Why aren't more people taking up scuba diving?

[dmoore19]

Not a bad idea. When I certified we did snorkeling and freedive exercises. My wife took a 1 hour lesson to try and get her more comfortable in the water.

 

[TMHeimer]

Not a bad idea. When I certified we did snorkeling and freedive exercises. My wife took a 1 hour lesson to try and get her more comfortable in the water.

I agree with all of you on snorkeling. I did that for decades first. Just makes sense, and also starts the OW student on the right track with airway control, as well as use of fins and general water skills. I've said before I find it odd that some sign up for OW having never snorkeled.

dmoore19,
Yes I guess you are right about me confusing agreement on skills with coming up with a common direction. Perhaps promoting snorkeling first could be such a common direction.

I may have asked the question before if we really need or want more people getting into scuba. I know shop owners, agencies and instructors depending on it for a living do. As a regular diver and very part time DM I selfishly don't give it much thought. Our shop is loaded with OW courses March to early Dec. anyway, so that's enough for me.

 

[LandonL]

The sketch at the beginning of this was hilarious. It does a good job of highlighting some of the marketing problems in a LDS.

I'm sure there is little I can add to this that others haven't already brought up, but just in my experience a few key things keep repeating for why people don't dive.... cost of entry/participation, fear of water or being underwater, general lack of interest, etc.

 

[RJP]

Interesting! I accept it as a given that recreational scuba diving is probably the biggest gateway activity to technical diving; perhaps we should promote snorkeling more? Perhaps scuba agencies should get into some sort of advanced snorkeling training/certification?

Richard.

I'm not so sure. I think that snorkeling is so closely related that it's not really a gateway activity per se. No more so than going to a driving range is a "gateway" to playing golf or hitting the bunny slope is a "gateway" to skiing.

I think snorkeling is an indicator of several things that already exist in the participants mind - inclination, aptitude, access, comfort in the water, socio-economic status, etc - that are also highly important indicators for interest in scuba diving. I'm not sure that promoting snorkeling will do anything to INCREASE those things.

It's intuitive that getting more people snorkeling may get more of them to put a tank on their back. However, absent market research and a well-thought-out strategy it has a great potential to BACKFIRE significantly. With the current de-facto positioning for scuba diving being "look at pretty fishies underwater" promoting snorkeling has a high likelihood of satisfying that desire sufficiently for many people. Diving has to be positioned as being completely DIFFERENT than snorkeling. Not necessarily as "superior" as that really never works strategically. It's exceedingly hard to prove to a skeptic that your product/service is "BETTER" than something else... especially when that comparison is contrary to their own desires, experiences, or beliefs. You're arguing shades of grey, in the margins, at that point. "Well, yes... just like snorkeling you will be able to look at pretty fishies diving. But you will see more of them (or different ones, or deeper ones, or whatever)" --- That requires convincing the potential customer that a huge investment in time, money, hassle, etc is worth a marginal return in the way of "pretty fishies."

It's much easier - and far more persuasive - to convince someone that your product/service is DIFFERENT than something else.

I've shared this a few times on a few different threads, but anyone interested in the appropriately named "Blue Ocean Strategy" approach will find this Harvard Business Review article enlightening...

http://info.psu.edu.sa/psu/fnm/ymelhem/blue ocean str.v2.pdf

Blue Ocean Strategy is about carving out a market space that doesn't currently exist (either in the marketplace or in the customer's mind) because there is wide open ("blue ocean") potential there. Contrast with "red ocean" strategy - the current approach in scuba for sure - in which many competitors fight for the same customers in an existing market space. The market space is crowded and as customers are picked off, one-by-one the opportunity dwindles. Competitors become more and more desperate as the water becomes bloodier and bloodier.

 

[daniel1948]

I didn't say that they would be swimming well in a matter of minutes... I said they could be taught to do so in a matter of minutes. Of course they would need to then practice and get good at it to swim well.

But it only takes a matter of minutes to teach proper technique.

Maybe this is semantics, but what you can do in a matter of minutes is demonstrate proper technique, not "teach" it.

As an example from an entirely different field: When I decided to try cross-country skiing (having previously only used an exercise machine that mimics it) I was shown how to slow down and stop by turning the ski tips inward. I came to a slight downhill slope, and was utterly incapable of performing the simple maneuver. I knew what I was supposed to do, but I was scared and flustered and unable to process my thoughts into muscle movements.

