Who are the people who dive ?

[NudeDiver]

...but you still don't see people discussing new regulators in the welfare line...

Sure they do - they're just talking about welfare regulators rather than SCUBA regulators

 

[Grover48]

I must be outside the demographic center point. I am 60 years old and just got certified.

My wife has tagged along on a couple of my dive trips, has taken the DSD and is now signed up to take to open water cert course. She is 74.

She is retired and i am a couple of years away from retirement. Now that we have no mortgage, there is money to spend on travel and fun.

It is a great sport. I started to certify 40 years ago but my government needed me to do a job for them. I came home and did not finish. Finally took the course and certified last month. Went to Cancun and Akumal to dive. Fell in love with the sport.

 

[Missdirected]

I must be outside the demographic center point. I am 60 years old and just got certified.

My wife has tagged along on a couple of my dive trips, has taken the DSD and is now signed up to take to open water cert course. She is 74.

She is retired and i am a couple of years away from retirement. Now that we have no mortgage, there is money to spend on travel and fun.

It is a great sport. I started to certify 40 years ago but my government needed me to do a job for them. I came home and did not finish. Finally took the course and certified last month. Went to Cancun and Akumal to dive. Fell in love with the sport.

Now that is good stuff :yelclap: Happy diving, to you both.

 

[fnfalman]

I haven't read the article, but two other commonly held beliefs (that I strongly suspect are true):

1. It is a very white sport.

2. It is a relatively affluent sport (I know this subject has been controversial in the past, but you still don't see people discussing new regulators in the welfare line).

For No. 1 - whites are still the dominant population demographic in the USA, therefore it's easily a "white" sport. There are a lot of minorities who dive, but yes, I know what you're talking about.

For No. 2 - may be not "affluential" but definitely gainfully employed. Even when you go cheap (i.e. rent everything), it's still ain't cheap.

 

[Gilldiver]

Since I started this stuff back in 1976 nothing has changed.

Figure that the drop out rate at 3 years is about 50%, at 5 years you are well over 75%, and by 10 years close to 98%.

People change, families, health, funds. Just look at the active divers you know, how many are active 10 years after their Open Water Class?

By active I mean 5 or more dives per YEAR.

 

[MattC007]

Interesting data but I find the 8.5 million hard to believe. Remember who published the data; They're interests are in promotion, so they want those numbers up high.

I work along the beach in socal in an industry that tends to have a very high education level (not being pretentious, just getting to a point). I live in Huntington Beach, dive Laguna Beach, Catalina, etc., regularly. I come across a segment of the population that would be peeeerrfect for diving; i.e. location, weather, means, awareness, etc. If 2.8% of America were regular divers (8.5 mil), I would say that should correspond to 4%-6% MINIMUM, maybe even 8%-10%, in my demographic. Well, not even close. In the big corp. I work for, maaaaybe 1%-2% dive - and these are the key targets for the sport.....like I said, live on the coast in beautiful socal, have a few extra bucks, etc.

Just guessing but IMO, for whatever that's worth, I would say 1/2 that is a more realistic number. I think they justify that number by saying... "8.5 million have been certified over the xx years.". Well, check ebay. You'll find an awful lot of folks with <20 dives selling all their equipment. Many more just have it stored in the garage.

I don't mean this as a negative, by any means. I'm just a realistic, engineer type, data hog who scrutinizes numbers very closely and find many of them way off base.

"one person in every 20 people will have participated or use the title "diver."

 

[ronbeau]

From a published article:

"...Who are the people who dive?"

It is reported that there are at least 8.5 million SCUBA divers in the U.S. and probably at least that many who regularly actively participate in snorkeling.

According to NAUI and PADI estimates, approximately 15 million people who some way participate in diving activities. That equates to about five to six percent of the total population are divers, or about one person in every 20 people will have participated or use the title "diver."

Approximately 70 percent are males and 30 percent are females, 60 percent of this group is married and 40 percent are single.

At least half have college degrees, 40 percent have some college and only 10 percent have attended or graduated from high school.

As might be expected, the greatest number of divers are between 25 and 45 years old, with the greatest concentration of 33 percent being between 35 and 45 years old. Followed by those over 45 with a 19 percent participation.

Diving is definitely a young person's activity.....

Sam I noticed a small item you might want to correct.

Below you name is says that you are a Scuba instrcutor. However down below next to your number of logged dives it syas you "Not Certified".

That seems to be a little inconsistent with being a Scuba instrructor.

You might want to update your ScubaBoard profile.

 

[irishsquid]

"one person in every 20 people will have participated or use the title "diver."

If I'm not a diver and spit in my friend's mask to defog it for him, then I guess I
participated in diving.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Sam I noticed a small item you might want to correct.

Below you name is says that you are a Scuba instrcutor. However down below next to your number of logged dives it syas you "Not Certified".

That seems to be a little inconsistent with being a Scuba instrructor.

You might want to update your ScubaBoard profile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ron,
The question and my answer has been of concern for some time. I answered the question as I interpreted it.

I never had or took the opportunity to complete a basic SCUBA course; there were very few around, and all poorly subscribed

Like most of that era I obtained my waterman ship via water polo & swimming and by spending every available waking moment free diving or surfing, diving experience by annihilating every thing that swam or crawled in the ocean, my academic training by studying the USN Dive manual, Clinical Symposia, Underwater edition for the medical aspects and books by the God of underwater of that era Hans Hass. (Who FYI did every thing 10 years earlier and 10 times better than JYC)

I progressed from an active recreational diver to a card carrying instructor almost fifty years ago by completing the very demanding and certainly prestigious LA county Underwater Instructor program; at that junction in history it was the only available civilian dive training program. (LA County types are "Underwater instructors" - the term SCUBA was not in common usage in 1954)

So that is why I said I was never certified, and indeed I wasn't as a basic diver--only at the instructor level.

Suggest that you might want to read my post of about a month ago about Harry Vetter, LA Co Instructor and NAUI instructor #4

sdm

 

[Walter]

There are four different groups:

Agreed.

Those that have never dived

Obviously these aren't divers.

Certified at some time but no longer dive

These are also not divers.

Vacation or sporadic divers

These are people who dive, but they are not divers.

Active and regular divers

These are the divers.

By active I mean 5 or more dives per YEAR.

Someone who makes 5 dives a year is not an active diver, in fact these folks are not divers at all, they are people who dive. An active diver at a minimum goes diving 4 times per year and makes at least 25 dives.