What do you see happening with the sport of diving?

[Eric Sedletzky]

I want to start a discussion about what's going on with our sport in general.
Not all of us can be everywhere at once and we all have our own worlds of diving. There are many places I haven't been that many or most of you have, and many or most of you haven't been or dived the places that I dive.
We all have our own take and personal perspective of what we see.
For example, I may see a decrease in local diving where I live, but you may be working in a hot market somewhere and see an increase.
So for the sake of this discussion please tell us what you're seeing happening to diving as it relates in YOUR physical world. When a lot of information comes in we can begin to get an idea of where diving has increased and decreased around the world.
What I want to avoid is a lot of heresay from people who haven't experienced first hand about a particular trend.

I'll start.
When I got into diving there were two dive shops in my town, one was a NAUI shop and the other PADI. I first went in to both and the PADI shop was much better run, had more inventory, and the guys were better salesmen than the NAUI shop, which was run by an old cantankerous sea lion of a guy. That shop closed down probably 15 years ago.
I remember there was a lot of activity. I met and dived with many people. There were a few active dive clubs around. I started a few myself.
Through the years all the people I met and dove with have moved on. There have been a few new comers to replace them but the numbers are way down. The PADI shop that I started with has changed. The old owner is gone (good thing) but the new owner doesn't offer any classes anymore and refers everyone to sources down in Monterey. There is another shop in Rohnert Park (SSI) that many people use but I don't care for it so I continue to go to the PADI shop in Santa Rosa.

Overall from 17 years ago I've seen a lot change in general with the sport, mostly with the internet and easy access to an overwhelming abundance of information. A lot of that has to do with gear. Not much here locally has changed except a slow winding down of the sport. My local dive shops have not changed one iota as far any new gear trends. There is very little to no difference at the shops in gear from 17 years ago that I see. Maybe slight style and color changes but that's about it. No BP/W (for example).
I don't see as many scuba divers diving locally, not like it used to be, and I hardly see any scuba classes (or none) at my local dive spots.
I do see an increase in freediving for abalone. I also see an increase in camping related activities due to the increase in abalone diving. The increase in camping might also be due to a renaissance in camping because people are trying to save money and keep it local. I can hardly get a camping spot anymore with most good campgrounds being booked months in advance.
Many people from out of the area come to partake in the sport of ab diving, and unfortunately a small percentage lose their lives doing it too.
Most of the new people getting into freediving around here that I see are young, 20's 30's.
For some reason freediving has taken off and scuba has declined. I can speculate but I'm just going to state facts of what I actually see for now.


So what about your area? what's going on?

 

[NAM001]

My area is very economy depressed in that the shops all closed. Any one that may be providing some sort of service cant be depended on to be able to stay open. Federal water management powers threated the use of lakes that once were exempt form environmental protection. Don't remember what size it was but lets say 10 acres and smaller were exempt. Now they are not as I am reading so many of the popular spots may have to shut down because of pollution from divers. Animal grazing, wet suits and peeing in or near lakes are poisoning our water supplies. HA. Not to say that if Mickey D's would only pay 15$ the world would be saved. However so many jobs have been lost and replaced by almost survival jobs. Dual income families have changed to single and lower income households. It does not look good for the diving industry or activities, until respectable jobs can be created again. All factors that divers themselves can not fix but fall in their wake just the same.

 

[TMHeimer]

Pollution from divers.........
Our shop is the only major one for a long long way. Since I've gotten very familiar with the course schedule, inventory, etc. the last 4-5 years, everything has stayed the same. Admittedly, there isn't much competition, but it is extremely well run with about 20 instructors and 10 DMs or so. This year so far has been the exception. Several courses have been cancelled for lack of number of students. This may be due to the ocean still at about 43F, and courses start the beginning of April. Plus the awful winter weather here (saw it on TV from Alabama...). Hopefully this is not the start of a trend. Maybe it's jus a period when there just aren't that many people in the Halifax area left at the moment who have an interest. I can't recall any other years when even one of the 20 or so OW courses was cancelled--even in April or early Dec.--occasionally in summer with two OW courses at the same time.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

My area is very economy depressed in that the shops all closed. Any one that may be providing some sort of service cant be depended on to be able to stay open. Federal water management powers threated the use of lakes that once were exempt form environmental protection. Don't remember what size it was but lets say 10 acres and smaller were exempt. Now they are not as I am reading so many of the popular spots may have to shut down because of pollution from divers. Animal grazing, wet suits and peeing in or near lakes are poisoning our water supplies. HA. Not to say that if Mickey D's would only pay 15$ the world would be saved. However so many jobs have been lost and replaced by almost survival jobs. Dual income families have changed to single and lower income households. It does not look good for the diving industry or activities, until respectable jobs can be created again. All factors that divers themselves can not fix but fall in their wake just the same.

