What types of divers last the longest?

[Fin Finder]

"Enjoy the journey", is something I have often said to students and new divers.

I believe "diver burn out" has it's cause in a person's initial approach to the sport. I see too many novice divers rushing through the various levels of certification without really becoming complete divers. Some launch into the technical disciplines before mastering the most basic skills. Some get bogged down in the over abundance of scuba gear, believing that there is magic in all the pieces of metal, plastic, and velcro.
They are lost in the woods.

Perhaps many of these lost souls are really just futilely seeking some kind of status or recognition from their fellow divers, in the mistaken belief that this is a competitive endeavor. They forget, or perhaps have never grasped, the true reason why we dive. So, when the rewards don't come fast enough, they become disillusioned, unsatisfied, or simply bored, and switch to an easier path before gaining an appreciation for the beauty and adventure they have left behind.

To those people I say training and education are important to becoming a safe diver, and competency with the equipment is essential, but to really understand diving one must also gradually and painstakingly gain the knowledge and capabilities that only bottom time and experience brings. It requires competency in a couple dozen core principles, and mastery of a few thousand undefined subtleties. Punch the clock, own the mistakes, relish the successes, be humble, and earn your stripes if you plan to stick around.
And slow down, the process takes years, not weekends.

Diving is life-long. When you look back on all the phases of your diving life, from green newbie to salty old-timer, there will be memorable moments and achievements in all of them. Enjoy the newness of the places you go and the things you see, because that is the essence of what we seek underwater, and why we travel all around the world to rediscover it.

Remember, Rome wasn't burned in a day.

 

[CT-Rich]

I think a lot of tech and cave divers flame out because of the risk and expenses. You have kids, get older and other priorities pulling you in the other direction. I think people that live close to good recreational dive spots are most likely to have the most longevity. Tech/cave gear is time consuming and expensive and see someone else have a bad outcome probably puts off a lot of guys. Look at the generation of divers that were contemporaries of Sheck Exley, how many of them continued at that level? And the same is probably true for North East wreck divers. It's very hard to stay at that level for very long because of the time, number of training dives and expenses involved.

Photo/video divers, hunters, bottle, shark/fossil collectors, I think are the people most likely to last the longest because they can temper the cost and time required for diving to there available resources, while also making their dives engaging. Let the flame war of why you disagree commence....

 

[Stoo]

Winding up my 43rd season... I expect to log about 100 dives again this year, as I have done pretty much every year since I stopped teaching... it was much more than that previously. I am heading to BC in a couple of weeks for 10 days of diving, and likely south at Christmas.

I agree with many of the reasons stated... easy access (I have a home in Tobermory, overlooking the harbour, and my own boat), my spouses all dove (only two, but "all" sounds better) because I trained them, financially, I have been fortunate to make a decent living and so on.

Mostly, I think it's just pure love of being underwater. When you get to be 60, many of your buddies are much younger and I find that as a rule, they will blow off a dive day much more readily than I will. Crappy weather? Who cares~

I also think that the way training is these days... with the need to take about 15 courses... that the cost (in dollars and time) is intimidating. When I learned how to dive, there was a 12 week course that covered everything you needed to know for the most part. The rest you figured out with the help of other divers and mentors. I'm not saying that the old way is better or worse, but it was one course, and then you were done..

 

[Nemrod]

Hmmm, 48 years active diver. Mostly interested in photography, exploring, equipment especially old stuff and long in the past spearing and free diving and longer in the past what would be cave/tech now.

I like kayak diving, may do some kayak spearing. Like diving from my little Whaler. Always like solo.

I am interested in rebreathers but have enough grey hair to understand this is an immature technology.

Ocean I love, freshwater mostly meh.

Springs, caves and macro photography-----boring.

N

 

[Akimbo]

I think longevity in diving involves finding something to do underwater. Photography and hunting are two of the main ones. Diving alone can be enough for some but I think most need an objective.

 

[TMHeimer]

You have to have an interest --why do you dive, etc. I've generally dived once weekly, 2 dives that day since I started 11 years ago. My big interest is shell collecting, and though I rarely find anything worth keeping up North, it can happen, and there is the diving down South. I also like poke spearing flounders for supper, and know a spot or two to get those tasty Deep Sea Scallops. I did 4 years as an active DM, which gave me another reason to continue. I would agree that closeness to the ocean keeps me going--even sometimes in winter here. Thus also agree that "vacation only" divers probably don't stay with it as much. I would not be one of those anyway--would consider it too dangerous if that's all I did, and probably would easily forget many of the basic skills. Maybe the biggest reason for me to continue is that it is just one of the many routines my wife rightly claims I have.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

DIsagree about the course length. If I had been faced with an "old school" course with 12 weeks and harassment from instructors I would never have kept diving. 4 day 1 to 1 with my instructor worked perfectly with me.

I would agree about the taking more training and diving locally bits though.

At my age I would not have signed up for the old school way, I think this training is like any other education, it's up to you to get all the info and use it properly. A little longer fine, but 12 weeks as a working adult would have been undo-able for me. Harassment, nope, that would not be acceptable to me. (Go ahead call me a sissy!)

Our class was small (3:1) and it provided nice instruction and a good learning environment.

I hope to keep diving into my 80's.

 

[KevinG58]

Love the ocean, UW photography, escape from people (not fool proof but at least they can't yap incessantly underwater).

It helps being a couple of hours from Monterey bay. There will probably be a day when cold water becomes too challenging and Monterey is no longer an option. But I'll do it as long as I possibly can, then limit myself to travel diving in warm waters.

edit: Forgot to say the UW photo aspect probably keeps me diving more than if I were just sightseeing.

 

[Amberjack]

Also, there's probably two types of divers starting out. The try it and see if I like it because it's on my bucket list diver and the try it and the now I'm addicted and it's a way of life diver.

I think there is really something to this. I was addicted from my first discovery dive. My open water instructor looked at me after I got my certification and said "You're hooked, huh?"

That was more than 10 years ago - having two kids in there slowed me down a bit, but I got back in the saddle as soon as possible after each one. Budget is a huge consideration, as is limited vacation time and many family demands, and a limited season for local diving.

So a good year for me is 25 dives and sometimes it's much less. But I've managed to keep diving, keep training and learning and protecting its place in my life. It is my inspiration for staying healthy so that I can keep going for as long as I can. It's a huge thing for me that unfortunately can only take up a small part of my life.

 

[KeithG]

having an underwater interest and a good divebuddy helps.

we only dive on vacation, do not dive locally, have never taken any formal training beyond our original OW. our dive vacations are something we look forward to.

we just came back from 2 weeks in Honduras, first week at CoCoView on Roatan, second week at Utopia Village on Utila. we both have a very high level of interest in underwater creatures. my divebuddy can identify them all and i try to get photos of them all.