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

[drrich2]

I was able to fund my initial foray into diving, on my own, as a teenager, with a pissant Summer job, working as a line cook, for minimum wage -- about US 2.65 per hour, at that time -- in the late 1970s (to this day, I cannot stomach Hollandaise Sauce; made that crap by the gallon).

Good point, but also an example of the old adage 'Where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit.' I'm 53, so I was a kid in the time frame you're talking about. A few things different today...

1.) We didn't have smart phones or tablets back then. Wife and I upgrade iPhones maybe every 3 - 5 years or so? But our family data/voice plan for 2 phones and an iPad Mini is around $190 per month.

2.) Home Cable Internet is around $60 per month.

3.) We don't use satellite or cable t.v., but back when we had Dish Network, it was around $140 per month (and that was years ago). In the 70's, a lot of people just had free broadcast t.v.

4.) Disney Plus (yes, we have a kid) is over $8 per month.

5.) Amazon Prime averages over $10 per month.

So, in a given month, we have roughly $270 (and it'd be around $410 if we still had Dish Network, if not more) in costs that wouldn't have existed back in the 1970s. We didn't buy personal computers back then, either.

That's all beyond the fact many of us live nowhere near the ocean, which is the main place most divers want to dive.

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When I was a kid, we had fewer easy, near omnipresent electronic entertainments. Perhaps the smart phone games, tablet games, home console games and social media feedback and memes are enough that many people feel entertained enough so as not to be driven to adventure as much?

 

[boulderjohn]

Going forward I would rather find an instructor who is NOT affiliated with a dive shop and has no interest in where I buy my gear, but I don't know if they even exist.

They exist, but they can be hard to find. It depends significantly on where you live, and where you live it will be a lot more possible than where I live, especially now that you have your own gear.

In many parts of the country, including where I live, the ability of an instructor to work independently is highly dependent upon the ability to handle overhead costs. A dive shop has a supply of dive gear in many different sizes, it has a large collection of scuba tanks ready to go, and it has some kind of an access to a confined water location. An independent instructor will struggle to replace all that.

In other parts of the country, there is a local infrastructure that supports independent instruction. I vacation each winter in South Florida, and I could easily work independently there. Many dive shops will allow students to rent gear at a discount, and dive operations will provide student discounts for boat dives as well.

Technical diving instruction is different, because tech students usually supply their own gear. That is why I can work as an independent tech instructor in Colorado.

I would bet you can find an independent instructor in your area with a little effort. A tech instructor will almost always also be a recreational instructor as well.

By the way, your description of the way you were pushed to buy gear reminded me very much of a workshop I attended that was given by the owner of a major dive agency, telling how to maximize gear sales and profits.

 

[Ana]

Do we really want multitudes diving?

On any given day here in SB, there's at least one post describing crappy behavior at a dive site.

I may be wrong but scuba diving has never been on the top 5 hobbies worldwide, has it?
Some people is attracted to it and nothing will stop them from becoming divers. Some people like the idea of it but it isn't high in their priority list, this is due to either real or perceived reasons. Others just don't care for it.
What's wrong with the current amount of divers, do you need more people cluttering the water? loading up cattle boats? trampling the reefs? getting in trouble involving the the judicial system and jeopardizing the freedoms we have?

I get that shops want business, but half of the current shops are less than average as far as keeping their few customers happy. I think we have about the right amount of divers, if anything maybe a few too many.

 

[Belzelbub]

This was a point of frustration for me. I am a big guy (6' 1" and 340 lbs) and when I went in to talk to the LDS where I eventually did my training they said "There is no way we have anything in rentals that will fit you". In order to take the class I had to buy a wetsuit ($400), BCD ($1600) Hood ($100) Mask, snorkel, fins gloves, boots etc ($700), prescription inserts for the mask ($250), plus the online learning package ($150) and pay for the class itself ($1000). "Due to insurance requirements" all gear for the class must be purchased or rented from them, etc etc. I definitely feel like there was a perception that because i chose the private lessons over the group that I was a "whale" with lots of money to spend, but this is not the case.

Holy crap. That's definitely a high cost to enter. Everything you listed the price for seems way overpriced. And the "Due to insurance requirements" statement seems like BS as well. That's certainly not a requirement I've heard before. I could understand they might want to take a look at the gear to make sure it looks safe to dive in, and wasn't just a hand-me-down from an uncle that used to dive back in the '90s. But, I've never heard of a requirement to buy from them.

Going forward I would rather find an instructor who is NOT affiliated with a dive shop and has no interest in where I buy my gear, but I don't know if they even exist.

Or at least affiliated with a different shop. All kinds of red flags in your post about that shop. There are independent instructors, but can be hard to find. Several agencies require the instructors to be affiliated with a dive shop.

 

[Belzelbub]

Do we really want multitudes diving?

