What do you see happening with the sport of diving?

[drrich2]

I live around Hopkinsville, a town of about 33,000 in SW KY, about a half hour from Clarksville, TN (~ 100,000) & about 1 1/2 hours from Nashville, TN. Hopkinsville has a large scuba quarry with onsite dive shop (Pennyroyal Blue Springs), & being an inland location is a major area draw for training & just getting some dives in. PBS keeps upgrading their facilities, and one of my old instructors leased a quarry in Nashville & now uses it for his students & group.

Nashville has at least 2 dive op.s I know of offhand; Clarksville had 1 (Dive Time) & picked up another (Water Dogs) but had one or two in the past that I think went out years ago, so it's hard to say whether it's growing or contracting.

Perhaps I'm just noticing more as the years & my awareness grow, but it seems like the dive op.s' trip offerings are getting more diverse/interesting. Sure, there's Bonaire, Cozumel & Roatan, but I'm seeing more than that.

The Internet makes arranging your own trip more practical. When I was a kid, we went to a travel agent (I assume she was) to get plane tickets for a domestic flight. These days, that would be ridiculous. My 1st 4 exotic scuba trips (not counting cruising) were with a dive group, and that was good fun, but nowadays I book my own. I don't know to what extent others are doing this; I hear about local group trips, but private excursions.

I would still prefer to travel with a group heading farther outside my comfort zone; say, to the Philippines or Komodo, part of the world I've never been where English isn't so omni-present, the culture is more foreign & travel arrangements are more complex & multi-part.

Or, I could contact Madura, Caradonna or another scuba travel agency and get it done.

Those of you who've been watching the scuba hobby for a long time; is promoting & selling dive travel becoming a larger profit center over time, or is it just a way to recruit & retain divers & sell more gear & courses (which would make it an indirect profit center)?

Are local divers planning their own trips solo (or just a family or dive buddy team) because it's gotten easier?

Richard.

 

[NAM001]

No I do not have a survival job. I have been amongst the fortunate ones that retained employment. So many have been laid off and have had to take what ever they could, just to make ends meet. For those people that are divers that means they give up the acvtivity for a while. Many sell their stuff to pay rent or mortgage's. So many divers that can no longer afford to dive really cuts into the LDS's and they eventually have to close.

I am saying that the decline is majorly impacted by the economy. The water regulations in the future will become another factor that may start shutting down the dive spots. That will make a double whammy on diving in general. Imagine what a 20$ per day federal water body usage tax could do if implemented. Some of the holes I use have been just under the minimum acreage that was under federal regulation, That acreage line I understand has drastically been reduced.

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?

 

[Z Gear]

Here in San Diego, I can say that on the weekends that I go diving I consistently see a steady stream of veteran and new divers as well. All of the schools in this area use the La Jolla shores for their classes. From my view point it looks to me that its not to bad here in San Diego. There quite a few people who frequently dive and are interested in learning how to dive in our area at this time. IMO

On a second note, I believe the interest in free diving some are witnessing is something we should learn from especially the Scuba Industry. I hate to bring up my previous infused migraine thread "Diver Image". But free divers have an Image as well. It can be said that a free Diver can be viewed as a fit stealthy hunter.
Streamlined and wearing Camo suit, what kind of image that this give you. Can something be said about this image and perhaps how it might lure some to want to be like this. Sure they are saving a ton on gear by going the free dive route but I believe that is not their real motive for trying out this sport. Nemrod said it himself "Scuba diving isn't cool any more" in some places its not but trends can change quickly, with the social media and the internet we are not just dependent on TV and Movies for exposure. Take a look at these videos and tell me if this is not cool!

[video=youtube;cAO6y5MK_tM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAO6y5MK_tM[/video]

[video=youtube;X6z9Gbmidmc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6z9Gbmidmc[/video]

 

[Rhone Man]

The predominant target audience - middle aged white people with some money and some free time - remains unchanged.

For most people on SB who dive in the US, I suspect this is true.

Globally, the market the dive industry should be salivating over is Asia.

