Why do so many lose interest in diving?

[Lorenzoid]

When I vacation dived exclusively, I never realized how much work diving was. Now it consumes an ENTIRE Saturday from packing the car at 6AM to hanging the rinsed gear at midnight. Nothing else I do is that much work! . . .

. . .
On a side note, we're going to Grand Cayman in December and my husband found a valet diving shop that basically handles everything for you. When he told me that I was a thousand times more excited to dive on vacation, lol. Someone else hauling around those heavy tanks for me and I just have to show up, check it out, strap in, and go? Yes, please! :biggrin:

So it's possible to make some tradeoff between effort and expense. You can do all the work yourself on a Saturday at minimal cost, and get in an hour of local bottom time for all that effort. Or you can use up a week of hard-earned vacation time, spend a lot of money, and let others do much of the work for you. Neither of these extremes is palatable to many divers, and I guess those are the ones who drop out. It seems to me there is a sweet spot between these extremes for the lucky few who are able to achieve a balance of effort and expense by living conveniently close to great diving and getting a little help with the less fun parts.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Diving is an very specialized activity. I can see why it is still microscopicly small in the whole scope of physical activities that people do.

I have to say, if it wasn't for local diving in my area I probably would have given it up years ago. I'm not at a place in my life where I can just hop on a plane and fly to some tropical location.
I'm self employed with a non diving wife who works and has a tough schedule. I have college debt from my kid. The recession beat me me up pretty bad and our labor rates were down for years plus work was pretty thin and spotty. There are just too many things in the way for us to take off.
I'm also a hunter, so most of my diving involves hunting and gathering. So I guess you could say that's one reason I like to dive. However, even if I wasn't hunting I still go out and do fun dives. I also like to look at stuff and I never get tired or bored of Northern California diving. I was one who did get into tech diving and was headed that direction, but then decided I didn't like all the clutter and enjoyed just doing simple recreational dives. Most of the guys that I dove with then in tech have since quit or moved away. If I continued to tech dive and was of the mindset that going back was going to be a blow to my ego then I probably would have quit diving. The gear complexity and piles of crap needed were a major turn off, plus the logistics. There's not much to tech dive here in Norcal. That's one reason why I'm a minimalist with gear now, because if I was going to continue with diving it needed to be as simple as possible.
Unfortunately I'm not much help to the dive shops in giving them much business. I already have all my gear and most new stuff to me is in the form of freebie gear given to me. I also DIY my own gear services in an effort to become more independent, plus like I said the recession rag dolled me so if I wanted to continue diving I had to find a way to do it on the cheap. It just so happens that I enjoyed DIY so much that I never went back.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I've seen all sorts in the time I've been diving. Many who wanted to try out diving and found it wasn't for them as well as spouses who got certified for their better half. The useless classes have a lot to do with it, but I've seen plenty of divers with cards from the agencies with three letters who stopped diving. Sometimes life gets in the way. Raising a family, moving away from the water, etc. The divers I know who have stuck with it tend to be either hunters or photographers. If you have little interest in the life underwater you will not enjoy diving for long.
Up until a couple of years ago there was a big DIR movement in Southern California. Dozens of divers posted videos of their buddies waving to the camera while frog kicking in perfect trim. The problem is that once they achieved their goals there was nothing to hold their interest. I rarely saw any of them even look at the reef.
I'm fortunate to live in an area with a rich diversity of marine life. Even after more than 2000 dives I still find things I hadn't seen before. There are millions of animals in our local waters and I've only seen a fraction of them. I can't foresee a time when I will ever stop diving unless I become physically unable to do so.

 

[DennisS]

I think a lot of people do it for the thrill, they've done sky diving and decide to try scuba. Once the thrill and newness wears off they move on to something else. Three reefs, two lakes, a quarry and a few wrecks, they've seen it all and are ready to move on.

 

[radtype]

My wife and I took up diving 4 years ago. We love it and have made many friends while diving. We continued to dive because we have a built in buddy. It is also a social thing for us. The dive shop we went through OW invited us into their group. If it weren't for them I see how we could have dropped out.
I see how other divers stop diving. There is comfort in diving with someone you trust and like. For new divers it is a scary world diving with strangers or no buddy. Most experienced divers would rather dive with someone at their skill level, I am in that group but we make it a point to invite new or inexperienced divers to join us. Most new divers can take more classes or hope they get invited by the experienced divers.

Want to keep more people diving, grab the new or inexperienced divers and let them dive with you. Be a mentor.

 

[spectrum]

Why do you think this is the case with some losing interest?

Well this is one that I'm personally battling......

In 2004 as empty nesters my wife and I became obsessed with skin diving with me logging over 100 times in the water all the way into November in Maine.

The following year we became scuba certified and I was wracking up 100+ dives a year. Other pastimes got squeezed out, projects around the house went undone and we had the time of the life. In 2012 I passed the 600 dive count.

As grandchildren came into our life and I got frustrated with things going undone around the house and reckoned that something had to give and without a doubt or regret diving was that something. 2012 was 60+ dives, 2013 was 13, 2014 was intentionally ZERO. Balance was in sight and I told myself that I wanted to get at least a dive or 2 in 2015 just so I could legitimately call myself a diver and to maintain confidence if not polish. With a nudge from a good friend and buddy I did get wet with 3 dives to date and high hopes for perhaps 3 more before calling it a season. Just last weekend I completed a slew of projects that had been deferred too long and now consider myself to be caught up. Frankly the fact that my wife hung up her fins a few years ago has made it a tough choice at times too. You diving couples do have a special thing going.

