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

[markmud]

There are so many good posts on this thread.

Compressor and Akimbo nailed it though.

Well I will take a different position: It is a very popular sport. I was in Florida last week and saw so many divers going in the water it was fabulous. All had smiles on their faces. Isn't that priceless?

The sport began with spearfishing and men that wanted some adventure while helping to feed their young families. Some people started to focus on underwater photography or wreck diving. Perhaps more than any other factor, adventure has been replaced with fairly regimented site seeing.

It is my opinion the best sport that one can engage it. And I engage in other hobbies and sports. Nothing remotely compares with it. It takes you to places you would never be able to visit. It's not a popularity contest after all. As others have said, there is costs and then there are enormous benefits. Love it and dive often.

Here is my take:

I don't know of any outdoor adventure sport that is cheap. I ride bicycles. I owned horses. I hunt (rarely anymore). I used to slalom course water ski. I loved to fish for pelagic sport fish. None of those avocations are inexpensive.

Most of those sports are waning just like SCUBA because our youngsters are different people. Most are not adventurous, and were trained by helicopter parents. Getting tired, dirty, sweaty, and bloody is no longer considered fun or adventurous. Being an overweight couch potato is becoming the norm.

Sure, as Compressor wrote, SCUBA is very popular in some places, but not per capita when compared to yesteryear. As Akimbo wrote: "...spearfishing and men that wanted some adventure..." Those men and women are few and far between nowadays. As a youngster, I was surrounded by adults who travelled the world and conquered Hitler and Tojo. They did not fear a swim in the ocean or hiking up a mountain with grizzlies roaming freely.

Our culture and society has changed. Are there anomalies? Yes, you bet there are a few young outdoor adventurous types amongst us.

cheers,
m

 

[EdC]

Scuba is popular enough in the areas with legitimate diving attractions. In fact, I don’t think it should be popularized more than it already is.

I think they should make it easier to get lobster license's to get more people out there!

 

[rx7diver]

Several posts above cite gear expense. Basic (though high quality) gear does not need to be expensive! I cringe whenever someone insists to an enquiring new diver that he/she should purchase an expensive PDC--or any other piece of unnecessary gear! Maybe we all here--well, maybe those among us here who don't stand to profit from the sale of unnecessary gear--can help new divers understand this reality.

And, regarding the cost of training, I'll save that rant for another day! (Does anyone actually need a course that promises to teach "buoyancy"??!!)

rx7diver

 

[OTF]

IS IT ACTUALLY less popular per capita now than it was in 1980? How much of that is perception vs actual statistics?

Yeah intro gear doesn't have to be expensive, but most new/prospective divers don't know that. They're being marketing $650 BCDs.The perception is that it's very expensive top-of-the-line gear, or it's not safe.

 

[Wookie]

Do you have another activity in mind which is equipment heavy, expensive, involve some risk and yet more popular than scuba?

I live on th Chesapeake, formerly Key West, before that San Francisco, grew up in Maine.

the answer to your question is undoubtably sailing. Scuba is a mere shadow.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Ice hockey.
Very geographic dependent.

Believe it or not, right here in little old Santa Rosa,CA ice hockey IS popular. We have the Charles Schulz Museum and Ice rink. I even got into skating as an adult. I loved the San Jose Sharks so a group of us bought skates at the pro shop and would race around the rink living out our hockey fantasies on our lunch hour.
If I lived in any other city with no ice arena I would have not taken part.
So yes, location and proximity has everything to do with it.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Several posts above cite gear expense. Basic (though high quality) gear does not need to be expensive! I cringe whenever someone insists to an enquiring new diver that he/she should purchase an expensive PDC--or any other piece of unnecessary gear! Maybe we all here--well, maybe those among us here who don't stand to profit from the sale of unnecessary gear--can help new divers understand this reality.

And, regarding the cost of training, I'll save that rant for another day! (Does anyone actually need a course that promises to teach "buoyancy"??!!)

rx7diver

I completely agree, but they don’t know that.
We’re talking about prospective people who are not certified and completely brand new to the sport. By the time they get here to SB and learn about used gear and DIY they are already certified divers and more dedicated than most.
The dive shop isn’t going to tell them to save their money and buy a bunch of used gear no matter how good it is.

 

[scubadada]

Well I will take a different position: It is a very popular sport. I was in Florida last week and saw so many divers going in the water it was fabulous. All had smiles on their faces. Isn't that priceless?

It's in my opinion the best sport that one can engage it. And I engage in other hobbies and sports. Nothing remotely compares with it. It takes you to places you would never be able to visit. It's not a popularity contest after all. As others have said, there is costs and then there are enormous benefits. Love it and dive often.

Opportunity, time, and money.

I grew up in Southern California. I was a competitive swimmer, played water polo, surfed and went scuba diving. After 10 years of diving, I got married, moved to Portland Oregon, finished my medical training, had my first child. In Portland, backpacking, fishing, skiing and running replaced scuba diving. We moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and both started our medical careers and had our second child. We continued backpacking, skiing, and biking and introduced our children to those activities.

The breakthrough occurred when my son was 11 and expressed an interest in diving during a vacation to Grand Cayman. We returned the next year and I was recertified, after 17 years of no diving, with my 12 year old son. We bought a time share on Grand Cayman that we owned until it was blown down by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, My wife and daughter were certified when my daughter turned 12. We have all been diving ever since.

In 2001, I left my academic practice and took a job that not only gave me more free time, but gave me opportunities to dive during some of my business trips. After diving in the Florida Keys for several years, I had a business trip to Jupiter and discovered drift diving. We've had a townhouse just north of Boynton Beach since 2011 and I now have about half of my 2000+ dives in SE Florida. It has been a lifesaver during the pandemic.

It has become increasingly difficult to dive together as a family with a married 36 year old son and a 31 year old daughter. We were all able to get together in Bonaire in October of 2019, priceless.

Some children never really grow up

 

[boulderjohn]

Yesterday my wife was talking to someone and mentioned that I was a scuba instructor. He told her he had always been interested in taking scuba lessons, but there was one thing that stopped him cold. When she told me what he said, I was not in the slightest bit surprised. When I taught OW classes, I always asked at the beginning of class what their biggest concerns were, and in every class I ever taught, the primary concern was the same. This was so true that I had a lesson on that topic ready to go.

The reason: fear of sharks. Or barracuda. Or whatever is lurking down there, ready to pounce on some doomed scuba diver.

We have movies like Jaws and so many others to thank for this. How about Shark Week on the Discovery Channel? Or the news media, which reminds us every time someone is reported to have fallen off a boat (or whatever) that they somehow managed to survive in "shark infested waters."

Even funny cartoons remind us of this mortal danger. Google "Far Side" and "Sharks" and see how many there are from that one cartoonist.

 

[boulderjohn]

In 2005, the lovely Jessica Alba appeared in the film "Into the Blue," which included lots of diving, both freediving and scuba. In their professional journal, PADI suggested the film could be used to help promote diving. I guess they didn't notice that one of the divers is killed by a shark.