Covid's impact on your diving ...

[tstormdiver]

The only impact it has had for me, was not being able to teach March- June, because the pool we use was shut down. This summer was exceptionally busy,... making up for 3 months down, plus the normal classes on top. Local diving at the quarry was at record levels, since folks didn't have much else to do or places to go.

 

[Belzelbub]

I dive mostly local from my own boat. So, you would think there wouldn’t be much of an impact. Unfortunately, there was.

As everything else closed down, people flocked to the boat ramps, so it made launching and retrieval much more difficult. The ramp I normally use is usually uncrowded and has plenty of open ramps and parking available. Prior to this year, the only time I’ve had to wait for an open ramp was during a fishing tournament, and even then it was only a few minute wait. At the worst of it this year, the ramps often had rangers or police directing traffic, and wait times were around 45 minutes to launch. And when you could, it was a long walk to parking.

Annual Keys trip was unaffected, however. So it wasn’t a total bust.

 

[emoreira]

Lockdown made us close our dive school. The club where we rent the classroom and pool also closed. Still closed and no immediate date to reopen.
I had to cancel a dive vacation in San Andrés in May 2020. I had plans to dive some mountain lakes in the Patagonia in November 2020, also cancelled.
We continue to offer on-line dive courses, some without pool activity and some others with pool practise as soon as the pool opens again. Some free of charge, some paid.
We were searching for alternate pools, but many has strict protocols that hardly allow dive practise.
Many people is already tired of those Zoom sessions and every day it's harder to get any money from on-line courses, when the end of restrictions seems to be near but no one knows when.

 

[helodriver87]

Hard to gauge the impact, honestly. I moved away from cave country at the beginning of the year to a place with very limited (but pretty solid) local diving. I put up over 200 dives last year because I could easily drive down on the weekends and get my fix. This year, I'm looking at around 70-75, but it's hard to tell if that's because of COVID or because travel is just tougher. I've been lucky to be able to squeeze in 6 trips to cave country for around 25 days of diving, so all things considered, I guess I've done pretty well.

 

[ATJ]

- then I got positive to COVID

Hope you are OK now!

 

[Manatee Diver]

Hope you are OK now!

They allow you to post to scubaboard from the afterlife now.

 

[ATJ]

They allow you to post to scubaboard from the afterlife now.

Death isn't the only possible outcome of COVID-19. There are some serious potential consequences which can affect diving!

 

[Pressurehead]

Environmental News for a Healthier Planet and Life
Scuba Diving After Coronavirus? What You Need to Know
An April 15 report from Austria put the dive world on high alert. Dr. Frank Hartig treated six infected divers who only suffered mild symptoms, were not hospitalized and recovered at home, reported Cayman Compass.

Although "clinically recovered," all six patients exhibited "irreversible" long-term lung damage which made a full recovery "unlikely," Hartig said. Two exhibited asthmatic-like, irritated lungs, two suffered low oxygen supplies, and four showed "significant changes" to lung structure, reported Cayman Compass.

"None of the six divers can be released for diving for the time being, despite their well-being," Hartig said, reported Dive Magazine.

The doctor said that patients who felt fully recovered could still suffer lung damage which could permanently prohibit scuba diving and other forms of exercise. He implored dive professionals like dive instructors and commercial divers to avoid contracting the disease at all costs.
Just one of many examples posted about diving and covid :

some serious potential consequences which can affect diving!

 

[drrich2]

Thankful I was blessed to get a Galapagos trip (did 19 of the 20 offered dives) in Jan. 2020. Once the pandemic really got underway, I basically didn't bother trying to plan a trip this year. The odds of catching the disease, of testing positive and being barred from going last minute, or a place I had arrangements to be suddenly blocking travel from the U.S., maybe getting stuck abroad, so much has been doing on that making plans months in advance for a roughly $3,500 - 4 grand trip with airfare assuming no disruptions would take place...didn't seem the way to go.

Put off plans till May 2021. Hopefully widespread vaccination will be in place or happening by then. Very eager to get vaccinated.

Could've dove at the local quarry, which is a good one, but wasn't inclined to do that.

Gotta say...if I were retired, some of the mouthwateringly good deals to the Galapagos and Red Sea, or the Roatan Aggressor, might've roped me in. People able to plan and go within a 4 to 6 week time frame had opportunities to nail some amazing deals late this year. I don't know what their airfare costs were.

 

[ginti]

Hope you are OK now!

I didn't have any symptoms luckily, thanks!