What's the future of scuba?

[fisheater]

"Buoyancy balls?"

That sure sounds like the setup to a bad joke.

While looking up what they are/were, I stumbled across this interesting article about failed scuba gear. Weird Gear

 

[SneakySneaky]

Wow, many thanks everyone, some really interesting comments. I'll work through them (follow up the links) and then maybe put out another post

 

[Geoff_H]

Additionally, there will be a decreasing diver population and as a result there will be a thinning of resorts and manufactuers.

I really can't see this happening - diving is becoming cheaper and easier and I believe the numbers of divers has been on a continous uptrend for a long time.....

 

[ScubaSarus]

I feel with the increase in costs of diving and travel, a lot of divers will consider diving were you get a good 60 min dive in rather than dive 10 mins on a deep wreck. Also divers will look to dive locally.

 

[Stu S.]

- What forthcoming technology is going to have a big impact?
- Which unique new diving experiences await in the future?
- How are the socio-demographics of diving changing? etc. etc.

Some day there will be way of measuring the gas content of a diver's blood while diving. Scanning through the skin, perhaps. The diver will carry a system for blending gasses based upon this analysis, such that each breath is a unique blend for the depth and needs of the diver.

A unique new experience: The zero gravity of the diving environment will be found beneficial to medicine. Surgery and perhps childbirth will be performed underwater while on scuba.

We are becoming an indoor nation. Diving, hunting, fishing, and golf will become less popular as electronic sports become virtually real.

 

[Hickdive]

The future of scuba is China.

The diving market in the west is rapidly reaching saturation point, that’s why the various training agencies are widening their target audiences with courses aimed at the very young and the more mature and it’s also why we’re seeing more ‘tec’ courses aimed at the ‘rec’ market. What a marketing ploy to suggest that you ‘need’ to use trimix as shallow as 30m!

So for a target audience of increasingly wealthy middle-class people with recreation time China is the obvious target.

In addition the price of OC equipment has dropped dramatically over the last quarter century. There are items I can buy now, of vastly superior performance, which have a sticker price (not an adjusted for inflation price, but the actual price displayed on the shelf) lower than I would have paid for a similar item twenty-odd years ago. This will drop further as more manufacturers tap into the high-skill low-cost Chinese labour market. I fully expect to see a rebreather, perhaps of western design but of wholly Chinese manufacture on the market in the next couple of years that will be vastly cheaper than what is currently on the market. This will break open the rebreather market to a mass audience.

 

[katdiver]

I welcome the trend in diver training moving towards on-line learning. This should give more time to holiday/resort divers on actually getting to grips with the practical skills. They come to the resorts to see the reefs, such a fragile system it needs our protection. No reef = no divers. Poor diving skills destroys the very thing that attracts them.

It's one of those sports where disposable income is important. People travel, buy kit and take courses. Time becomes the issue then, they don't want to be spending time in classes on vacation, they want to be in the water. A typical beginner course is done over 3-4 days. Open circuit scuba kit is the cheapest and fastest way to get a new diver into the water, it still has a bright future.

 

[String]

Rebreathers are a LONG way off being useful to the masses. Until they can make them completely idiot proof and ready to go within 60 seconds of being set up open circuit is here to stay.
Im sure they'll get there eventually but not for 10-20 years for entry level.

I can see open circuit trimix dying out rather rapidly due to the ever increasing gas cost so for more and more dives above entry level CCR will become popular.

 

[Nemrod]

I will stay with the decrease in divers, I was speaking of the western world. It has already begun.

I was thinking in the 10 to 20 year range for compact integrated rebreathers and synthetic vision.

China will be a dud. A billion borg thinking the same way will not push technology, they will only copy it. It only takes ONE or two persons with imagination to change direction and create something new, Apple, Wright Brothers, the Aqua Lung itself.

Just as electronic engine controls have taken over the management of fuel/air/operation of engines, electronic controls will take over our regulators and other equipment. Electronic servo controlled regulators that use a "black box" to predict your breathing requirments and will provide air instantantly as you require it, even mixing it on the fly from an integrated tri mix system for max bottom and least deco. This will allow open circuit divers to reach depths well beyond 132 feet opening a whole new range to explore currently available only to closed circuit or open circuit dare devils today. There will be no cracking effort or lag or breathing resistence in such machines, as on demand, correctly mixed for every breath. These mutiple cylinder rigs will be housed in streamlined farings, all of the external equipment will fold into them for travel, cylinders will be standard sizes and will be rented and installed on site. Even the lighting and sonar sensors will be integrated into the system.

Inertial navigation, gyro chips and force sensors will eventually work their way down to consumer level allowing precise navigation in places GPS cannot reach, caves (spelunking), underwater, during combat when the enemy has corrupted GPS etc.

N

 

[altaskier]

GPS has made finding and relocating dives sites easier and more reliable, hopefully GPS will become more available underwater to make underwater nav easier.

GPS signals are at around 1 GHz, so they simply won't penetrate very deep into water. The only chance is to use something like a trio of buoys at fixed positions, and then either an ultrasonic signal (which would have accuracy issues due to changes in temperature and salinity, just like these factors complicate submarine detection and location) or an extremely low frequency radio signal which would not give much position accuracy.

In other words it's not a matter of making existing GPS receivers waterproof...