I really don't buy the "the costs of entry are too high" argument. I participate in another sport where the entry and ongoing costs are monstrously higher, and which is thriving. My horse trainer rides mountain bikes, which cost thousands of dollars to buy, and her sport isn't hurting, either.
I can see why someone who lives in a landlocked state might decide not to take up a sport that you have to get on an airplane to do. But where shore diving is abundant and quite good, if people aren't taking up the sport, we aren't doing a good job of communicating why they should.
A lot of ideas have come up in this thread, including TS&M's post, which I copied an excerpt from. A few comments:
1.) Dressage (your other expensive hobby IIRC) is something of a spectator sport, yes (also involving competition, prizes/awards & a social aspect)? Scuba is generally not.
2.) Mountain Biking, like many physical sports, is associated with exercise, weight loss & fitness (e.g.: 'cardio.'). Scuba is generally not. We move slow, try not to over-exert or breathe too fast, and if it's hard, you're probably doing it wrong.
3.) I've seen in other threads the idea of trying to make scuba appeal to these 'young alpha male hunter types trying to impress females (& presumably get sex) by catching prey. I wonder how much of that is because they're a large potential lucrative market, and how much of that is because some current divers with the scuba diving public were more like that. How many threads do we see critical of obesity, diving with medical conditions, how a number of fatality reports start out 'this guy in his 50's/60's
', etc
? Look at the thinly veiled (or not veiled) contempt expressed toward cruise ship 'pod people.' Is making scuba an exclusive adventure sport best for the business, or best for the ego? Spear fishing is said to be a sustainable harvesting method. Okay. If several hundred more spear fishermen descending on the same sites, would that still be true?
4.) Some hobbies, like video game console systems, can expand without evident harm to the hobby community. As people get into gaming, they buy a system, put in on their own t.v., etc
But in diving, we've got a limited amount of prime real estate (e.g.: pretty reefs) to dive. Already I read about 'cattle boats,' some reefs looking worn from diver pressure (allegedly), some sites being 'crowded' with divers (e.g.: popular, a number of boats go there), etc
If the actively diving public tripled within the year, how would this impact the diving environment we love?
5.) Some hobbies, like biking, people recognize and have some idea what's involved by simple observations. Not so with scuba diving. Awareness is much less & the need to deliberately investigate it higher.
6.) Some hobbies, like biking, are popular enough in some areas it's likely you've got a neighbor, coworker, etc
, who does this, too. In other words, the activity becomes an extension of socialization. To some extent local dive clubs serve this need, but I wonder how many recreation (e.g.: not instructors, DM's or shop staff) strongly mix scuba & socialization? Put another way, when you get on a dive boat, how often is it you're on a boat full of strangers unless you brought a buddy? How many people know a few to several divers at work?
7.) What new developments are we eagerly awaiting a larger customer base to fund development of? The only one I know off-hand (aside from smaller, lighter tanks with a lot more gas crammed into them) is the fabled 'idiot simple' rebreather that would be cheaper, require practically no operating knowledge & be as simple to operate as regular open circuit scuba (e.g.: disposable cartridges with replacement scrubber, sensors, the device tells you when to replace stuff, etc
) - and from what I read we are a
long way from having that.
Purpose: long dives without bubbles. Sure, dive computers with great interfaces, high capacity logs, wireless communication to download to a PC and extreme battery life would be nice, and a number of other things, but what are we waiting for to 'transform' scuba?
Richard.
? Play basket ball? 
