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

[Wibble]

Fabulous diving, hope you get to see HMS Audacious under ideal conditions, freaky clear like there's no water, but there are no bad conditions.

It's a lot of effort to get "dived up" for trips like that. Our's is the 75m/250ft max week up to 3 hours runtime. Definitely want to dive on the Audacious.

 

[Ana]

Then when retiring one looks longingly at remote destinations for those last remaining years before decrepitude knackers your dreams...

That's sounds amazing, but for some those remote destinations are out of reach.

Instead i dream of everyday with good seas do a simple dive.

For now I'm still tethered to an office. At least i have a reasonable supervisor. There was nothing special for today, i mentioned seas were meant to be less than 2'. He smiled and wished me a good weekend.
So here I am waiting for my turn to get in the water.
Should I worry if diving isn't popular enough?

 

[Chavodel8en]

I think recent discussion shows another reason the sport isnt that popular. Aside from monetary considerations (although they are related), for many folks, there just aren't convenient sites. Geography is a reason.

I can hike, run hoops, bicycle, etc. all within an easy 30 minute bike or drive w/out any real preparation.

At least in the US, there are many folks - maybe half the country - who have to drive HOURS just to dive in a quarry.

I am lucky to live 2 hours from excellent ocean diving. If I didn't, I doubt I would scuba at all. When I was younger I couldn't really afford a nice destination vacation every year. How could I keep up my skills? Would I even get certified? I used a local shop, with check out dives in Monterey. I probably just would never get into it, or if I did, I would lapse.

I salute folks who maintain their skills by driving for hours to quarries, etc., but that couldn't be me. And I couldn't just jet off for a scuba vacation.

 

[Belzelbub]

I salute folks who maintain their skills by driving for hours to quarries, etc., but that couldn't be me.

Same. If quarry diving was all I could do, I likely would have never gotten into it. I certainly wouldn't have kept up with it.

The impetus for me was a snorkeling trip we took in the Keys when I was young. I was hooked at that point and wanted to spend more time underwater. Prior to that, I'd done lots of swimming and snorkeling in freshwater springs, but that didn't do it. It was seeing all the activity on the reef that got me.

 

[Blackcrusader]

If the BCD starts losing air rapidly because of a valve failure, divers will panic.

That is a quite an assumption. I have been with divers who had a valve failure and they did not panic.

Just because one has an issue does not mean they suddenly go into panic mode. The chap in the video did he panic? No.

 

[Blackcrusader]

However, you lost me there with the re-breathing thing... are you suggesting that in case of an out-of-air situation, a panicked diver should time perfectly the positive effects of buoyancy to partially re-breathe air from his BCD without inhaling a quantity large enough to become negatively buoyant, again while gasping for air and trying to reach the surface???

If you are re-breathing air into your BCD how are you becoming less buoyant? And no, one is not "gasping for air" when rebreathing air from a BCD. As no gas is lost this way and as the gas expands as you ascend you find you are gaining positive buoyancy. Seems you have not been trained in this procedure so do not understand it.

 

[Wibble]

If you are re-breathing air into your BCD how are you becoming less buoyant? And no, one is not "gasping for air" when rebreathing air from a BCD. As no gas is lost this way and as the gas expands as you ascend you find you are gaining positive buoyancy. Seems you have not been trained in this procedure so do not understand it.

The issue would boil down to the diver remembering this highly esoteric procedure in a time of great stress. If you're completely out of gas and you're attempting to bolt to the surface when overweighted you need to get up by a few metres/feet, find the BCD hose, exhale into it remembering to press the deflate button, but not too much to empty your lungs, go up more and repeat, then you might have enough to breathe from... Good luck with that.

You cannot practice breathing from a BCD due to the lack of sterile cleaning processes and picking up infections from equipment that isn't designed for the emergency use you're putting it to. Rebreather users regularly clean and sterilise their CCR lungs; nobody does this on a BCD as it's akin to testing your aibag on a car.

Also this won't work if the elephant's trunk has fallen off -- or if you were daft enough to have a ridiculous i3 (no elephant's trunk but loads of dumps waiting to fail).


The correct way to mitigate this is to dive with redundant gas sources and continiously monitor your gas supplies to not run out of gas. Sidemount, twinset/doubles, a "pony" stage cylinder, etc. Oh, and practice, lots of practice.

