Who are we?

[TSandM]

It was suggested on my thread about skills practice that the people answering the poll may not be representative of the scuba population in general, and they probably aren't. So I thought it might be interesting to gather some data on just how skewed our population is. My PADI instructor has told me again and again that technical divers represent less than two percent of total divers, but I suspect they form a larger fraction of the people on this board. I think we have professional divers overrepresented as well, at least in the frequent posters.

This question has undoubtedly been asked before, but not in my tenure on the board, so it should be entertaining to do it again.

Recreational diver - vacation. Dives within NDLs and only on trips out of town. Probably fewer than 20 dives per year.

Recreational diver - regular. Dives within NDLs but on a regular basis in whatever passes for local waters. More than 20 dives per year.

Technical diver - Decompression or overhead environments. I think I'd be willing to throw the people diving doubles in preparation for deco dives or overheads in here, too.

Professional divers - Divemasters, AIs and instructors. Note that one might well be a recreational diver (diving within NDLs and outside of overheads) and still be a professional.

Commercial diver - self explanatory. Military divers would go here, too.

 

[Wildcard]

I think a large group here is missing from your poll. Many dive 20ish a year and many dive 100-200 a year as a "rec" diver. I think you would see a big demographic here in an "over 100 rec dives a year" catagory. JMHO

 

[TSandM]

Well, since PADI defines an "active diver" as someone who has more than 12 dives per year, I thought a division into sporadic and active made sense.

 

[Walter]

Why would anyone care how PADI defines anything?

 

[annasea]

Correct me if I'm wrong, TSandM, but the point is not how "PADI defines anything"... I think TSandM is merely using PADI's definition as an example/reference.

BTW, good idea for a poll!

 

[gcbryan]

Those with technical certificates may or may not be only 2 % of total divers but those who exceed recreational depths and do small amounts of deco who are not certified probably make up a larger number so I guess it just depends on your categories. If those people should register in the tech category then I think the numbers will go up

I think it's more likely that you have vacation divers. somewhat more active divers, and active divers. And then instructors. If you take the instructional dives out of the equation then I think the poll could actually ask how many dives do you do in a year and this would give a clearer picture.

 

[Kevfin]

Kind of hard to gauge what the actual numbers are.

I do know that the majority of divers start out as recreational and then the pyramid gets smaller from there.

It may be that of all of the “active” divers the technical ones make up a higher percentage.

It would also seem that as the training and equipment become more specialized, people like your PADI instructor are left out of the loop. They don’t get to see the tech side like you (since you began your DIR training).

The other thing I have noticed is that specialized gear, like the kind you need for DIR, is not readily available in dive shops near me. When I asked an owner about that, he said there are so many views on tech equipment that if he stocked everything, stuff would sit on his shelves. It’s easier for him to order it. My guess is that shops like that don’t get many tech people, they will go somewhere else or order on-line. So, instructors from his shop or similar shops don’t see tech divers.

Fortunately, there is ScubaBoard and TsandM

 

[Spoon]

i do consider myself a technical recreational diver. meaning i dive technically for fun. the very reason i started diving was because of caves. this is my passion and although i started on the recreational level, my end goal is tech

 

[shugar]

It was suggested on my thread about skills practice that the people answering the poll may not be representative of the scuba population in general, and they probably aren't. So I thought it might be interesting to gather some data on just how skewed our population is. My PADI instructor has told me again and again that technical divers represent less than two percent of total divers, but I suspect they form a larger fraction of the people on this board. I think we have professional divers overrepresented as well, at least in the frequent posters.

This question has undoubtedly been asked before, but not in my tenure on the board, so it should be entertaining to do it again.

Recreational diver - vacation. Dives within NDLs and only on trips out of town. Probably fewer than 20 dives per year.

Recreational diver - regular. Dives within NDLs but on a regular basis in whatever passes for local waters. More than 20 dives per year.

Technical diver - Decompression or overhead environments. I think I'd be willing to throw the people diving doubles in preparation for deco dives or overheads in here, too.

Professional divers - Divemasters, AIs and instructors. Note that one might well be a recreational diver (diving within NDLs and outside of overheads) and still be a professional.

Commercial diver - self explanatory. Military divers would go here, too.

i'm assuming "trips out of town" mean a major travel just to get to dive... like living in alaska and flying to asia to dive

not a 2-hour trip out-of-the-city?

(hell, who cares, i'm calling myself "regular" hahahahaha)

Jag

 

[Tavi]

Your poll wouldn't allow me to check Recreational,Technical and proffesional.

a lot of us fit in more than one category