Why aren't more people taking up scuba diving?

[dumpsterDiver]

It depends upon the degree to which you beleive it is true. The post to which I replied said:


Lifeguards have to be outstanding swimmers. I do not swim as well as a life guard. Should I hand in my certification cards?

I think you should be able to swim, certainly. I don't think you need to be able to swim as well as a lifeguard.

Maybe I am old fashioned, but I would expect that an active instructor who is teaching in open water SHOULD be a strong swimmer. Life guards (in a pool) may only need to swim for very short distances to save someone, while a dive instructor might need to have a good deal more stamina (than a lifeguard) to be able to perform a rescue.

 

[Hank49]

Life guards....lot of different levels. Life guards in a swimming pool in Cincinnati vs life guards at Waimea Bay......little different skill set.

 

[AdivingBel]

I can see people using scuba certification as motivation to become more comfortable in the water, but take the swim class first. You can't expect the scuba instructor to teach you how to swim.

 

[boulderjohn]

The trained lifeguards I saw in the water had swimming skills I did not think possible of human beings. I am not there, but I am plenty good enough to rescue someone in difficult conditions, and I am plenty good enough to deal with anything that may come up in a typical scuba emergency. I think the idea that you have to have Olympic-level swimming skills to scuba dive borders on the absurd.

 

[TMHeimer]

The trained lifeguards I saw in the water had swimming skills I did not think possible of human beings. I am not there, but I am plenty good enough to rescue someone in difficult conditions, and I am plenty good enough to deal with anything that may come up in a typical scuba emergency. I think the idea that you have to have Olympic-level swimming skills to scuba dive borders on the absurd.

Agree. I've DMd for quite a few instructors now and figure most have similar swim abilities to yours. I would guess if you eliminate all instructors without super life guard skills there wouldn't be a whole lot left. But hey, they'd make a real nice living.

 

[DKL]

The average age of divers continues to go up.....the rate of obesity continues to go up....the rate of addiction to electronic devices continues to increase, even babies are now addicted to electronic devices. As this addiction to a fantasy world in an electronic device driven world increases and the level of physical activity continues to drop fewer and fewer people will be inclined to do anything physical such as diving. When you have people walking off subway platforms and into the path of autos because they are so addicted to their fantasy world in a silicon chip you know the human species has come to a new paradigm shift....and not a good one. But on the bright side....more water for the rest of us to have serenity and peace.

 

[Hintermann]

The average age of divers continues to go up

IMO there is a straightforward reason for this. Diving is an addictive and relatively expensive hobby. In other words, someone who takes-up diving is likely to love it so much that he/she will want to dive as often as they can. Taking into account work pressures and family responsibilities, it is not easy. As an example, I have a 27-year old colleague FR who has a PADI Rescue Diver certification but has not dived for the past 2 years, during which time he got married and now has a small baby. When he was younger, he used to go with his avid diver father who used to bear most of the expenses but once FR moved out, it has been harder to finance dive trips.

It follows therefore that people who are 40+ are increasingly guests of most Dive Resorts and Liveaboards. Such people are usually settled in their careers, on the higher income bracket and children, if any, would be teenagers or grown-up and so not needing much support.

 

[DKL]

IMO there is a straightforward reason for this. Diving is an addictive and relatively expensive hobby.

The money spent on electronic devices and connectivity contracts out ways diving expense by several times. Family and work is a cop out, I have dive buddies that have families and jobs and still go diving at least once a month or more. My job brings me in contact with thousands of young people. I try to interest them in diving and other physical activities even offering my time and resources to help them, and they show no interest in anything but cell phones, tv shows and video games. I have only been able to get one certified in the past 4 years, however after certification no diving has occurred a year later. Young people today just have a different list of priorities, non of which includes physical activity such as diving. There are those exceptions but they are very few and far between. But as I stated previously, more water for us to dive in without having to deal with tons of people messing it up for us.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The money spent on electronic devices and connectivity contracts out ways diving expense by several times. Family and work is a cop out, I have dive buddies that have families and jobs and still go diving at least once a month or more. My job brings me in contact with thousands of young people. I try to interest them in diving and other physical activities even offering my time and resources to help them, and they show no interest in anything but cell phones, tv shows and video games. I have only been able to get one certified in the past 4 years, however after certification no diving has occurred a year later. Young people today just have a different list of priorities, non of which includes physical activity such as diving. There are those exceptions but they are very few and far between. But as I stated previously, more water for us to dive in without having to deal with tons of people messing it up for us.

