Waning SCUBA Participation

[JamesBon92007]

Sea Hunt was very much in my time, and I watched every episode when it was on. There were even Sea Hunt comic books, and I read them. I loved it. If you were to get some money to put on a new series of that ilk and put me in charge of it, though, I think I would have a bit of a struggle. There are only so many dramatic episodes that can involve action that occurs under water. In past threads about dive safety, I have joked that when diving first began, there were bad guys under water everywhere, with big knives used to cut your air hose, but thankfully Mike Nelson dispatched every one of them years ago, so the oceans are now safe.

I would resist adding bogus episodes in which the divers confront a bunch of ridiculously aggressive marine animals as well.

Consequently, I would have a lot of trouble coming up with enough plots to fill out a season.

Quite a few years ago someone actually broadcast a re-make called Sea Hunt. I was so bad that I've never even heard a reference to it. I watched about 8 minutes of an episode and that was way more than enough for me. As for the original series--I too never missed an episode! When I started diving it was not because I was expecting to stop the bad guys or have an underwater race to Catalina Island, I simply wanted to be underwater and be able to stay there for 45 minutes to an hour. It was extremely rare that I ever even came across other divers off the Southern California coast, or at Catalina for that matter. And when I did, nobody ever pulled a knife on me. I think of Sea Hunt as a typical Good Guys vs Bad Guys show that was set underwater. Mike Nelson was super-cool and a good role model. When I took my scuba course it became obvious that some of the things he did in the show were not to be repeated in real life, however I also learned many things about dive safety that were correct and valid. If someone was to come up with another such show then I think that the Good vs Bad will still work. The underwater scenes in Thunderball (Bond, James Bond) were based upon that same premise and was a very popular movie.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

*If* there was ever to be another UW adventure show I could picture it be modelled after something like the new Hawaii Five-O.
Call it Sea Hunt if that would still work, or Sea Patrol?...nah, “Sea Hunt” is pretty damn hard to beat as a title. But it would be the “new” Sea Hunt.
Design the show around a squad of elite military or ex Navy SEAL’s who were put together by a new government agency that deals with the growing problem of covert underwater criminal activity. The only way they can stop these acts from happening is to dive at the scene to witness the activity and take action to stop it
Upgrade the plot line to meet todays standards and have them using all the latest bad ass gear and weaponry. They would need to look militant, so no pink and no split fins.
They could respond to reports of enemy mini subs coming in from foreign countries and poaching million of dollars worth of abalone off remote parts of the California coast. Or maybe they catch and dispatch some terrorist group who try to plant a dirty bomb in a harbor. Dirty bombs seem to be good material these days for crime shows, along with the Russian Mafia of course - you know how those damn Russians are!
Or how about the drug cartels taking their game up a notch and starting to bring millions of $$$ worth of drugs up in subs and offloading the whole load underwater and stashing it for the pick up divers? Drug cartels are also great fodder for crime dramas. I could see some epic knife fights with this one!

I could see it working, but I’ll bet production costs would be through the roof! That’s one thing I read about the original Sea Hunt was that they almost went belly up from that show because production costs were so high. They ran in the negative for the first two seasons, but then things turned around and they broke even. We’re lucky they stuck with it for as long as they did.

 

[boulderjohn]

I think a general problem with all shows in a series format is focusing too specifically on one plot device, the ideas for which get exhausted easily. I think a show that has a lot of scuba-related episodes but also has episodes that don't go near the water could work. In fact, there are shows in existence today that could be altered to include more scuba incidents.

 

[J-Vo]

Except baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. You know, the sports with real popularity.

There is a big difference between playing a game in the driveway/park and taking it seriously. Just ask any soccer/hockey/baseball/football parent how much they spend on those sports. Most of those "popular" sports are not that way due to participation but advertising and easy of filming and watching. All my coworkers are passionate about football, but I doubt any of them have played the game in years.

 

[Cowfish Aesthetic]

There is a big difference between playing a game in the driveway/park and taking it seriously. Just ask any soccer/hockey/baseball/football parent how much they spend on those sports. Most of those "popular" sports are not that way due to participation but advertising and easy of filming and watching. All my coworkers are passionate about football, but I doubt any of them have played the game in years.

Yes, but for most, the passion developed playing in the driveway/park. Thats what later leads to the spending and taking it seriously.

 

[aquacat8]

Well, there is another form of diving that the kids are getting into, and that is freediving. Freediving has actually exploded in popularity, especially spear fishing.
The freediving world is separate from the scuba world, and interestingly, rarely do they cross over.

Freediving CAN be the gateway drug to scuba... the best freediver in the world can still only hold their breath for what 8 minuets? When you want more... there’s scuba. The first thing my scuba shop in Northern California did was invite me along snorkeling with Abalone divers. Eventually we spent a lot of money there!

 

[J-Vo]

Freediving CAN be the gateway drug to scuba... the best freediver in the world can still only hold their breath for what 8 minuets? When you want more... there’s scuba. The first thing my scuba shop in Northern California did was invite me along snorkeling with Abalone divers. Eventually we spent a lot of money there!

That's how it was for me, just couldn't get enough of being in the water.

 

[EricTheDood]

Except baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. You know, the sports with real popularity.

Right, because equipment, uniforms, and league fees are free. Baseball diamonds are created and maintained by nature, not taxpayer dollars, and they sit on large lots of land that have no value.

And by "real popularity", do you mean the 60 total kids out of 1000-5000 who make it onto their high school basketball teams?

 

[EricTheDood]

When I was a kid I was enthralled with the water world. Sea Hunt, Cousteau, National Geographic, and many other shows would keep me riveted to the TV screen when I wasn’t out finding something to swim/dive in.

TV is just background noise for today's youngsters. They are much more heavily influenced by social media, namely Instagram and Facebook. Plenty of diving content on Instagram.

And when they do watch TV, it's streaming and on-demand. They won't stumble across anything while flipping channels and waiting for their next favorite program to air.

 

[drbill]

I watched "Sea Hunt" jand lived and dived at many of the sites "Mike Nelson" dove... including the Pinnacle rock at the end of each episode which was just outside my marine biology lab and classroom). While it fostered an interest in diving, I was more taken by Cousteau's works which focused more on the marine life and helped lead me to a career in marine biology.

The Blue Planet series leaves me in awe as an underwater videographer.

It is sad to me that many youth (and a number of adults even of my generation) see their cell phones and TV sets as their primary means of experiencing the natural world.