What you dislike most....?

[Teamcasa]

I'd like to see more girls that look the ones in the magazines.

Come to SoCal.

What I really don't like is when people get hurt doing the great sport.

But, frankly, I don't dislike much. I love meeting new divers and old divers alike.
I try to find the humor in everything. Like the trash talking super ninja that get lost in 10' vis. I crack up at the "you must surface with more than 500psi" rules, not the rule itself but that the DM actually believes water can get into a tank with 500 psi in it. Sure, there is some other silly stuff but in the end so what, we are diving, having fun and so few others actually get to enjoy this sport!

 

[knowone]

Tack shops, private and franchised set a great example and even though
I was horrified at the price of the great deal, when I bought my Lady a
County the quality and workmanship far surpassed most things scuba.

Staffed and managed by women.

 

[LandoCalarusso]

Main issues I'm noticing are the poor attitudes of dive facility employees especially in regards to loyalty and competition as well as the wal-mart approach. I feel we are missing the hora of diving. The fun, the love, the unknown, and the life style. The nickel and diming of small odds and ends with constant add-ons in place just simply to make a buck. The politics is that of working at a resturant, constant gossip between stores and even some that slander a good name. This is a problem, and working together in a friendly manner is a must. The better competing stores work together, the more there are divers in the water... Great!

Thank you all for your replies, I truly appreciate it since it helps me better serve you should you decide to ever come my way.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Couple of thoughts ...

Those who claim that the Walmart approach has opened diving up to greater numbers of people are ignoring the incredibly high drop-out rate among divers. Perhaps it's because data is generally unavailable, but the trends I've heard from people in the industry are that nearly three out of every four people who are trained stop diving within a year of having taken their initial class. An analysis of why that occurs could prove enlightening.

The second point is about the poor attitude among dive shop owners and employees. I think this is, in part, due to the fact that the majority of dive shop owners aren't really businesspeople ... they're divers trying to figure out how to earn a living doing something they got into initially for recreation. As such they lack not just the business skills to understand how to run a business successfully, but the social skills needed to enhance the customer experience. Dive shop owners rely on loyalty ... but loyalty isn't a valued commodity in most of their business transactions. Without some sort of feedback mechanism, it cannot sustain itself.

Also, most people in diving retail don't understand that the dive shop down the street isn't their competitor ... the bike shop, ski shop, boat store, and fishing store are ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[BDSC]

While it doesn't have any real affect on me, a couple of my instructor friends have talked about this. It seems it's pretty difficult to teach to any significant degree if you're not associated with a dive shop. Now I know some of you guys are independent instructors and perhaps do OK but as a whole it seems like it's just more difficult to reach the number of potential students on your own as opposed to being associated with a shop. I guess the ability/cost of advertising has something to do with it.

I just think it would be nice if PADI (or whatever organization) would have a list of it's instructors state by state on it's website and a person could go there and see who might be available to teach them. Maybe that would work and maybe not. I really have no idea.

 

[tbone1004]

I just have issues with certain dive shops trying to charge an arm and a leg and not being competitive. If I can call up Mike or Edd or John, who all have the same pricing system anyway, and get what I want with no sales tax shipped usually for free and within a week, why would I pay up to 50% more to support my LDS?
When students ask me and the other people that work with our scuba program where our LDS is, the response is usually Northeast with John, Cave Adventurers with Edd, or Dive Outpost with Cathy. None remotely local to here. We do have NADCO relatively local, but that's mainly for service and stuff.
I.e. though NADCO was charging $125 for a new AL80. Actually cheaper than Mikes cost, but irrelevant. Three of the shops in the area charge $200 for the same tank. Why on earth would I buy from my LDS?
Tanks are a little less practical than regs, but the reg markup is worse, they are charging MSRP for everything, and can't stock half the stuff I want. I was wanting to look and touch and feel the ring bungees from Dive Rite, the only dealer in the area said they could order it for me, at MSRP of $30 EACH, and I couldn't return it except for store credit. Uhh, negative, I'll go to Mike or John and spend $40 total, and have a full return policy thank ya very much

That being said. The owners of the shops around here are NICE people. They are willing to work with you and are cool guys to hang out with and talk to. They also cater to the rec market, which is where the real money is. Let's face it, although the tech divers have a LOT of expensive gear, we're mostly cheap skates and buy used tanks and service our own gear. Not a lot of money spend at dive shops...
Recreational divers that they can convince to buy all the latest hippest gear is where the money is, so they cater to that crowd. Which is why they are much different when you're actually diving with them than at the store.
The air fills are stupid expensive, but they don't do much air filling around here and compressor maintenance isn't cheap, I get that.
This what I don't get. There are 8 yes EIGHT dive shops within 20 miles of where I live. I live in Raleigh, NC. We are landlocked, 3 hours from the coast, with 1 rock quarry that is 20 miles north of where I live. I can't possibly imagine why we need eight. Two of them are plenty. Too many chiefs not enough indians... This would theoretically drive prices down, but they can only go so far as the business is split up. Just too many shops up and around here. There should be one max two in a city and one near the popular dive location for air fills and what not.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

THe things that bug me the most are manufacturers that won;t sell me service kits for my regs, those that push shops to sell overpriced gear to new divers, and the just enough is good enough approach to training in the hopes that divers will HAVE to come back.

I can fix my own regs and would prefer to.

THere is no reason to push a new vacation diver into a $500- $800 bc with a $1000 coldwater reg or a $900 computer that will get used once a year.