I pride myself as a clever handyman, I enjoy playing with my snowblower collection, traveling and keeping busy with other stuff. Diving is an activity that can swallow up a lot of time, far, far beyond the bottom time. At some point for many people there comes a point where the equation just does not work. I had a busy, happy, active life before diving now it's a question of balancing it all. The halcyon years are behind me but I'm looking forward to regular diving in 2016.

Of course, many get a crummy start, poor training or just did it to get the Tee shirt and they are preordained short timers.

Pete

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Well this is one that I'm personally battling......

In 2004 as empty nesters my wife and I became obsessed with skin diving with me logging over 100 times in the water all the way into November in Maine.

The following year we became scuba certified and I was wracking up 100+ dives a year. Other pastimes got squeezed out, projects around the house went undone and we had the time of the life. In 2012 I passed the 600 dive count.

As grandchildren came into our life and I got frustrated with things going undone around the house and reckoned that something had to give and without a doubt or regret diving was that something. 2012 was 60+ dives, 2013 was 13, 2014 was intentionally ZERO. Balance was in sight and I told myself that I wanted to get at least a dive or 2 in 2015 just so I could legitimately call myself a diver and to maintain confidence if not polish. With a nudge from a good friend and buddy I did get wet with 3 dives to date and high hopes for perhaps 3 more before calling it a season. Just last weekend I completed a slew of projects that had been deferred too long and now consider myself to be caught up. Frankly the fact that my wife hung up her fins a few years ago has made it a tough choice at times too. You diving couples do have a special thing going.

I pride myself as a clever handyman, I enjoy playing with my snowblower collection, traveling and keeping busy with other stuff. Diving is an activity that can swallow up a lot of time, far, far beyond the bottom time. At some point for many people there comes a point where the equation just does not work. I had a busy, happy, active life before diving now it's a question of balancing it all. The halcyon years are behind me but I'm looking forward to regular diving in 2016.

Of course, many get a crummy start, poor training or just did it to get the Tee shirt and they are preordained short timers.

Pete

I do a lot of projects around the house too. It's important to set aside at least one day a month, or every other month if you can't do every month to go diving or at least some freediving.
Finally now this year my work picked up to where I'm working 7 days a week until it starts raining, but that also leaves no time for diving. Right at the peak of my busy work schedule this summer my wife must have smelled blood because she lays on me painting the living room and hallway and building a new fireplace mantle (she watches way too much HGTV!). But during the hottest day I said screw it and went to the coast to cool off, and while I was there I went ab diving. So it can be done brother, you just have to slip away and do it.
Other times I have been known to "book" a job during the week, and that "job" just happened to be a date with a shore dive. People call for service and I tell them "Sorry I'm booked that day".

 

[lowviz]

Eric,

I've never had a problem with keeping diving interesting.

Chances are excellent that (in addition to everything else) I'll be part of housekeeping staff in 2016 charged with scrubbing algae and cleaning up after dolphin indiscretions. Passed the test.

Asked you twice so far over the years, last time. A latest model freedom plate would be far cooler for this particular task than my custom ten pound Fred Tagge SS doubles BP. You sell those things or just talk about them?

IJS

 

[gcarter]

This topic keeps coming up, and I am not sure why.

Scuba is no different from any other activity or hobby. People try it, some have their curiosity satisfied quickly and move on. Some take a shine and are with it for life. And others do it for a while until something else catches their interest or life gets in the way.

No mystery, not at all complicated IMO.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Eric,

I've never had a problem with keeping diving interesting.

Chances are excellent that (in addition to everything else) I'll be part of housekeeping staff in 2016 charged with scrubbing algae and cleaning up after dolphin indiscretions. Passed the test.

Asked you twice so far over the years, last time. A latest model freedom plate would be far cooler for this particular task than my custom ten pound Fred Tagge SS doubles BP. You sell those things or just talk about them?

IJS

I don't want to get too far off topic, but maybe I can tie in Freedom Plate sales with the declining trend in diving.
If you've noticed, I haven't talked about the plate in quite a while now. That's because I don't have any and don't have time right now to risk dumping a ton more money into the project when hardy anybody is buying gear or upgrading.
I did it for ten years. During that time a made and sold about 335 plates including one-off prototypes. in the world of gear manufacturing that's pretty pathetic. There are so many plate companies out there now and they're all fighting for a very slim piece of pie. most or all of them have either heard about or have seen one of my plates. Do you see them duplicating that style? there's probably a reason. The diving public, even the "specialty" diving public is a very fickle and easily spooked animal. They tend to be very skittish and only operate within their very well defined and painfully learned comfort zone. Besides that, the good old seasoned divers that can do anything, make anything work, and have the ability to understand in an instant what I had in mind when I came up with that design are getting fewer and fewer. Most people are scared sh_tless of minimalism and wouldn't in a million years give up their precious security blankets of soft cushy poodle jackets. Dive with no BC!!! Oh my god the horror! New divers and general dive shops will have nothing to do with something as novel and odd as an FP, heck they barely understand what a regular BP/W is.
Then the last nail in the coffin, the FP isn't DIR compliant ...Rats!!
When I get inquiries from five people that they want plates, that doesn't warrant spending thousands to ramp up to have them sit around.
I need to make money and hammering out plates doesn't pay the bills.
Keep your eyes peeled though, I just may put a couple very early prototypes I've had laying around here on the "for Sale" sub forum...cheap.