Where's all the new guys?

[Ben_ca]

Ouch.... I feel for ya... That's why all my shots are surface ones... for UW photos I just grab a buddy with a camera and viola Personal Photographer

 

[reefugee]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your camera incident. I guess it's a good excuse to upgrade.

You do most if not all of the dive reports anyway so that takes away duty number one, gear reviews probably goes into the gear forum so that knocks down the conversation, pictures probably go into the gallery unless some can't afford a waterproof digital camera or may have gotten it flooded, and feedback from their classes, some probably don't know if this forum even exist. Also its getting close to the final exam so theres some of us. Also, not really an accurate statistic, but almost close is some people take the open water class is to become vacation divers like once a year vacation to Hawaii where they go underwater, use their inflator to go up and down, don't know how to kick properly, knock into fragile corals in seconds where it took the coral millions of years to form and etc, pretty much a swimming accident waiting to happen. I sound grumpy? Yep after losing a $200 dollar camera where it mysteriously got flooded would probably make me not a happy camper at the moment.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Scubaboard is easy to find and then there's also Ba_diving. Chuck how many new guys sign up for Ba_diving every month? Figure that's at least 150 new divers every month?

Where are they?

Actually, ba_diving has been pretty steady state at around 1650 for a while. Most of
those newly certified divers never dive again. Even fewer dive cold water again.

Cameras require much maintenance. See hhttp://www.ncups.org/howto.html#20flood

 

[alwaingold]

for UW photos I just grab a buddy with a camera and viola Personal Photographer

Yea, that's the way I prefer it too. That way you get pictures of all the cool critters you find, but you don't have to pack/schlep/maintain the camera, or actually have to know how to use a camera

 

[RoyN]

Cameras require much maintenance. See http://www.ncups.org/howto.html#20flood

The one that got flooded doesn't need maintenance anymore. But thanks for the site, I'm getting the sealife mini reefmaster because the whole unit itself is an underwater camera and doesn't have a housing plus its rectangle shape with no lense pointing out of it. Fits between my BC and wetsuit just fine!

Anyways, back to the topic, I think we all frighten off the new commers

 

[RS]

Not as much as the conditions at Monterey!

Twenty years ago I was introduced to scuba diving in Monterey. After I was certified I found myself on my own in a search for dive buddies and I only had basic dive survival skills. I quickly had a few dives with new buds and they were all bad experiences for me. They were funky experiences! It's hard to dive in Monterey, and because of my frequency of diving with funky buddies I ended up quitting!

I recently took the PADI OW course again and found that there are now many more resources for finding dive buddies. Before it was strictly word of mouth or worse; just show up. Now you can network on the internet and find dive buddies. The only network for newbies back then was the Breakwater; I never even heard about boat dives when I started in the '80s.

So now we have more connectivity and I've been diving w/ my new buddies, and you know what... It's still very challenging to dive Monterey! I got the ***** kicked out of me about a month ago on a normal boat dive. It was 46 to 48 degrees and I wasn't up to it. I froze my butt off in my 7mm full body wetsuit, and didn't really have a great diving experience. I did the dives and made good of it, but afterwords, I remember thinking "you have to get through these dives and get on to the next; this is how you learn; persevere". No kidding, I actually thought those words and I believe them.

No wonder new divers don't return to Monterey.

But, I did enjoy the challenges on my most recent dives! I've kind of become obsessed with finding ways to relax and be at ease underwater and to "strengthen my connection" to the sea with diving. It helps me put the rest of my life in perspective, and that can change a lot of things.

Dive Safe
RS

 

[sarita75]

where are all these guys? Where are they?

So when you say this - are you literally asking where all the guys are, or .... are we women-folk able to be counted?? I want to go diving this weekend - regretably, my "buddy" (husband) is out of town, so I am sans buddy at the present. Would love to be out there

 

[Ben_ca]

So when you say this - are you literally asking where all the guys are, or .... are we women-folk able to be counted?? I want to go diving this weekend - regretably, my "buddy" (husband) is out of town, so I am sans buddy at the present. Would love to be out there

Guys as in generic non gender specific....

So take for example you guys (and gals) who did their OW this year... how many in the class and how many dive locally?

 

[Hinalo]

OK, my class started out with four others and me. Two of the others flat out from the start said they would only dive tropical water and wanted only to do classroom and pool work up here. The other two I'm not sure about, but think at least one of them will probably continue to dive locally. Me, I'm definitely in and will need to buddy up!

 

[sarita75]

Guys as in generic non gender specific....

Thanks for clearing that up. One just never knows - scuba diving is, IMHO, still a very male-oriented and dominant activity (sport?).

More to the point - I have been certified for a while now but am working on my AOW in Monterey. Even more to the point - I just went to a "Discover Scuba" course with my best friend (trying to get her to do it). There were 4 other people in the class and 3 said they'd only entertain the notion of warm water diving. I was really surprised. I guess I have always been of the mindset that if you can dive N. Ca and north, you can pretty much dive anywhere.

Although I will readily announce that I am doing a Nitrox course in the Florida Keys in June. One part I want to try a course in warm water, but primarily because its 2 more dives in an area that I wanted to dive anyhow.