OK, so when you say survival jobs did this happen to you?
It's easy to speculate, but I know in my case as bad as I got thrashed by the bad economy it didn't necessarily stop me from diving. Between 2009 and 2012 I lost about 65 to 75% of my business and income simply because people had no money. But I found ways to dive by staying local and really finding ways to dive on the cheap like a lot of DIY, bumming rides to the beach when I had no gas, and giving old gear a new life. I would consider myself one of the hardest hit (almost lost my house but managed to save it.....I had a dive buddy with his own financial problems commit suicide...that affected me)

So what I'm getting from your experience is that locally you see a decline due to over regulation?

 

[ScienceSteve]

Im not yet a diver, so I may have a uniqe perspective. My dad was navy, so I grew up around the beach and often saw divers moving in and out of the water whenever something cool was happening offshore. Now, I still go to those beaches to see family, but never see a diver. When I was a kid it was like a fireman or soldier "dude, look at that guy/girl, they are so brave, that's so cool," but now I dont see divers and, if they were walking out if the surf, the kids wouldnt see them bc posting on facebook is more important than watching the waves. I dont know why, but it seems like the inspiring factor is dwindling. Worse than that, the potentially inspired arent paying attention.

On a lighter note, I do see something else. I live in NW GA, so no salt for me. My colleagues, however, had an awesome idea. Ive been shooting underwater video while snorkeling in the streams with a galaxy s4 in a lifeproof case, but I cant stay under long enough to keep a steady shot. They told me there were some guys at our school who scuba in the river and I should talk to them. I did, now im signed up for OW cert after summer semester. Those same guys just got student-life funding from the university of 4000$US to start a diving club and buy loaner equipment, with the option to get grant money on top of that if they do research. Ive seen similar themes with marbio programs, but not 6 hours from salt water. Cool stuff.

Edited for clarity

 

[Nemrod]

SCUBA diving is just not cool anymore. It is largely seen as an (very) expensive nerdy activity or an activity for old people. There is too much safety and not enough (perceived) danger to attract the adventurous souls. This is the anti-fitness, whatever era and there are a lot of other fun things to do competing for the declining disposable income of many people in western countries.

When you do not make anything or believe in anything then you do not do anything either.

N

 

[RJP]

We're still using, to a great extent, the same exact gear that J.Y. Cousteau used in 1943.
The "positioning" of scuba diving remains unchanged since that time as well: "Go underwater and see pretty fishies"
The predominant target audience - middle aged white people with some money and some free time - remains unchanged.

Almost everything else in the world has evolved - or died - since then.

The scuba industry needs to make a conscious decision to evolve. Not doing so is essentially making a conscious decision to die.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

SCUBA diving is just not cool anymore. It is largely seen as an (very) expensive nerdy activity or an activity for old people. There is too much safety and not enough (perceived) danger to attract the adventurous souls. This is the anti-fitness, whatever era and there are a lot of other fun things to do competing for the declining disposable income of many people in western countries.

When you do not make anything or believe in anything then you do not do anything either.

N

Doing anything dangerous or macho is very taboo these days.
Everything is about safety. Even the guys who jump off tall buildings or cliffs and bat/wing suit glide with a go pro on their head break some law every time they do their daring sport.
Even here you'll get blasted for doing something as perceived as "unsafe", all in the name of safety and protection to those tender New OW children that can't think or act for themselves.
I wouldn't be surprised if one day we'll need a special use permit to beach dive off our coast. You already need a permit to go hiking in the wilderness, I don't see how diving in the wet wilderness is any different.
how does any of this relate to the dive scene around here? I don't know, Nemrod just got me going and I'm on a good vent that's all.

At least with local ab diving they're still letting people go into the ocean on days they probably shouldn't be out and letting them kill themselves.
There is one lady that want's to stop free diving for abs and make it illegal because her husband that couldn't swim and had zero ocean skills (And no common sense) died in 14 foot swells getting bashed up against the rocks along with two other of his buddies.
So here we go.

But it like I said earlier, I am seeing an increase in younger people taking up free diving. But they are not the typical Facebook and computer gadget types, they seem to be a new fringe breed of adventurers and thrill seekers that also like seafood. Maybe it's a NorCal hip surfer ocean lover dude sort of thing?

 

[TMHeimer]

I've mentioned in other posts that the majority of OW students I've seen here are quite young--teens, 20s, early 30s, etc. Maybe that's unusual.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I've mentioned in other posts that the majority of OW students I've seen here are quite young--teens, 20s, early 30s, etc. Maybe that's unusual.

Well that's probably true for your area, and that's the whole point of this thread, to see the geographical differences.