Multitudes, no. But it should be popular enough that there is support and access. If there aren't enough divers, there won't be enough incentive for businesses to manufacture gear, provide training, trips, etc.

 

[boulderjohn]

Do we really want multitudes diving?

On any given day here in SB, there's at least one post describing crappy behavior at a dive site.

I may be wrong but scuba diving has never been on the top 5 hobbies worldwide, has it?
Some people is attracted to it and nothing will stop them from becoming divers. Some people like the idea of it but it isn't high in their priority list, this is due to either real or perceived reasons. Others just don't care for it.
What's wrong with the current amount of divers, do you need more people cluttering the water? loading up cattle boats? trampling the reefs? getting in trouble involving the the judicial system and jeopardizing the freedoms we have?

I get that shops want business, but half of the current shops are less than average as far as keeping their few customers happy. I think we have about the right amount of divers, if anything maybe a few too many.

It's nice that you have your own boat and can go out when the weather is suitable.

for those of us who rely on the commercial operations for most of our diving in the winter months in your neighborhood, planning dive days is a real trick. You go to the scheduled dives and look to see how many slots are available on a given planned dive. If there are a lot of slots available, you can be pretty sure that the boat will not run because of a lack of divers signed up. My best guess is that over the las 5-6 years, I stayed home about 30% of the days I would have liked to dive because not enough people signed up for the dives I wanted to do.

I have had similar issues in other places. I once spent a week in a resort in Belize, planning to dive every day, but having to skip two days because they would not run the boat without more divers.

 

[scubadada]

...for those of us who rely on the commercial operations for most of our diving in the winter months in your neighborhood, planning dive days is a real trick. You go to the scheduled dives and look to see how many slots are available on a given planned dive. If there are a lot of slots available, you can be pretty sure that the boat will not run because of a lack of divers signed up. My best guess is that over the las 5-6 years, I stayed home about 30% of the days I would have liked to dive because not enough people signed up for the dives I wanted to do...

I have been diving in Boynton Beach, Jupiter, and West Palm for the last dozen years, a little over 1,200 dives. I don't remember the last time not getting out due to insufficient number of divers. Now, getting out due to conditions, is sometimes a real trick. Not infrequently I need to switch from Boynton to Jupiter or West Palm to get out when the swells are up. If I can't get out in the ocean, I can frequently make the BHB if the high tide time works. During the late fall, winter, early spring, I probably miss something like 15-20% of my dives due to conditions

At least in my area of SE FL, there generally appears to be a sufficient number of divers. You do have to be nimble and quick to deal with the conditions sometimes. You may not always get the dive you were counting on. It helps a lot to have a relationship with a number of operators.

 

[Bigbella]

"Due to insurance requirements" all gear for the class must be purchased or rented from them, etc etc.

Yeah, that's absolute horsescheiß.

My niece is taking up diving at CSU and we've been helping her navigate the challenge of a "death by a thousand cuts" of the local dive shops, who insisted upon showing her, within the first five minutes, a 2500.00 titanium regulator, kept behind glass, like a Faberge egg, while she looked, for a moment, what the Japanese call, boketto (sort of zombified); and who reacted with obvious disappointment when she mentioned that she already had a regulator, given to her for her recent college acceptance. My brother and I, both of whom dive, got her suited up for less than twenty precent of what the California shops were offering, by looking out of state and online.

Sadly, it almost takes a preexisting knowledge of the gear; its workings, and what is actually required, to avoid being screwed. I would think that SB could be a valuable resource, as a result.

If anyone truly wishes to know what the fundamental reason that prevents scuba diving from becoming popular, it's the "take it up the greaser" business model that you faced and the mentality of today's local dive shop -- little else . . .

 

[rx7diver]

Removed by rx7diver. (Decided to post this elsewhere.)

 

[rx7diver]

Yeah, that's absolute horsescheiß.

My niece is taking up diving at CSU and we've been helping her navigate the challenge of a "death by a thousand cuts" of the local dive shops, who insist upon showing her, within five minutes, a 2500.00 titanium regulator, kept behind glass, like a Faberge egg ...

My eldest is completing her univ scuba course, too, right now. It is a 3-credit-hour (semester-long) undergraduate course, and the students use the univ's gear for the pool sessions. Her cost--well, my cost--is for her scuba physical, her competition swim suit, her swim suit cover, her hair care products (!!), three U/G SCH in the particular college that "owns" the scuba course, and the associated univ "fees" ("lab" fees, IT fees, recreation fees, library fees, etc., etc., etc.). And she needs to pay for, and acquire gear for, her open water check-out that will occur in about two weeks.

Sixteen weeks of NAUI instruction.

Essentially, the same course I took in 1986.

We (she and I) visited my LDS last week to try on rental wetsuits and BCD's. Hopefully, there will be no "death by a thousand cuts" since, like your daughter, my daughter knows someone who knows a bit about gear.

rx7diver