What is the fundamental reason that prevents scuba diving from becoming popular?

[TMHeimer]

The issue goes back to what others have said about learning to snorkel first. If someone is comfortable breathing through a snorkel, they probably will be comfortable breathing through a regulator. If not, then just take baby steps of breathing through a regulator on dry land, and then "in 3-1/2 ft of water," as you said, etc.

Agree. I've often thought that one should know how to snorkel anyway before taking OW. Dive down & up & blast clear. I know it's covered in PADI OW, but not always at the start of the course. You don't need my 40 years of pre-OW snorkeling, but having done it a few times would sure help with the airway skills.

Re- claustrophobia-- Having witnessed my wife's over many years, I think (at least for her), there are no methods that will "cure" the condition. It is what it is. Fear of certain things (being underwater, etc., low viz when diving, etc.) is different, and may be cured with certain methods. I'm no expert.

 

[84CJ7]

I'm actually against people going against their phobias or severe discomforts to do diving, they have this super irritating way of coming back at just the right time to get people killed.

Technically that falls under do as I say and not as I do since I hate water so much that I took scuba diving to confront that rather head on.
Turns out my fear was entirely caused by a general feeling of weakness involving water and I treated it as an engineering problem rather than a psychological problem. With all my carefully chosen gear (I am a total gear whore) I feel totally fine even with a few feet of cloudy vis at 90 feet with temps in the 40's (been there done that, it was a deep night cold water dive all at once) or staring down into blue nothing in the ocean right after jumping in the water when you weren't expecting it (no clue what depth off that ledge was, at least a few hundred, but vis was really good that day and it freaked me out a bit to see nothing).
I do have super rigid control over myself though. There's times I get caught by surprise by a situation and have a panic on the inside and act normal on the outside without my breathing even going up. I just sorta go emotionless and become a compulsive dive by numbers person at that point with a looping mental checklist.
I think the first time I was deep enough to possibly have any slight narcosis (which just happened to be that deep dark low vis dive where I was already freaked out) I became the worlds most compulsive gear, buddy and numbers checker.

So maybe I would say a lot of people don't have the right mentality or self control to go diving. You have to frequently go completely against the way your mind is programmed to handle things, especially in a panic (safe is frequently not up for example).

 

[Louisiana_Diver]

I agree. Anything below thirty feet is a horrible place for a phobia to come back. If you panic and lose your head then the results can be catastrophic and it can also hurt your dive buddy, spouse, friend or whoever else you are diving with. That type of accident can hurt others as they try to help rescue someone in a full panic.

 

[Belzelbub]

I agree. Anything below thirty feet is a horrible place for a phobia to come back. If you panic and lose your head then the results can be catastrophic and it can also hurt your dive buddy, spouse, friend or whoever else you are diving with. That type of accident can hurt others as they try to help rescue someone in a full panic.

For a true phobia, I agree. Definitely want to proceed with caution, if at all.

However, sometimes people just need a little help getting over the jitters. My youngest daughter did all her checkout dives in FL spring water at Devil’s Den. During those, she was a bit nervous, and did not want to go through any of the swim throughs. But, she did all the requirements, and got her card.

Recently, we did her first ocean boat dive. Took quite a bit at the surface, as the bottom was just out of her vision. I asked her to try, and if she wanted to end the dive, she could do that at any time. When we got to the bottom, I checked if she was OK, then asked if she wanted to go up. She shook her head “No,” so we continued with the dive. She loved all the fish that came to check us out, even though visibility was less than optimal.

True phobias, however, are different. Recognizing which is which is a challenge.

 

[Bob DBF]

I agree. Anything below thirty feet is a horrible place for a phobia to come back. If you panic and lose your head then the results can be catastrophic...

It doesn't have to be below 30', and it doesn't have to be a phobia. Whatever the issue is that keeps someone from diving, the will have to resolve before they go to class, no one else can, or should, start them diving before they are ready, as the potential injuries outweigh another's satisfaction of having them dive.

My daughter loved the water, but was not interested in diving until she went away to college. As much as it pained me that she didn't want to dive, I never pushed it because I was not the one that would be in harms way.

Of course my point of view is influenced by learning to dive back when it was dangerous. Now that it is safe, most think it is no big deal for people to be breathing high pressure compressed gas underwater, sometimes they are wrong.

 

[Rose Robinson]

I disagree. Half of the sports/hobbies you state take alot less work than diving in both execution/ maintenance / prep and you picked some less than obvious general hobbies.