• It has a booming middle class. The most advanced economies in Asia - Japan and Hong Kong - are already diving nuts, it is a reasonable bet that the emerging economies will also take to it (see all the recent articles in the press about the rise of skiing and golf in China, for example).
• Asians seem hard-wired to love tech-geek stuff like dive gear. I was diving in Hong Kong a while back, and you just could not believe some of the gear that was getting pulled out for a pissy little dive in 25 feet of water.
• It is the sort of co-ed non-aerobically taxing sport that goes down very well in this region.

It also helps that some of the world's best diving (Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia) is pretty accessible from Asia, and that air travel in Asia is cheap and easy (no f'ing TSA here to make your life miserable - turn up at the airport 35 minutes before departure on a high speed train direct from the city centre!).

 

[Diving Dubai]

Here in Dubai we don't suffer the same circumstanced that many countries do. There is a fair amount of disposable income, equally there are a lot of competing activities for people to enjoy. THe Biggest dive shop in the area always has over 100 tanks for weekend collection, I know of 5 dive operators that go out every week. A two tank trip is $95. Numerous people own their own boats too. Only students rent their gear 99% of divers here have their own gear

The weather allows all year round diving, generally I go diving 3 weekends a month with one being a two day trip. Generally the age range is late 20's to mid 50's. 99% of the younger divers have learnt while on a resort course in tropical climbs.

The demographic here isn't really representative (one for Ray) given that every person who is a non national has made the life changing decision to up sticks and move here or seek work here.

Our club has approx 100 members which has remained the same for the last 5-10 years despite the transitory nature of the region - people leaving and new people arriving. Most weekends our club boats are full ( 20 divers) and if we have a dhow trip at the same trip there might be another 20 or so.

The Dubai coast (West coast of the UAE) is just wrecks in shallow water (max 30m) generally with a couple of exceptions, bad vis and in August sea temps of 95F aren't unusual at depth. The East coast which is the Indian ocean has lower temps and nice coral with some purposely sunken wrecks - this is where most people dive. macro photographers love it. However some of the sites are damaged because of the commercial taking new, inexperienced or just plain poor divers.

To the North there's a place called the Musandam. Remote mountainous terrain directly meets the ocean. No towns just the odd local fishing village - the diving can be spectacular, lots of life. hard and soft corals Some big stuff such as whale sharks, mola mola's leopard sharks lots of rays up to devil ray etc. Very few get to dive it as it's off the tourist map. Hard to get too and can be challenging with currents.


There is a large tech diving community and rebreather community. I don't dive tech but I know 10 rebreather divers. Out of our active recreational club divers (60) 30 are instructors with BSAC, PADI etc, I have 220 ish dives - there are only 10 others in my club with fewer dives . 50+ dives a year excluding vacation dives or diving professionally is very much the norm. People have lots of free time (they can afford domestic help - so no chores at weekends) and of course disposable income. 50% of our club dive BP/W and a further dozen own DPV's. Most of the club divers have gained additional training BSAC Dive Leader, Accelerated Deco, boat handling, nitrox blenders etc. so are really midway between Rec and Tech. The commercial boats generally serve up the typical guided dives where everything is done for you if you choose

We have great travel connections - Maldives is only 4 hrs, Asia 7 so people also up sticks and go vacation diving at the drop of a hat thus you get first hand knowledge of great diving destinations around the world.

We are not a place where tourists come to learn to dive, so divers here either want to continue what they started elsewhere, or have decided for whatever reason to learn - these people typically continue to dive, rather than those on holiday who tick a box and do no more.

 

[tkaelin]

Sticking with what I observed and by way of background, I was YMCA certified back in the 70s as a teen in CT diving in LI sound. It was something a couple friends and I wanted to do. I think watching Flippper and Jacque Cousteau and growing up near the water were my initial influences. We dove at night for lobsters and spearing black fish back then. Honestly I don't think I ever associated a machoness with the sport in the beginning. I think I thought it would be amazing to see what the world looked like under the waves and I wanted to explore that world. There was never any thinking back then that we dove because others might think it was cool. It was just something we wanted to do.

