How Can We Keep Divers Diving After Certification?

[emoreira]

It's already 2 years that I 've got my OWD certification. Since then I have now 34 logged dives and will dive again within 3 weeks in Miami during a break in a symposium. Besides I did 5 specialities and now I'm AOWD.
I'm far away from any diving place, though I live in a city with harbor, a river harbor with opaque brown waters. The nearest diving place is something like 500 kms away home. A quarry with poor visibility.
At work there are more than 5 divers, some of them did their last dive 3 years ago and will no longer dive.
One of the points I find is that it's becoming difficult to arrange a dive trip with a buddy of my confidence. I've being considering starting with solo diving, but for that you need to have all your gear, and this is becoming harder every day.
There are also Local Diving Schools that arrange diving trips for certified divers when they carry their own students to checkout. Sometimes you can meet an occasional dive buddy that is within your cert/skill level, but simetimes not, making the whole dive trip just a waist of money with no fun.
Some other diving trips are a dream within a dream, like going to dive to the Red Sea, Blue Hole in Belize or Fernando de Norhona in Brazil or San Andrés in Colombia, but those trips are so expensive for our economy that are prohibited for me and for the people that lives in this latitudes in these days of bankruptcy.

 

[drbill]

Dr. Bill,

Just another question.

You've mentioned how badly dive instructors do "naturalist" a couple of times that I can remember. One way you can reach people might be to give the instructors here on Scubaboard a primer so they have a better chance of getting it right.

Would you be open to trying to straighten us out?

R..

Every week I've posted my weekly "Dive Dry with Dr. Bill" newspaper columns here on SB and the other ~360 of them are archived on my web site. Of course they are largely focused on SoCal kelp forests. Others who have expertise in different bioregions should do something similar to offer their expertise... I'm barely an expert in my own region after more than 40 years of diving here. To a large degree this effort needs to be regionalized or the examples wouldn't male a lot of sense.

Of course if an LDS or dive club is planning a trip to a distant destination, it would seem to serve a good purpose to bring in people who have great familiarity with those regions to "pre-lab" the trip for the divers.

 

[drbill]

It may be that the baby boomers who flooded the courts and courses in our youth are less interested in such sports as we age. It may be something else.

Any dropoff in scuba may be similar in nature and may have little to do with the sport itself. It may instead reflect larger forces at work.

It may also be the insidious influence of TV, video games and the Internet. I know of "younger" folks (teens, twenties and thirties) who can spend 8 hours a day (or more) on their computers or in front of TV. Come to think of it, my recently departed housemate ended up spending as much as 14 hours a day sitting in his beach chair 5' from my TV (which I almost never watched).

 

[drbill]

Drbill,

I’d like to ask about your premise that diving is in decline. From your almost front row seat at Casino Point have you seen the number of divers decrease, increase or remain the same over the years?

A.

Honestly, I can't objectively quantify that. For many years my diving was based in the interior out at Toyon Bay. Then it was in Avalon at the Dive Park, and for several years on board Scuba Luv's King Neptune. Now I'm largely back to the Dive Park, but during a period of extreme economic hardship.

If I were to evaluate the present state of diving based on what I've seen at the dive park the past year or so, I'd have to say it has not just declined... it has taken a precipitous fall. It will be interesting to see what happens after the recovery (it is going to happen, right?).

 

[Papa_Bear]

We need to challenge divers (People) to get involved like a Dive with Dr. Bill program! They just had a Dive with an Astronaut blind action for charity and the winning bid was $7500.00! So we need to get people involved in projects, archaeological, fish counts, Harbor clean ups, and similar type projects that reward the diver with achievement, do good for the community, and encourage diving!

Shops need to sponsor dive clubs who need to encourage new divers to get involved with diving right after the classes! That way they build confidence and experience! We as an industry need to encourage people to continue with stories of the beauty and satisfaction achieved through diving!

The industry needs heroes like Mike Nelson and more important real life everyday people who have demonstrated a love and proficiency for diving and support the activity!

Dive shops, DEMA, and Boards like this need to foster a "Diver of the Month" type program show casing someone like Dr. Bill that would lead to regional "Diver of the Year" that would foster press releases and publicity for DIVING! Possibly a national
"Diver of the year" award. There could be Instructor of the month and so on!

We need to stop attacking PADI all pull together to promote all agencies and the activity we all love! We need to stop looking down our noses at other divers and stop self-destructing, in fighting, and name calling those that see things differently!

We need to encourage people to "See for themselves" if the reefs is healthy and be more positive about the environment! Why should someone put out ton and money to be told the reef will be dead in 5 years so why bother? We need real science not ALGORE political crap presented by Ted Dansen! "Oceans dead by 1995"!!!!

It can be done!

 

[*dave*]

We just need to figure out how to distribute PB's enthusiasm among those lacking and the problem is solved.

 

[Slonda828]

The industry needs heroes like Mike Nelson and more important real life everyday people who have demonstrated a love and proficiency for diving and support the activity!

I have to agree with you. We have such great pioneers to look up to in diving, but none of them are from any generation near my own. Where are the Robert Crofts, JYCs, Bob Meistrells, Dottie Fraziers, Al Tillmans, and Lee Somers of today? We need those people. People used to love to buy stuff to look like Mike Nelson (heck some of my friends STILL do...Nemrod, Captain). If you are a freediver you can go buy team fins and team patterned wetsuits. We need stuff like that in diving, we need role models. At 30 years of age, I do not particularly need a role model, but I am already hooked as a diver. We need kids to see something cool on TV and to want to go dive.

How many of you experienced divers became divers because of JYC or Sea Hunt? Where is something like that now?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Where is it? Nowhere. They tried to revive SeaHunt back in the 80's or 90's with Ron Ely. As always thus was the Baywatch Era so they had to screw it up with sexy scenes and bimbos. Now Mike had some sweet broads on his show but they were second to the diving and underwater scenes. If we could get rid of some tv execs that have brains in their pants and put some intelligent people in programming perhaps a technically accurate diving series could get the go ahead. Just need the right person to produce it. Anybody have Jerry Bruckheimers number?

 

[Papa_Bear]

I tried to get a Reality SCUBA show on the Outdoor channel, but they went with an Elk Hunting program! Two weeks before we were to pitch the show they changed CEO's and the new "Young" guy wanted to go another direction! It was going to include a lot of Southern Cal dive bunch and local activities like the harbor clean up and local color! But they went with a hunting show? More people hunt Elk???? Go figure?

It will take a joint effort with all the players to show these types of CEOs that people will watch! We have to cultivate the interest first these days! We need a Hero! We need color and drama that will sell, throw in some sex and bingo!

 

[mikemill]

From my perspective a scuba show wouldn't have helped retain people. It might be useful for getting people exposed to the sport but nothing for retention.

As for "heroes": I generally ignore the big names of a group. Seriously why should I care what soandso is doing? Especially the ones that puff themselves up with media attention.