Why aren't more people taking up scuba diving?

[KevinNM]

They are driving the survey/marketing people insane trying to analyze them and their likes and habits. But they definitely have been raised indoors. We got locked outside until dinner time when I was growing up! But it was a lot safer then, and you didn't have both parents working or single Moms, either. Safer to keep them cooped up. They were shaped by their environment.

It's an illusion driven by the media that things were safer. The crime rates in the 70s to early 90s were much higher than today, but you didn't have nearly as many people trying to sensationalize every story. You also didn't have all the idiots trying to control how other people raise their kids.

 

[Neilwood]

It's an illusion driven by the media that things were safer. The crime rates in the 70s to early 90s were much higher than today, but you didn't have nearly as many people trying to sensationalize every story. You also didn't have all the idiots trying to control how other people raise their kids.

I think it is also to do with the access to media and information - every crime stat and story is near instantly available so it is easier to sensationalise. That in conjunction with the fact that good news doesn't generally sell papers/ TV time leads to the perception that everything is bad in the world and getting worse

Back 20 years ago, if you wanted crime stats etc you had to trawl archives etc.

 

[Storker]

I think it is also to do with the access to media and information - every crime stat and story is near instantly available so it is easier to sensationalise. That in conjunction with the fact that good news doesn't generally sell papers/ TV time leads to the perception that everything is bad in the world and getting worse

Back 20 years ago, if you wanted crime stats etc you had to trawl archives etc.

Relevant video clip:

 

[Neilwood]

@Storker thanks for that clip

 

[Slym]

To say that it is my generation being inside all the time and doing things online is untrue... Shits expensive!

We have school to pay for which depending on what you do an be anywhere from 5000 or more a semester and that doesn't include books (community college for me), our insurance rates are crazy, I have a chip in my car that tells the insurance company how I drive just so I can get a discount (which I succeed and got 22% out of a possible 25), gas isn't cheap right now, and to function in society now we have to have cell phones so there is another bill, if we want to live on our own there is rent or mortgages on top of it all.

I am not saying you older guys had it easier, but you had more financial breaks in my eyes. There are less full time jobs for millennial. A lot of the time you have to have a full education to get one. Many of us work part time jobs at minimum wage, and that goes straight to paying for school.

I am really fortunate to have always had a full time job and one for the government! I went to trades school and am studying to write my C of Q in electrical. I own my car fully and still live at home but am saving to buy a home. A lot of people my age haven't had as much luck as I am fortunate to have had so far.

So to say that the outdoor sports are having lacking numbers because of laziness is untrue, we are just trying to keep our head above water until the baby boomers die off and retire. It doesn't help when we start our adult lives in a recession.

 

[JamesBon92007]

To say that it is my generation being inside all the time and doing things online is untrue... Shits expensive!

We have school to pay for which depending on what you do an be anywhere from 5000 or more a semester and that doesn't include books (community college for me), our insurance rates are crazy, I have a chip in my car that tells the insurance company how I drive just so I can get a discount (which I succeed and got 22% out of a possible 25), gas isn't cheap right now, and to function in society now we have to have cell phones so there is another bill, if we want to live on our own there is rent or mortgages on top of it all.

I am not saying you older guys had it easier, but you had more financial breaks in my eyes. There are less full time jobs for millennial. A lot of the time you have to have a full education to get one. Many of us work part time jobs at minimum wage, and that goes straight to paying for school.

I am really fortunate to have always had a full time job and one for the government! I went to trades school and am studying to write my C of Q in electrical. I own my car fully and still live at home but am saving to buy a home. A lot of people my age haven't had as much luck as I am fortunate to have had so far.

So to say that the outdoor sports are having lacking numbers because of laziness is untrue, we are just trying to keep our head above water until the baby boomers die off and retire. It doesn't help when we start our adult lives in a recession.

So I guess you are saying it's a matter of priorities? When I was 16 I had a part-time job at a drug store making $1.50/hr and somehow managed to pay for my scuba class, bought all of my dive gear, and went diving at least 2 or 3 times a week. I suppose if I'd had to choose between living in an apartment/house or living in my car so I could go scuba diving I would have chosen the latter. But I didn't have a car.

 

[Slym]

Yea totally both priorities and available funds. I don't have school to pay for now, and I am working full time. I don't have really many expenses. I don't go living beyond my means, if I didn't live at home currently I wouldn't be able to take up scuba diving.

Some of my friends wanted nothing more to own their own house, And good for them they are 22, and two are 23 and they have a home, but they work like hell to keep it. I am not as ambitious on that yet, I'll keep saving but until I have my trade ticket I don't want to move out yet, so a year or two more for me.

 

[boulderjohn]

For this next generation, I believe they have more options for spending whatever dollars they may have than was true in the past. Some of those options may have been around in the past, but I think they are more prevalent today. One of my sons and his wife say flat out that they cannot afford scuba. Next weekend, they are taking my wife and me on a raft trip on the Colorado River. It will be a relatively placid stretch, and they are bringing their young daughter and dog, too. We will be using their two rafts, one a full size operation such as you see rafting operations use, and the other a Cataraft they normally use for serious rapids. (That's the one I will be piloting.) They will supply tents, coolers, life vests,--everything you would need for overnight rafting experiences. They will pile it on the trailer he bought to haul it all.

I'm guessing they can afford scuba--they have just decided to put their money somewhere else.

We did a fair amount of rafting when we were younger, but we just signed up with a rafting operation. We never heard of anyone who owned all of his own stuff.

 

[Slym]

Wow that does sound like a pretty cool hobby too though, I've done white water rafting out in Ottawa once, it was awesome!!

I suppose we could talk all day about the differences between the generations and the times which we live (and lived). I suppose I get a bit fired up when people suggest my generation is lazy.

Now I wonder if people are swimming a lot less? I know lake Ontario it is often times not a pleasant lake to be in and has the reputation of being very polluted (which it is way better now right?) And are people being taught how to swim less now a days? If people have no interest in swimming or don't know how, then scuba could be a bit out of their interest.

 

[TMHeimer]

I would agree that laziness isn't a factor more than years ago. It's a different world than when I was 22 in 1976. Now I'm one of those old people walking around at times a land that is foreign to me. I was sitting in an airport last Fall and maybe 9 out of 10 people around me were playing with their "do-hickies" as I call them. I remind me of the old people I knew when I was young and they were thinking 1976 is very different than 1946.
Enough temporal anomalies (oh yeah, we had the original Star Trek for 3 years).
Having said all that, I believe I mentioned that in the 4 years I assisted shop OW courses I would say that a majority in each class were maybe 18-25. Maybe this is not the norm. As far as swimming less today, I found that maybe 2 out of 10 had a proper swim stroke. Still boggles my mind. Though I only got OW 11 years ago, I think it is a safe bet that a vast majority taking up scuba in 1966 could swim very well--and properly. Divers from back then will have to confirm this.