Over the years I usually managed to continue diving but there were periods with school, work and family that I did not. In 2009 my two kids then 12 and 15 and pretty much on their own initiative said they would like to get certified and take a family trip somewhere with blue warm water to try diving. They took the course over the winter in NE and we took a family trip to Bon. My wife is certified as well but hadn't dove in years. It was a great way to get back into diving. Since then I have had a brother in law and 2 nieces and 1 nephew get certified. The nieces and nephews were HS and college age when they were certified. We have taken a number of family dive trips and it has been great. So personally I am seeing younger folks still interested. I small snapshot I realize.

When I dive in RI at a site set up for diving (FT Wetherill), I see that the area is fairly well used and visited by divers and much has I have seen it used since I started diving there 30 plus years ago. Memory can be a funny thing but I think it is used as much if not more than I remember and with more women diving than I recall. The dive season has been extended I think in part on drysuits which are now more available and/or more affordable. On a visit last week on a weekday in the morning I observed a solo male maybe in his 50s (like me), two pairs m/f maybe in there 20s and 40s and two pairs male maybe in 20s and 30s. Just a one day snapshot. On the weekends the area can be full up with divers and classes. Others in the industry in the area can say more about the market, demand and business experiences. This is just what I have observed.

 

[Searcaigh]

I second what Diving Dubai has just mentioned.

I will also add that when I lived in Jeddah in Saudi prior to coming to Dubai 18 years ago, there was a fairly large dive community of western ex-pats that has subsequently declined to some degree as there are less people going to work there from N. America and Europe (+ Oz and NZ).

There are a few more Arabs diving, but not from what I have seen, in the same numbers of western expats back in the 90s.

Most of the diving in the Saudi Red Sea is shore diving so relatively cheap, it used to be a luxury going out on a boat, it was also complicated as back then you also needed a "boat letter" from your sponsor / company to show to the coast guard before they would let you out on the boat, nothing was simple or logical back then, but it was all "Adventure" diving at it's best.

Once you got out of Jeddah and explored the coast you knew you were diving areas that probably nobody or few people had dived before and why I ended up owning 16 tanks by the time I left Saudi.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Here in San Diego, I can say that on the weekends that I go diving I consistently see a steady stream of veteran and new divers as well. All of the schools in this area use the La Jolla shores for their classes. From my view point it looks to me that its not to bad here in San Diego. There quite a few people who frequently dive and are interested in learning how to dive in our area at this time. IMO

On a second note, I believe the interest in free diving some are witnessing is something we should learn from especially the Scuba Industry. I hate to bring up my previous infused migraine thread "Diver Image". But free divers have an Image as well. It can be said that a free Diver can be viewed as a fit stealthy hunter.
Streamlined and wearing Camo suit, what kind of image that this give you. Can something be said about this image and perhaps how it might lure some to want to be like this. Sure they are saving a ton on gear by going the free dive route but I believe that is not their real motive for trying out this sport. Nemrod said it himself "Scuba diving isn't cool any more" in some places its not but trends can change quickly, with the social media and the internet we are not just dependent on TV and Movies for exposure. Take a look at these videos and tell me if this is not cool!

[video=youtube;cAO6y5MK_tM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAO6y5MK_tM[/video]

[video=youtube;X6z9Gbmidmc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6z9Gbmidmc[/video]

I think one of the biggest reasons young guys and gals are getting into free diving instead of scuba is because of economics.
Like you said, they save a ton on gear and there are no classes necessary to get started. Yes, some may go on and take some performance free diving classes but that's an elective.
Also, if you look at free diving gear and the advertising behind it it appeals to young hot athletic types. The gear is slick, streamlined, trendy, high tech, stylish, and very cool looking. There's weaponry involved which subconcsiously feeds into the hunter provider/conquerer gene in us.