Sending divers out with just enough skills (if they can even be called that) and knowledge to not kill themself is not training. At least the last I can address myself with my classes and hopefully my message in the the different media I use to covney it. The second I also cover in my classes and the first, well I just don''t buy from those mfg's any more and don't recommend the higher ticket items.

Finally I'd like to see dive ops take some responsibility when it comes to putting unqualified divers in the water. DON'T FRIGGIN DO IT! Stop taking OW divers to sites that are beyond their recommended limits and sending them out with DM's and instructors who don't care. Divers are getting bent, scared, and even killed by the ops that do this. "We do it all the time and no one gets hurt" IS one of the biggest BS excuses I've ever heard. And guarantees I will never use you, will never recommend you, and will publicly call you out on this crap whenever I see it done or have a diver tell me you did it.

 

[tbone1004]

I just think it would be nice if PADI (or whatever organization) would have a list of it's instructors state by state on it's website and a person could go there and see who might be available to teach them. Maybe that would work and maybe not. I really have no idea.

https://www.naui.org/trainer_locator.aspx
Kinda like that?

Find a dive shop, scuba diving shop, dive resort or scuba dive shop
Or that for PADI-that's more stores not instructors

SDI :: Divers :: Facility Courses Search
Or that

GUE Instructors | Global Underwater Explorers
Or this one if you're into GUE

IANTD Instructors Search Page
Iantd's

NACD Instructors
NACD

NSS-CDS Instructor Listing | National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section
NSS CDS

I think I hit all of them...

PADI doesn't have a search for individual instructors as they are primarily out of shops. NAUI is a lot of the universities and what not, and the NACD and NSS CDS have the listing because there aren't a whole lot of them and they all have an uncanny ability to live within a few hours of each other...

 

[HowardE]

The second point is about the poor attitude among dive shop owners and employees. I think this is, in part, due to the fact that the majority of dive shop owners aren't really businesspeople ... they're divers trying to figure out how to earn a living doing something they got into initially for recreation. As such they lack not just the business skills to understand how to run a business successfully, but the social skills needed to enhance the customer experience. Dive shop owners rely on loyalty ... but loyalty isn't a valued commodity in most of their business transactions. Without some sort of feedback mechanism, it cannot sustain itself.

I think this is the biggest problem with the industry... The bridge between the manufacturer and the consumer is truly a rickety one. Too many shops just don't have the business sense to survive in this day. Too many shops are just hobbyists who love scuba, and opened a store without a lick of previous business let alone retail experience. This is a bigger problem than your "walmart approach" to diving if you ask me.

I also think one of the biggest hindrances to new diver acquisition is the macho elitist attitude by so many people who profess that they love the sport so much, but really don't want to nurture other people into the sport, unless they learn the right way to do it. (I'm not saying that you are one of these people Bob )

Also, most people in diving retail don't understand that the dive shop down the street isn't their competitor ... the bike shop, ski shop, boat store, and fishing store are ...

I don't know if I agree with this. When I was in retail... I viewed everyone as my competition. Why ISN'T the dive shop down the street competition. It's a small pie. I'm fighting for my piece. Which means that I should do the best I can to make my shop a success, and not look over my shoulder at what the other guy is doing.

Again, this goes back to my previous statement. Maybe if more shop owners were better equipped to handle shops, they'd be more successful and reach more people? How many times have you walked into a dive shop, and its unkempt, merchandise isn't even displayed nicely (like in piles), and they're poorly stocked with parts and accessories. Recently while in California, I had to visit 4 dive shops just to find an O-Ring for my DIN regulator - This illustrates my point I hope?

THe things that bug me the most are manufacturers that won;t sell me service kits for my regs, those that push shops to sell overpriced gear to new divers, and the just enough is good enough approach to training in the hopes that divers will HAVE to come back.

Are you a service tech? Why should manufacturers sell direct to a guy? Because you're an instructor? What other industry would supply just regular folks with parts to do service on specialized equipment? Why shouldn't manufacturers sell parts for specialized equipment through their network of dealers?

I can fix my own regs and would prefer to.

Sending divers out with just enough skills (if they can even be called that) and knowledge to not kill themself is not training. At least the last I can address myself with my classes and hopefully my message in the the different media I use to covney it.

So is this just about your book?

Finally I'd like to see dive ops take some responsibility when it comes to putting unqualified divers in the water. DON'T FRIGGIN DO IT! Stop taking OW divers to sites that are beyond their recommended limits and sending them out with DM's and instructors who don't care. Divers are getting bent, scared, and even killed by the ops that do this. "We do it all the time and no one gets hurt" IS one of the biggest BS excuses I've ever heard. And guarantees I will never use you, will never recommend you, and will publicly call you out on this crap whenever I see it done or have a diver tell me you did it.

Really? Do you think that divers don't LIE about their skill level? Is OPEN WATER diver NOT a certified diver? If you're suggesting that OPEN WATER means that we should restrict open water divers to nice shallow little reef dives, then that would really suck for a lot of people.

I didn't get my Advanced Open Water until I had more than 50 dives. Did that mean that when I had 49 dives, that I shouldn't dive on a 70' deep shipwreck? Can I not make a decision for myself, and take responsibility for my OWN actions?

 

[Teamcasa]

..are manufacturers that won;t sell me service kits for my regs

A clever buyer that fixes their own gear would not buy those regs in the first place. - Or knowing the policy in advance, accepts the requirement to buy from a dealer.

..THere is no reason to push a new vacation diver into a $500- $800 bc with a $1000 coldwater reg or a $900 computer that will get used once a year.

Look, the people that buy stuff without doing even the smallest amount of research first will get zero sympathy from me.

The above is not exclusively a scuba problem, it's a stupid buyer problem.