Waning SCUBA Participation

[boulderjohn]

Back to using the media to influence scuba participation....

In 2005, the movie Into the Blue featured a lot of scuba diving, and it looked like a lot of fun and a way to find free cocaine. PADI was so excited about the potential of the movie to spur an interest in scuba diving that it made it the cover story for an issue of its professional journal, the Undersea Journal. The article talked about using the movie to help increase diver numbers.

There was some interest generated. I remember a Today show episode with Matt Lauer interviewing Jessica Alba (who did her own diving stunts, both free diving and on scuba), and she intelligently answered his questions. He was concerned about a scene in which she had to hold her breath after taking breaths form a scuba tank, and she explained that in that scene she did not change depth, so she was safe.

There was no such uptick in diver participation that I noticed. Maybe most of the male viewers were savvy enough to realize that Jessica Alba would not be on the boat with them on their dives. The movie came and went, and if anyone was excited enough to take up scuba diving, well, they haven't mentioned that on ScubaBoard in a post I have read.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

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.

The one show that comes to mind that is fairly recent that fits that description is CSI Miami. There were a few episodes of some UW action that I remember, but not a lot.

 

[Charred]

All these threads turn into "get off my grass" rants with the older generation "blaming" the younger generation for lack of XYZ often forgetting that they were the people that raised that generation... There is great irony in this thread of people complaining about the younger generation only watching TV while at the same time noting that they were influenced to dive by.....TV. And the solutions discussed are: TV.

I know how to fish because my Dad taught me to fish and his Dad taught my Dad. And my daughter knows how to fish because I taught her. My neighbors don't fish but TV is is certainly not the problem.

I'll agree that TV can produce some interest and I loved Cousteau as much as anyone else. My wife and I are doing a Belize liveaboard this Fall to dive the Blue Hole... BUT my diving was triggered by my Uncle who dove. And so I started skin diving. And then one day when we were out on the boat while my Uncle was recovering lost anchors from a fishing spot, he invited me to put on my mask and we went down in shallow water with me on his Octo. "Just keep breathing....."

And that's why I dive, not Cousteau....

P.S. If you want to make a diving show, given the expense of destination diving, it should probably be one on the excitement of quarry diving Not sure how cloudy quarries would look in HD...or 4K....

 

[JamesBon92007]

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.
.

Oh, I don't know. I think it would be OK for the female Navy Seals to wear pink fins (but no split fins). You have to be able to tell the "babe" from everyone else.

 

[mdb]

Oh, I don't know. I think it would be OK for the female Navy Seals to wear pink fins (but no split fins). You have to be able to tell the "babe" from everyone else.

As you know, Navy Seals can choose their fins once they are out of training, swim school and other
post Coronado Schools.

Many Seals use bio-fins, they splash easily from a helicopter jump and work well in open water.

Force Fins are also a popular choice.

Of course the standard Jet Fins, and other paddle fins, are also in use.

Depends on the operator.

 

[JamesBon92007]

*
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!

.

Another possible plot could be that scuba diving members of the Mexican Navy are trying to catch bad guys who are planting bombs on ferries at a popular vacation and scuba diving destination. Anyone who has seen the public relations movie at El Museo Naval in Puerto Vallarta will probably agree that James Bond or Mike Nelson has nothing on these guys--they parachute from a helicoptor wearing camo wetsuits and full scuba gear and emerge from the water at the shore with their automatic weapons locked and loaded, ready for anything.

 

[KevinNM]

Since the city of Miami is going to wind up being a shallow shore dive in the future, maybe a science fiction story about future diving archeology would be cool, you know like after our species population crashes, a roving band of tech teens raids an ruined dive shop in Pompano and vintage dives the underwater cities that used to be Florida.

Nah, over the last million years Miami has most commonly been about 300 feet above sea level. And Chicago under a mile of ice.

 

[Bob DBF]

I think it may be a lost cause. As long as there is gear there will be divers, but it was never a mainstream sport, and with the try scuba dives it is easy for someone to cross it off a bucket list without investing much effort.

The scuba industry will survive the downsizing, but there will be casualties. I expect the smaller players with a good business plan and internet presence will do better than a downsizing bureaucracy with larger fixed costs. A conglomeration like Huish may save some, but there will be change.


Bob

 

[JamesBon92007]

As you know, Navy Seals can choose their fins once they are out of training, swim school and other
post Coronado Schools.

Many Seals use bio-fins, they splash easily from a helicopter jump and work well in open water.

Force Fins are also a popular choice.

Of course the standard Jet Fins, and other paddle fins, are also in use.

Depends on the operator.

Yes, and at least some of those come in pink, right?

If they can choose their fins after training, what do they train with?

 

[chrispscott]

I'm a fairly young guy myself when it comes to working in the dive industry (I'm 33) and there are a few things out there that give me hope. One of the dive shops I work with has a lot of people my age or younger who are in Divemaster and Instructor development programs. Their store manager is my age and so is most of their Instructor staff.

For my dive shop back home I still do their SEO and Web Design and their analytics are pretty good. Checking for the past week, of the 400ish legit visitors they had to their website, almost 60% were between the ages of 18 and 34. That shows that their is at least interest among Gen Z and Millenials.

I think a part of the problem is also how diving is marketed. In my dad's day diving was presented as something that was a lifestyle. You dived locally even in the landlocked areas and it was something that was applauded a bit. Nowadays agencies don't pay any attention at all to promoting local diving. Diving is now presented as something that you do on vacation rather than a diver being something that you are.

I love Blue Planet but not having a human element bugs me. I throw on a lot of the old Cousteau docs when I am looking to kill time and I'm now more interested in the human element and life aboard the Calypso than I am the dated diving footage. There's a Canadian show called Descending from a few years ago that is really good about the human element of diving while also diving some really unique sites that you don't see every day.