The guy I used is a one man shop/instructor. He (Dan) has a compressor, and I have all my own gear now
It's a second job/hobby for him, so he is all about the fun aspect.
does he have to pay for a license from the state to sell breathing air? How's his insurance? Have you seen his quarterly air-quality reports? I hope he's charging enough to properly maintain his compressor, for the sake of his customers.
A lot of people on this thread of been talking about the high barrier to entry for divers. Compared to some other businesses, starting a scuba shop has a relatively low barrier to entry. As a result, we have a "industry" filled with hobbyists and part-timers. I don't mind that they drive sales to the Internet. The industry, for some reason, is still stuck in an outdated business model that purports to "prevent competition." The damage they do, however, is more evident in customer service, and post-sales service.
I know somebody that will service your entire kit (first stage, second stage, octo, console, BCD, and inflator) for $25. If the parts aren't included under warranty, you will only be charged cost. It may be an extreme example, but it typifies what I called "the race to the bottom." A lot of shops are just as guilty of similar tactics.
Likewise, the cost of getting certified as a dive master or even an instructor, is relatively low. The result is that the industry is filled with an underutilization of "talent." The resulting oversupply of dive professionals reinforces the idea (almost even necessitates) that it is just a hobby. Some training agencies even suggest that a specific number of new divers should potentially be converted into dive professionals. It's a great way for them to pad their publishing business, while ensuring a constant supply of low-paid labor for a niche industry.
It's a little frustrating to see people arguing that the cost of instruction is too high, and that the quality of instruction is too low. Unfortunately, there is some truth to the old adage "you get what you pay for."
Is scuba diving a gear intensive sport? Yes. That necessarily means that it has a high barrier to entry simply based on cost. So, until the government decides that scuba diving is a right and that everybody has to get trained and buy gear, that means there'll always be people that can't be brought into the sport.
Is the economy bad? Yes. But there still a lot of people with discretionary spending money. It's pretty funny that people keep talking about cycling, because our shop lost some of our best customers to cycling. That's right, we lost them to another high-end sport. Not another dive shop in the area. Not to the Internet. But to another way they could spend thousands and thousands of dollars a year.
So after a long, rambling post (sorry for that
) We're left with a few questions:
1. Of the people that don't dive but have the means to how does the industry get them interested?
2. Once they are interested, how does the industry get them into a shop?
3. Once there in the shop, how does the shop (from the owners, to the instructors, to the employees) ensure that the customer has a great learning experience, and comes out a confident, qualified diver?
4. Once a diver has been trained, bought a bunch of gear, and even taken a few trips, how does the industry keep them engaged?
As an and don't, I have a lot of friends that think diving is cool, and know that I am a dive professional, but have no interest in actually doing it. Two summers ago, my girlfriend and I bought kayaks. We took them camping one time, and suddenly almost all of our camping friends went out and spent a lot of money kayaks. Now nobody shows up on a camping trip without their kayaks.
---------- Post added January 26th, 2014 at 12:03 PM ----------
The biggest change in training is the 2 to 4 fold increase in cost over the past 20 years. When it costs $400 to $800 (OW + gear) to see if you like it, don't be surprised to find a scarcity of tasters.
I'd love to see your math on this. Not that it isn't more expensive than it used to be, but that it shouldn't be more expensive now. How much of the $400 covers the cost of educational materials? If the shop doesn't have a pool, how much of that $400 goes to cover the cost of pool rentals? Assuming that an instructor is being paid to teach the class, how much of what's left of that $400 goes to the instructor? Do you know how many hours a good instructor spends to give a good class, to figure out his meager hourly rate? Do you know how much instructors spend on professional dues? Insurance? On-going training?
When you start answering all of those questions, you'll realize that $400 isn't enough to cover everything, let alone make any actual money doing. This is why the industry is filled with hobbyists and retirees.