So, perhaps this is why young people are more likely to freedive instead of scuba dive.
For a modest amount of up front money (then basically free after that) you can get in the water to do something athletic with a bonus of seafood for fish tacos and impress your girlfriend, or you can spend thousands on all sorts of scuba gear and classes to spend more money on trips to go diving and be told that you can't hunt because it's unethical. All while you're stuffed into a lot of cumbersome slow gear.

Which one will they pick?

 

[mikeb21072]

As my profile states, I live just above Washington D.C. in Maryland. My wife and I got into diving several years back, but if the dive community wants to survive/expand, the model needs to change. We do not dive locally, so we incur a greater expense for diving, but we do accept it gladly. We can fly fairly cheap to Florida, so Molasses Reef in Key Largo is our preferred local dive site.

The main issues I see with the industry is, for one, the start-up cost excludes a lot of the audience it needs, the younger generation. The going rate for OW training is about $250-350 for classroom and pool sessions in my area. Really, it is double because you need either couples or a group of friends with a high interest that would fill out buddy pairs. Realistically, the cost is 500-700 before your checkout dives.

Presume you do not live in a diving hot spot, D.C for example. You could do your checkout dives in a quarry that is very cold and little visibility. Not really the best model for instilling confidence to get repeat business. Otherwise, you fly away for your checkout dives (Cayman's or Key Largo, etc.). We chose the Cayman's, now you add the checkout dives 300+ each along with the hotel and airfare (1400 at least for a week stay or more). So to learn just enough to be certified to hopefully not drown your first time out is in the range of at least $550 - 2k, without buying gear. If you rent at first, you can defer the equipment cost, but you still have about 1k each that you are eventually going to spend, or if you are really hooked, the spare bedroom looks like a dive shop.
Most of that is preaching to the choir, but the dive shop model needs a revamp. Boat Captains and Instructors get a guaranteed piece of the pie for training and services, DM's are tip based and basically indentured servants. Most of the advertising is neither targeted or effective, some may do a better job than others, but a very poor website or TripAdvisor doesn't cut it.
My suggestion, to make it a sustainable industry for the future, PADI, SSI, NAUI ... need to increase support instead of feeding off dive shops. If you are a 5 star dive center, you should be getting a lot perks from your cert agency (free training books for example), That could easily knock 100 off the price at start up.
More input from the agencies, then get the pricing for the classroom set as a 2 for 1, pool work you can't cut a lot, but if you get the class and pool work down to 300 for two people, you have a chance to compete. You can't keep the training cost at iPhone and PS4 prices, younger people will not do it, they will not get the immediate reward.
Market to college students, use your local colleges and universities. Believe me, regardless of what they say, they have very deep pockets. They can also sponsor research trips that could include the certifications. I have yet to see a school without a pool for the classes.
Shops need to look at more profitable models, margins cannot be great by trying to survive buy just selling gear. Otherwise, we would have a shop on every corner. Demo outings every month or less for the shops, change the model to young instead of middle-aged. Try to package shop offerings to the active lifestyle, don't try to compete but embrace the sailing, kayak, paddle board, and climbing communities. Kayaking especially, that is becoming a popular alternative as a scuba platform instead of a boat. Just look at the avatar's on scubaboard, you see a lot more than diving; motorcycles, paddle boarding, kayaking, surfing, ... these are all revenue streams to explore.

I have seen a lot of similar threads about where the direction was headed for diving, and it was usually pessimistic. My view is it is a niche market that is in danger of closing, but there is plenty of time to reverse the trend. Just imagine if the popularity increases to where gander Mountain or Bass Pro Shop started to look at including scuba as an offering?? Every time I return from a trip, people at work want to see videos or pic's. Everyone is always excited about scuba until they hear the price for getting started.
I could be completely wrong but that is my two cents. For us, we are headed to the Cayman's in August, and at least five trips to Florida buy the end of the year!! So, we will be doing our part to support the industry by adding on to our development buy trying out the rebreathers.

 

[scubadada]

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.

Evolve into what? Evolution implies some selective advantage over the previous iteration