I'm actually constantly amazed at who gets involved in diving.
This is a very regional and microscopic example I have, but in our area freediving for abalone is a big draw. There are more people who ab dive here seasonally than scuba dive year around. Year around scuba is also not always a possibility due to winter storms, but there are times during winter months that the ocean gets glass flat with great visibility between the storms. Freediving for abalone is seasonal with a total of 7 months for the season and it is split in two halves with a one month break in between. During this time entire campgrounds and coastal economies survive in part due to this draw. Thousands of people from around the world come here each year to take part since the giant red abalone is revered as a top international delicacy and only available in numbers here in Northern California.
I don't know if freediving is considered "real diving" by avid scuba divers but to me it is a form of diving more real than scuba.

I come in contact with people in my daily travels that I maybe have known for years, and surprisingly find out that they have taken up ab diving and have become "addicts". Most of these people I would have never thought would ever get into any form of diving. Most of them are blue collar types that work in the auto repair business, carpentry, welding, plumbers, elecricians, and the like. They tend to have more manual jobs so are more physical in nature. This might be why they tend to gravitate towards a physical activity such as diving in general. When I find out they took up ab diving I always get a conversation started in detail about their new found hobby. I eventually turn the conversation towards asking them if they have any plans to get scuba certified, and the answer is split three ways usually from "Yes I think so", to "maybe, we'll see", to "No, I'm happy just freediving for abs".
Scuba seems to be a separate animal than freediving. Freediving requires no certification and no class other than going out with buddies and learning "on the job". Many times a new ab diver will have a friend that got them into it and the friend will also have some loaner gear for them to use. The gear is minimal, all you need is a full suit with booties, hood, gloves, and a weightbelt. The rest of the gear is simple too, a float, a gauge, an iron, fins, mask, fishing license w/ punch card and you're set.

This activity at least gets them in the water. Soon they see how great the underwater world is and probably half might take it a step further and get certified. At least it's something.

So with all this said, I think a great way to grow diving is for people to start by snorkelling/freediving.
It works around here.

There's also a draw in that there is seafood involved and a reason for people to get into the ocean. As much as the anti spearfishing/leave-only-bubbles crowd hates hunters, they do have a right to be out there. There is a percentage of divers who wouldn't dive if they couldn't get game.
I don't know how any of this relates to the rest of the world but it certainly is true around here.
I'm also wondering if there's a regional factor. Regional diving might be increasing but the overall decrease in global diving might be overshadowing the increases.
I say this because over the last 6-7 years the campgrounds up and down California have had record attendance. All the Northern California campgrounds are booked solid months in advance which was never the case 10 to 15 years ago. Southern California is worse. Many of the campers at least in Norcal are divers. I would say the majority of them are divers.
I wondering if people are staying closer to home and if there might be a renaissance of family camping activities instead of booking trips to far away tropical vacations.
The scuba world is huge with many different interests oand outlooks. What somebody in NJ might think about scuba is not necessarily what somebody in Northern CA thinks. Just sayin.

 

[cerich]

The trained lifeguards I saw in the water had swimming skills I did not think possible of human beings. I am not there, but I am plenty good enough to rescue someone in difficult conditions, and I am plenty good enough to deal with anything that may come up in a typical scuba emergency. I think the idea that you have to have Olympic-level swimming skills to scuba dive borders on the absurd.

how did they get these mad skills? I look at it the same as buoyancy and off teh knee teaching, certainly possible if the instructor puts the effort in to be good versus adequate.