 

[Blackcrusader]

The issue would boil down to the diver remembering this highly esoteric procedure in a time of great stress. If you're completely out of gas and you're attempting to bolt to the surface when overweighted you need to get up by a few metres/feet, find the BCD hose, exhale into it remembering to press the deflate button, but not too much to empty your lungs, go up more and repeat, then you might have enough to breathe from... Good luck with that.

You cannot practice breathing from a BCD due to the lack of sterile cleaning processes and picking up infections from equipment that isn't designed for the emergency use you're putting it to. Rebreather users regularly clean and sterilise their CCR lungs; nobody does this on a BCD as it's akin to testing your aibag on a car.

Also this won't work if the elephant's trunk has fallen off -- or if you were daft enough to have a ridiculous i3 (no elephant's trunk but loads of dumps waiting to fail).

The correct way to mitigate this is to dive with redundant gas sources and continiously monitor your gas supplies to not run out of gas. Sidemount, twinset/doubles, a "pony" stage cylinder, etc. Oh, and practice, lots of practice.

I sterilize my BCD bladder. Divers are responsible for maintenance of their equipment. No different than making sure your DC has enough battery power etc. I can't say others do as not my concern. Also OOA is not a sudden thing you can feel it coming on. Also secondary often has some air as well in the line. The only way I would have had an OOA at 40m is from gear failure, and a blown first stage does not mean you cannot get can air from the tank when it goes. As can be seen from that diver in the video. Isn't our dive buddy also meant to be a redundant gas source? Also like CESA no need to practice it. Just know and understand the procedure. I do not mind if others do not use it I only need to know I can use it if I was ever required to do so. I do practice oral inflation of my BCD underwater at times though. Also in a real OOA or blown 1st stage and with no buddy nearby to assist I would rather risk a lung infection than a drowning.
I've never been in an OOA from failure to monitor my gas supply in over 36 years of diving. Blown o ring on 1st stage yes I've had a few.

 

[Wibble]

I sterilize my BCD bladder. Divers are responsible for maintenance of their equipment. No different than making sure your DC has enough battery power etc. I can't say others do as not my concern. Also OOA is not a sudden thing you can feel it coming on. Also secondary often has some air as well in the line. The only way I would have had an OOA at 40m is from gear failure, and a blown first stage does not mean you cannot get can air from the tank when it goes. As can be seen from that diver in the video. Isn't our dive buddy also meant to be a redundant gas source? Also like CESA no need to practice it. Just know and understand the procedure. I do not mind if others do not use it I only need to know I can use it if I was ever required to do so. I do practice oral inflation of my BCD underwater at times though. Also in a real OOA or blown 1st stage and with no buddy nearby to assist I would rather risk a lung infection than a drowning.
I've never been in an OOA from failure to monitor my gas supply in over 36 years of diving. Blown o ring on 1st stage yes I've had a few.

The thing you’re missing is that whilst you practice and have this procedure at the front of your mind, others won’t.

Nobody gets more intelligent underwater. Stress and panic destroys logical thought; what one says from the comfort of one’s lounges on the internets is most definitely not what may happen when the crap hits the fan.


The correct mitigation is redundant gas supplies below 30m/100ft.

A diver must be self sufficient and never rely on a buddy saving them. Fine if they do, but what if they don’t, can’t or won’t? After all they might be gawping at a nudibranch — or are you suggesting that they only look after "you"?

 

[Blackcrusader]

A diver must be self sufficient and never rely on a buddy saving them. Fine if they do, but what if they don’t, can’t or won’t? After all they might be gawping at a nudibranch — or are you suggesting that they only look after "you"?

The thing you’re missing is that whilst you practice and have this procedure at the front of your mind, others won’t.

The correct mitigation is redundant gas supplies below 30m/100ft.

Yes what my BSAC instructor taught me was never to rely on another diver and I am happy he taught me this procedure. I never assume my dive buddy is watching me as in fact I know for sure most often they do not. It's not like we are in love or need to hold hands.
I assume all my buddy dives especially with insta buddies I am really diving solo. They are divers who may or may not be close by.

Ok as for dives deeper than 30m I rarely see any recreational diver bring redundant gas supply, only those using side mount.
It is not a standard practice. For you yes and for many technical divers yes who bring stage tanks. I don't on NDL dives to 40m.

Yes luckily I had an instructor who bothered to teach this to me.

Too bad for the others that don't and drown with having an air supply at hand. Sad for them. I think you would have it at mind though.
Others who read this thread may now have it at mind as well. What happens if you had a 1st stage failure on your primary and then also a failure on your redundant gas supply with no buddy around?