I recently posted this on the Aqua Lung issue of internet practices.
I feel strongly that nothing is for free. The advice you get from Scubaboard is touted has free, but the time it took to give to you/us is time from the advice giver. The axiom time is money should be time is energy. How we choose to expend our finite energy should be done wisely because our energy is only had via a price.
If a store owner, one who wants to be around for a long time, does not spend energy wisely, the obvious will happen.
If a consumer wants to spend their time wisely, they'll get what they invest.
Internet shopping is without question our current standard of finding what many, if not most of us want or need. Services or equipment, scant mouseclicks away. For many sectors of our commerce, lives, it's great. Some things may not be so internet friendly. Things don't go well on a golf course, it's a bad experience, and you walk (run!) away. Have a panic episode in deep water, will you get to swim away?
The circle of the three "E's" is the classic dive store business model (Educate, Equip, Experience) is also the model of many other activities where walking away from a bad experience is sometimes not an option.
If the balance of the three E's is disrupted, what impacts will the start up practitioner expect? If reasonable commerce can't be had for the suport of the three E's, where will the start up go? Skydiving, not unlike scuba diving, can't grow because the economic balance to date is out of balance. A career has a blacksmith was once forever until Ford came along. Can the internet replace the brick and mortar retailer?
The people of Scubaboard (divers, retailers, manufacture's, training agencies) will choose what they think best. If we don't screw up, we may even be able to keep the government out of our chosen lifestyle. If we don't, we could easily be as regulated has the recreational pilots of our country. If this circle gets drastically broken, we all lose.
Change is OK. Our gear from decades ago is not what most of us, even most of us older divers, would want to dive with today. Same, or similar for training, and dive opportunities. Yes, internet or some form of it will be around for some time, but don't most come here because they want to hear (read) from other people? Don't most of us want to go diving with other people? We need each other, bricks and mortar and cyberspace to really improve while going forward. If the balance that Aqua Lung desires fails to deliver what we consumers want, they will either adjust, or not. But has consumers, if we lose our balance, will we get what we want? I doubt it. Many a dive site no longer exist because environmentally we lost our balance. I think we should be careful about our balance or we'll be guilty of perpetuating our previous experiences.
Good Luck, I hope your future diving is rewarding!
