Waning SCUBA Participation
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aquacat8
Contributor
I’ve seen almost the same thread as this on a sailing forum: millennials aren’t sailing, how can we get them interested and so forth. Same mainly baby boomer age folks posting, same shrinking market, same proposed reasons and solutions. It’s not just us.
Midwesterndvr
Contributor
I’m under the impression residents of Colorado have higher rates of participation in outdoor activities in general. Although I’ve never been, but would like to visit someday.
aquacat8
Contributor
I have to say though as a gen X who swims mostly with Baby Boomers, it seems like there is a blind spot about how really truly less well off financially and in terms of time subsequent generations actually are.
aquacat8
Contributor
I am stubbornly trying to continue $cuba diving but it’s really hard and I’ve been seriously thinking of switching to freediving, however I’m worried I’d do it too aggressively alone because I can’t find buddies for that at all. I’m not quite ready to feed the fish.
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
I think the most recent recession had a lot to do with it. This appears to be back on track, and some sectors of the economy are booming, while other sectors have suffered badly or vanished completely.
Sports related hobbies took a huge hit and have not fully recovered. If too much time goes by then there is a gap in generational participation and some sport hobbies may never recover or disappear completely because it doesn’t get passed on.
Sports related hobbies took a huge hit and have not fully recovered. If too much time goes by then there is a gap in generational participation and some sport hobbies may never recover or disappear completely because it doesn’t get passed on.
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aquacat8
Contributor
Well the water will still be there, and the aquatic people will still find ways to be in on and under it I’m sure, who knows what’s next: now biotech gills? Breaking the dolphin/human language barrier? Submarine Recreational Vehicles? Floating cities? Cybernetic assisted evolution? Robot dive buddies? Plastic eating bacteria cleaning the oceans? Intelligent Jellyfish?
Cert1967
Contributor
The dive industry needs a ‘disruptor’.
Perhaps Deep6 fits the bill. But, that’s only equipment - not the experience. Where’s the water?
What’s worked in the recreational consumer segment? One I know of has.
Ten years ago Vail Resorts cut the cost of a full season pass from about $2.4k/season to $580. All you can eat for the ~145 day season, open to close. They deliver the ‘experience’ and the equipment too. All packaged together by a company with a market cap of 8.5 billion dollars.
Vail Resorts Announces Epic Pass
The relationship to scuba? VR’s most important market is 18-35. Emmm ... that just might be what scuba would like to have. Fifty Plus, your biz is dead if this is your core.
And where do you find similar value in the dive biz? DRIS has several all you can eat options. But that’s Lake Michigan and that’s the hard sell. Others?
Well, the ski industry thought VR was nuts. OK, for the general time period, the stock is up from ~50 to ~230. Disruption was successful. So much so that most of the remaining big players teamed up to recently announce a competing pass.
The dive industry is delusional if they think a new media presentation will bring new dollars to their till. Swim lessons the savior - you gotta be kiddin. Online? Good idea, if you have the capital to compete with dive manufactures themselves, Amazon and the established heavy weights with dual physical stores and web sales portals.
More training to training to solve the puzzle. Ok, let’s go back to the past, hello Mike. Ever been to Gili T? Hundreds of new divers arriving by boat each day. A few days and they are divers for life, many never to dive again.
Where does the ‘rubber meet the road’? In the water.
And ‘in the water’ is the dive industry’s break point. At the water’s edge the industry is splintered into many small businesses, most without adequate capital. Perhaps this is the failure point of the dive biz - the fractured nature of the in-water experience?
The fun starts at the water’s edge. What/Who will disrupt the industry and how will they capture more consumer dollars? Diving is fun, someone will be the FB, Google, Amazon of the industry and become the disruptor.
Perhaps Deep6 fits the bill. But, that’s only equipment - not the experience. Where’s the water?
What’s worked in the recreational consumer segment? One I know of has.
Ten years ago Vail Resorts cut the cost of a full season pass from about $2.4k/season to $580. All you can eat for the ~145 day season, open to close. They deliver the ‘experience’ and the equipment too. All packaged together by a company with a market cap of 8.5 billion dollars.
Vail Resorts Announces Epic Pass
The relationship to scuba? VR’s most important market is 18-35. Emmm ... that just might be what scuba would like to have. Fifty Plus, your biz is dead if this is your core.
And where do you find similar value in the dive biz? DRIS has several all you can eat options. But that’s Lake Michigan and that’s the hard sell. Others?
Well, the ski industry thought VR was nuts. OK, for the general time period, the stock is up from ~50 to ~230. Disruption was successful. So much so that most of the remaining big players teamed up to recently announce a competing pass.
The dive industry is delusional if they think a new media presentation will bring new dollars to their till. Swim lessons the savior - you gotta be kiddin. Online? Good idea, if you have the capital to compete with dive manufactures themselves, Amazon and the established heavy weights with dual physical stores and web sales portals.
More training to training to solve the puzzle. Ok, let’s go back to the past, hello Mike. Ever been to Gili T? Hundreds of new divers arriving by boat each day. A few days and they are divers for life, many never to dive again.
Where does the ‘rubber meet the road’? In the water.
And ‘in the water’ is the dive industry’s break point. At the water’s edge the industry is splintered into many small businesses, most without adequate capital. Perhaps this is the failure point of the dive biz - the fractured nature of the in-water experience?
The fun starts at the water’s edge. What/Who will disrupt the industry and how will they capture more consumer dollars? Diving is fun, someone will be the FB, Google, Amazon of the industry and become the disruptor.
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