Likes and dislikes have nothing to do with it, it's a simple equation of time spent not doing the activity to prepare for the activity vs time that you can do the actual activity.
You might enjoy Ferries, but I don't enjoy rinsing my dive gear every evening or hauling everything in and out of my car all the time.

I do it, cause I love diving, but if I could have a way to just go diving without having to do all of this, I would do it instantly.
Honestly I don't think anyone on this board would still want to go for fills if they could have an infinite tank?

Joris,

An infinite tank, you mean like a car that never runs out of gas. Maybe in the next life.

Anything worth while involves ''work'', whether it's rinsing drying dive gear, or having to drive for an hour and a half getting to and from work.

If you feel that pre/post time spent is not worth the reward, maybe you need to look for something that is more rewarding.

Everything I listed in the previous post were by no means obscure. On the contrary, they are the most common, and in some cases, far more common than scuba diving.

You do have a choice, what else would you be doing, if you were not taking the time to properly care for your possessions? Dive gear as well as everything else. Think what the inside of your home would look like if you never cleaned it. Or, how long your car would last if you never serviced it.

There is reality, and then there are ''infinite tanks''.

Rose

 

[Joris Vd]

Joris,

An infinite tank, you mean like a car that never runs out of gas. Maybe in the next life.

Anything worth while involves ''work'', whether it's rinsing drying dive gear, or having to drive for an hour and a half getting to and from work.

If you feel that pre/post time spent is not worth the reward, maybe you need to look for something that is more rewarding.

Everything I listed in the previous post were by no means obscure. On the contrary, they are the most common, and in some cases, far more common than scuba diving.

You do have a choice, what else would you be doing, if you were not taking the time to properly care for your possessions? Dive gear as well as everything else. Think what the inside of your home would look like if you never cleaned it. Or, how long your car would last if you never serviced it.

There is reality, and then there are ''infinite tanks''.

Rose

I have no clue what you're getting at. Besides missing the point completely with the infinite tank and suggesting I'd look for another hobby, it's honestly quite pretentious to decide that people claiming it was a factor that made them decide to not keep diving, was just a lame excuse.

Fact remains, diving is a maintenance heavy hobby, sure there are hobbies that might ask more maintenance, there are plenty more that don't .

Anything worth wile involves work indeed, but driving 10 minutes to work is just objectively more interesting to the majority of people, than having to drive 1 hour and a half to work. If you could have exactly the same satisfacting from your job 10 min away as you could from the one 1h30 away, you would mostly or always choose the 10 min from home job no? The majority of people would anyway.

 

[boulderjohn]

I have no clue what you're getting at. Besides missing the point completely with the infinite tank and suggesting I'd look for another hobby, it's honestly quite pretentious to decide that people claiming it was a factor that made them decide to not keep diving, was just a lame excuse.

Fact remains, diving is a maintenance heavy hobby, sure there are hobbies that might ask more maintenance, there are plenty more that don't .

Anything worth wile involves work indeed, but driving 10 minutes to work is just objectively more interesting to the majority of people, than having to drive 1 hour and a half to work. If you could have exactly the same satisfacting from your job 10 min away as you could from the one 1h30 away, you would mostly or always choose the 10 min from home job no? The majority of people would anyway.

I agree. That is the essence of my WtF theory--if the work required to do an activity is out of balance with the fun derived from it, then people will stop doing it. For different people, the amount of W it takes to get to the F is significantly more than for others. For many people, the amount of F derived is much less (coral reef v.mud hole). For some people (especially technical divers), the W is actually F as well; they get enough fun preparing for their dives to offset the amount of work it takes.

 

[Rickk]

My biggest factor in not learning earlier was a perception that it wasn't worth it here in the prairies. I really didn't travel until my 40's. Once I started I ended up at the LDS for basic gear and got 'talked into' doing my AOW here.

Yes it's expensive and intensive but if you want it enough you figure out a way. For me it was a lack of information and inspiration on diving local.

Sounds like my story, was 40 when certified, now retired living in Moalboal and dive several times a week.

I ice dove at Wesk Hawk Lake, do ,they still do that? From Portage la Prairie BTW

 

[CanadaDan]

Sounds like my story, was 40 when certified, now retired living in Moalboal and dive several times a week.

I ice dove at Wesk Hawk Lake, do ,they still do that? From Portage la Prairie BTW

Still doing it. Civilians do it for fun, military and police for training. I was supposed to pop that cherry the last couple of years but group size regulation have made it impossible... next March