I certainly was a drop out diver, and possibly a lot of people are similar.
I learnt in 2007 in the Read sea. my GF at the time had got certified on a girls week away a few moths earlier.
On return to the UK after the holiday I had the OW cert and a grand total of 18 dives.
Although I was "hooked" and loved it, Diving in UK waters held no attraction, also the cost of my own gear for the UK was at the time prohibitive. There were some clubs locally to me but I never found the time to reach out to them
Moving on to 2011 - time and money had prevented me going on a diving vacation, but I was working abroad and had some downtime so took my AoW (having not dived for 4 years) At teh end of that I'd increase my Dive count by another 4!
Again, time and money stopped me continuing.
In 2012 I arrived in Dubai. Knowing no-one I made the effort to hut down social groups and a couple of months later found my current BSAC club. from there I never looked back, Not only did I now have the disposable income to kit myself out, but people would encourage you to come diving. I had access to warm water diving no further than 15 mins drive from home, so going diving is no effort, and if the weather is bad, then there is always next week.
I don't see a big drop off in divers - just look at the amount of liveaboards around the world which get booked up pretty quickly. Certainly people in their 20's have a bigger disposable income than I did when I was in mine and possibly have better access to more far flung destinations.
I met a couple on my last trip. Both from Colorado and have been diving for 25 years. However they never dive locally only on trips away and thus only dive every 2 years - but still consider themselves regular divers.
Apart from illness my longest gap between dives is never greater than 4 weeks, that's my definition of regular. Someone who dives 3 times a year may consider themselves regular and so on and so forth.
I'm sure the fact that people get certified in diving in warm clear waters chose not to want to dive in cold murky ones unless really dedicated thus only take the opportunity when they go on vacation. They may not wish (or be able too) dedicate that whole vacation to diving. As Bob says above, people have a family or other life changes with change their priorities.
My wife (who I met diving here) gave up diving for 11 years when she had her children. Her priorities changed. Lie me it wasnt' until she came to Dubai in 2010 that she started diving again because she had the time and access to diving close by
I learnt in 2007 in the Read sea. my GF at the time had got certified on a girls week away a few moths earlier.
On return to the UK after the holiday I had the OW cert and a grand total of 18 dives.
Although I was "hooked" and loved it, Diving in UK waters held no attraction, also the cost of my own gear for the UK was at the time prohibitive. There were some clubs locally to me but I never found the time to reach out to them
Moving on to 2011 - time and money had prevented me going on a diving vacation, but I was working abroad and had some downtime so took my AoW (having not dived for 4 years) At teh end of that I'd increase my Dive count by another 4!
Again, time and money stopped me continuing.
In 2012 I arrived in Dubai. Knowing no-one I made the effort to hut down social groups and a couple of months later found my current BSAC club. from there I never looked back, Not only did I now have the disposable income to kit myself out, but people would encourage you to come diving. I had access to warm water diving no further than 15 mins drive from home, so going diving is no effort, and if the weather is bad, then there is always next week.
I don't see a big drop off in divers - just look at the amount of liveaboards around the world which get booked up pretty quickly. Certainly people in their 20's have a bigger disposable income than I did when I was in mine and possibly have better access to more far flung destinations.
I met a couple on my last trip. Both from Colorado and have been diving for 25 years. However they never dive locally only on trips away and thus only dive every 2 years - but still consider themselves regular divers.
Apart from illness my longest gap between dives is never greater than 4 weeks, that's my definition of regular. Someone who dives 3 times a year may consider themselves regular and so on and so forth.
I'm sure the fact that people get certified in diving in warm clear waters chose not to want to dive in cold murky ones unless really dedicated thus only take the opportunity when they go on vacation. They may not wish (or be able too) dedicate that whole vacation to diving. As Bob says above, people have a family or other life changes with change their priorities.
My wife (who I met diving here) gave up diving for 11 years when she had her children. Her priorities changed. Lie me it wasnt' until she came to Dubai in 2010 that she started diving again because she had the time and access to diving close by
