What kind of People are Divers?

[durian]

silly question? Are we all types from all walks of life? Probably but I would venture to say that there is something unique about the diving commuinity. I teach overseas and was surprised at the number of those who at least had an OW. I am not saying that an OW is necessarily a diver, but they have showed an interest and may well be divers, but in the early stages.

In my humble opinion, I think divers may be people who are proactive, risk takers, leaders, very independent. Maybe this is a horrible generalization....if I was honest I would add serious drinking (joke)

If you were going to commit the horrible sin of generalization, how would you generalize divers?

 

[love2godeep]

silly question? Are we all types from all walks of life? Probably but I would venture to say that there is something unique about the diving community. . . .

In my humble opinion, I think divers may be people who are proactive, risk takers, leaders, very independent. Maybe this is a horrible generalization....if I was honest I would add serious drinking (joke)

If you were going to commit the horrible sin of generalization, how would you generalize divers?

There's a humorous thread on the board somewhere, where you can read the descriptions of different kinds of divers.

As for making a generalization.... I like to think that your generalization describes me. Except for the serious drinking. And yes, it is a good description of many divers I know. But sometimes those characteristics seem to be accompanied by arrogance, insensitivity, and rudeness.

I'm sure you'll get some interesting answers to your post.

 

[El Orans]

There's a humorous thread on the board somewhere, where you can read the descriptions of different kinds of divers.

Get it here...

 

[jbd]

Leave out the drinking, risk taking and being leaders.

If ya drink away all your money the ya can't buy gear or pay for trips.

Statistics would seem to indicate that diving (recreational) isn't really all that risky. How many of us really think there is a very high likelihood we won't come back from any given dive. Even without much planning, we expect to came back alive and well.

Most of the people I have seen while diving seem to be followers. I have noticed this with people I have never met before. There are some that you can tell want to be the leader but they seem to be in the minority in my experience.

 

[dweeb]

In my humble opinion, I think divers may be people who are proactive, risk takers, leaders, very independent

There was a time when this was true. Then, some marketing wonk at PADI realized that they had pretty much saturated the market of people who are "proactive, risk takers, leaders, very independent" and that the type of growth that they wanted required penetrating the market of people who are timid, worrisome, followers, and immersed in dependency and learned helplessness. That's the type of person their marketing and courses are aimed at now, and every time I go diving, I see more and more like that.

The majority of new divers I see now are trendy lemmings looking to get the diving box on their "de rigeur" ticket punched.

 

[Gary D.]

There was a time when this was true. Then, some marketing wonk at PADI realized that they had pretty much saturated the market of people who are "proactive, risk takers, leaders, very independent" and that the type of growth that they wanted required penetrating the market of people who are timid, worrisome, followers, and immersed in dependency and learned helplessness. That's the type of person their marketing and courses are aimed at now, and every time I go diving, I see more and more like that.

The majority of new divers I see now are trendy lemmings looking to get the diving box on their "de rigeur" ticket punched.

BINGO

Gary D.

 

[brssmnky]

silly question? Are we all types from all walks of life? Probably but I would venture to say that there is something unique about the diving commuinity. I teach overseas and was surprised at the number of those who at least had an OW. I am not saying that an OW is necessarily a diver, but they have showed an interest and may well be divers, but in the early stages.

In my humble opinion, I think divers may be people who are proactive, risk takers, leaders, very independent. Maybe this is a horrible generalization....if I was honest I would add serious drinking (joke)

If you were going to commit the horrible sin of generalization, how would you generalize divers?

Yeah, I remember that thread with the humorus descriptions and I was kind of upset that there was a personality type that was named after my first name... funny as it was.
Anyways, it's true I am serious about my drinking, LOL. In all seriousness though (ahem), I would say thrill seekers & risk takers would be accurate, I used to want to be an astronaut as a kid and figured this was the closest I'd get.

 

[simbrooks]

Generalisation, might not be far from Dweeb's summary, many of the folks on this board and a few others out there i feel might be a step above that and are more independant and exploratory, others like the relaxation the dives provide and to swim around as if in a fish tank, some are dreamers fulfilling that flying type idea. These are the types of people i have come across, but your average joe on a dive boat is there for their semi-annual dive and happy to pay the money to be dragged along for a while - or am i living in a dream world too?

 

[SCUBAMedicBill]

I'd say if you started diving 20-30 years ago, the type of persons diving were similar. But as Dweeb stated, PADI commercialized the dive industry to include just about anybody. This was undoubtebly good for the industry because this caused the industry to advance. I know I've seen an awful lot of change over the last 25 years.

The only type person I might say wouldn't become a diver is the overly cautious, meek, possibly timid type. They may not realize how safe diving can be.

Bill :scubadive

 

[ShakaZulu]

The majority of new divers I see now are trendy lemmings looking to get the diving box on their "de rigeur" ticket punched.

True, but then we got DIR...............a whole new kind of diver.