold water.

 

[BoltSnap]

Nobody has answered one of the original questions:
If travel became too restrictive for any reason to where it became impractical or impossible, would you as a diver seek alternative venues including local diving or cold water diving? I’m trying to establish a baseline here to see how many would choose to continue diving or not to dive at all if it meant no cream puff diving.

Do I need to do another poll?

Dive sites are only 5 minutes from my house, if I can't get fuel for my truck, I'll use a camel or a donkey to carry my equipment there. Nothing is stopping me from diving.

 

[Cio]

Aircraft engines can be run on plant derived biofuels. One of the major aircraft engine manufacturers has now certified their entire range on biofuels. The US military has tested and certified their entire aircraft fleet on biofuels.

There are also multiple flying prototypes pf battery powered light aircraft for that end of the market. Most of these problems are largely solved, it ias now a matter of scaling the infrastructure and the political will to make it happen.

Biofuels net like 10%. so 90% of the fuel gets used to farm and produce the feedstock/fuel. So far, it's a bust.

Battery powered light aircraft aren't taking the masses on multiple thousand-mile trips. Most of them are inefficient short-range solutions.

None of these issues are solved, there are inefficient unworkable solutions that get hyped, but haven't been put int play since the economics, reliability and practicality aren't real.