The same thing will happen with someone who has never been in the water and who has some reason (rational or not) to fear the water. This person will need a lot more active teaching to help them overcome their natural fears and develop the neural pathways to make the movements of swimming become automatic enough that they are able to think about anything other than simply not drowning.

... If someone is reasonably coordinated and comfortable in the water... "a matter of days" is doable to become a reasonably capable swimmer if they have time to apply and practice. A few weeks is easy.

A person who is "reasonably ... comfortable in the water" probably has spent time in the water and can already swim at some level, even if just float and dog paddle. Teaching them to swim will be much easier than a non-swimmer. A single half-hour lesson will improve this person's swimming skill.

The problem with this whole thread, as has been pointed out by others, is that scuba diving is so many different things, and people do it for so many different reasons. For some people it's the challenge of going where we were never evolved to be; for some it's the wonder of the environment down there; for some it's the exploration of human artifacts that have sunk; for some it's cave exploration; or building a life list... and the list goes on and on.

Likewise, the reasons for not diving are many: Fear of the water; fear of animals with big teeth; fear of being dependent on fallible equipment; cost of entry and participation; inability to participate with family members who have one of the above fears; and perhaps more than anything else: competition for our time and money by so many other leisure-time activities. I just got back from Maui. I was told the diving is great there, and I saw plenty of people diving, but I decided not to dive on this trip because there were other things I wanted to do more, and those things filled my time: paddling (kayak and outrigger canoe), snorkeling (which is easy to combine with a kayak or canoe outing), and hiking. I'd have only had time for one or two dives, and that would have greatly increased the weight of my luggage. For that matter, luggage weight is one more reason for not diving. My luggage on a diving trip weighs far more than my luggage for a hiking trip (my other great love) and my back is strained by hauling around that extra weight. (Which is also why I do only boat diving, never shore diving: I cannot carry a tank into and out of the water from shore.)

Honestly, what surprises me, given the costs and impediments, is that there are so many scuba divers, not that there aren't more.

 

[boulderjohn]

I'm not so sure. I think that snorkeling is so closely related that it's not really a gateway activity per se. No more so than going to a driving range is a "gateway" to playing golf or hitting the bunny slope is a "gateway" to skiing.

I think snorkeling is an indicator of several things that already exist in the participants mind - inclination, aptitude, access, comfort in the water, socio-economic status, etc - that are also highly important indicators for interest in scuba diving. I'm not sure that promoting snorkeling will do anything to INCREASE those things. .

Because I live in a state with no decent local diving, my situation is a little different from most. I am quite sure that for divers here, snorkeling is very much a gateway activity.

At the beginning of every class, I ask students why they want to learn to dive. By far the most common response is along the lines of an approaching vacation to a site known for diving. The students will say that when taking such trips in the past, they have enjoyed snorkeling and are now interested in taking the next step.

 

[Akimbo]

I'm not so sure. I think that snorkeling is so closely related that it's not really a gateway activity per se. No more so than going to a driving range is a "gateway" to playing golf or hitting the bunny slope is a "gateway" to skiing…

I can’t agree here. Snorkeling is easy and interesting, especially in warm water. Most people wish they could stay longer and go deeper to see things that are just out of reach. As mentioned, the bonus is they become comfortable with a lot of skills before adding the complications and encumbrances of Scuba.

 

[Leadking]

Put someone in a 3mm wetsuit with fins and they should be comfortable in minutes

 

[RJP]

I can’t agree here. Snorkeling is easy and interesting, especially in warm water. Most people wish they could stay longer and go deeper to see things that are just out of reach. As mentioned, the bonus is they become comfortable with a lot of skills before adding the complications and encumbrances of Scuba.

I'm not saying it couldn't be... but that "the law of unintended consequences" is always in effect. As you say... "snorkeling is easy and interesting" and lacks the "the complications and encumbrances of scuba." Accordingly it might be sufficient for many people if it's positioned as "intro to scuba."

We have to remember that - as non-divers - we are absolutely incapable of having or understanding a non-diver's perspective on any of this. Non-divers are VERY different than divers. That's why the proper research is needed.

 

[boulderjohn]

We have to remember that - as non-divers - we are absolutely incapable of having or understanding a non-diver's perspective on any of this. Non-divers are VERY different than divers. That's why the proper research is needed.

So you are saying that it is absolutely impossible for any diver to remember what motivated us to take up scuba when we ourselves were non-divers? I seem to have a pretty good memory of it all. Is it some sort of an illusion?