Why aren't more people taking up scuba diving?

[Trace Malinowski]

Because I am negating the very small percentage of wives who aren't emasculating their husbands in my experience with the castrated men that predominantly hail from NY and NJ.

That's kind of a joke, but if you look at how guys (especially white guys) are portrayed on TV there is a lot of truth why a show like "Last Man Standing" is funny. If art wasn't imitating life then the jokes Tim Allen makes on his new show wouldn't be at all funny. Something is up in society and lately I'm tired of the "I need to ask my wife" stuff.

 

[TSandM]

Goodness freaking gracious, Trace! Talking about painting with a broad brush . . .

In our household, I'm the one who wants to go diving. Peter wants to teach. Our headlong plunge into this sport was as much me as it was him, and maybe more.

My favorite dive buddy has a non-diving wife, and one would have thought she would have objected to him running off and spending much of his time with another woman, albeit one clad in a dry suit and two inches of insulation. When I met her, she said, "I'm so glad Kirk is diving with you. Before he met you, he was diving with unsafe divers!"

One of our most active local divers (and a huge inspiration, encouraging others as well) is married. I don't know how they do it, but they do. His wife, as far as I know, does not dive.

Yes, if you spend all your time on recreation, things like housework, laundry, yard work, and repair work take a back seat. Eventually, even an avid diver like me feels as though it's time to pull back and do the necessary. For those men who are having problems getting a day off to go diving -- are you pulling your weight at home? And are you any company at home at all? If you come home from work, plop into a chair, open a beer and put on the football game, maybe your wife is tired of being alone and handling the domestic affairs. Arrange her some time off, and maybe you'll get a happier face the next time you want to take off for a weekend of diving.

In my experience, any marriage where either party is feeling significantly constrained by the other is a marriage where communication has failed./

 

[Hank49]

Scuba diving used to seem like an adventurous sport. And it is but now there is a lot of competition.
Since the 70s, windsurfing, kite surfing, free diving is on the rise, skateboard parks and ramps, motocross bikes are incredible now, mountain bikes, fricken FLYING like Rocky the Flying Squirrel...(what's that called?) Insane. Snow boarding at a high level, the half pipes etc etc.....let's face it, to an adrenaline junky, scuba is boring. Unless you're doing deep spearing or something.

My very first scuba dive in 1980 was with Jack Randall. Jack fricken' Randall !! It was like playing your first round of golf with Arnold Palmer. Yeah, it was fun...He was unreal, showing me all kinds of stuff about fish.....kind of...at Hanauma Bay....but I would have much rather been at Sandy Beach or Crouching Lion getting waves. And I didn't dive again until I was almost 40.

Too much other fun stuff to do. And you don't need an ocean to do them all.

 

[dmoore19]

I had talked for several years about getting certified. One Saturday afternoon we got in the car, she was driving, I asked where we were going and she said I would find out soon enough. She had done some research and found a dive shop that people seemed to like. We parked and went inside. We were greeted and she told them her name. I was taken on a tour of the shop and pool meeting a lot of different people along the way. I signed up for classes before we left.

Since then she has been on about 1/2 the trips I have gone on. The other half I went with others. I take a dive vacation she goes to AK and visits her son, my step son. Sometimes she goes on the trip, sometimes I go to AK with her. We both have fun in any case. I do like it when she goes along with me. It works out well for both of us. When it comes to buying gear etc I talk to her about it, she just shakes her head and says "I don't wanna know, you're gonna do it anyway so have fun". She remains a non-diving spouse and has no desire to start now.

Of course we are both in the 55-65 range so maybe it is more of a generation thing. I don't know, but it works for us.

 

[drrich2]

If we randomly take 100 recreational divers for a study group, I wonder...

How many are these type A alpha male types?

If the answer is a fairly small % of total rec. divers, is that where we logically expect to recruit great growth by marketing to them?

Since scuba diving culture encourages getting good enough at what you want to do so that it doesn't consistently seriously strain your limits over time, are such personalities going to remain engaged in the hobby long term?

If they do, and they keep pushing limits for a thrill, I wonder what their mortality rate over time will be, and will the harm they do scuba's image with their injuries and deaths outweigh the value of the money & such that they bring in?

We've probably already been round and round this, but it's what came to mind when Hank49's post got me thinking.

Richard.

 

[kr2y5]

I would think that a true "alpha male" should have a healthy and loving relationship with his woman, and not be afraid to seek her opinion or talk about her needs.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

My girlfriend just asked me if I'm going diving tomorrow. She's Ukranian. She's totally okay with me coming home, opening a can of Coca-Cola, and watching football. Go Eagles! (Hurts to say that being a Dallas fan since childhood, but I really like Nick Foles as a QB).

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

... maybe the reason why you no longer see manly men dominating scuba diving is because it's no longer considered a "manly" activity ... thank goodness ...

... and real men drink beer when they're watching a football game ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[captain]

Not hyped like the X games sports.High entry fee.America is getting fatter with fewer taking up outdoor sports.Hollywood portrays diving in a poor light a lot.Economy tanked.You can't text underwater.Hard to Silly Walk underwater.

Now that may be the heart of the problem.

 

[Lorenzoid]

On the adrenaline thing, the other day I was talking about diving to a non-diver colleague whose weekend pastime is amateur auto racing, and he brought up wanting himself, wife and two kids to all get certified together as an easygoing family activity. He looked at the OW course itself as a family activity--something anyone can do. He looks at his racing hobby as something just slightly "dangerous" that he does by himself, when he manages to get a weekend pass from his wife. Is this the new demographic?