What's the future of scuba?

[SneakySneaky]

Hi all. I'm not sure if this is the perfect forum for this question (there's really a lot to choose between!). I'm doing some research into scuba at the moment (although I've nearly no personal experience with the sport, I am really intrigued by it's beauty). I would like to pick the forum reader's brains about what the future of scuba looks like?
- What forthcoming technology is going to have a big impact?
- Which unique new diving experiences await in the future?
- How are the socio-demographics of diving changing? etc. etc.

I'm really interested in what you, the experts, think will be possible or impossible in the next 5/10/50/100 years of scuba?

Any thoughts would be really really helpful.

Warm regards,

Harry.

 

[spectrum]

If you really look at scuba you can see that it has not changed much at all especially from the recreational level standpoint.

Divers depths and bottom times for the most part are still limited in depth by nitrogen narcosis air supply and nitrogen loading though recreational nitrox can extend the range a little. Nitrox was voodo gas not that many years ago and in some spots folks are diving recreational trimix blends, this will probably grow as time goes on.

Rebreathers are coming down in price and becoming a little more popular but the day when they challenge open circuit scuba in nowhere in sight.

Convenience has improved a lot of rubber has been replaced with silicone and other more durable materials but nothing that has really made for a quantum leap. Regulators and fins notably have been tweaked and fins have probably seen the most dramatic improvement in recent years though the time tested Jets are still preferred by many.

The one major breakthrough we're all dreaming of in a warm non buoyant dive suit.

Pete

 

[DA Aquamaster]

In 24 years of diving, the changes have been many more divers with ever lower entry level skills (poor buoyancy, poor fin techniques, poor gear ettiquette on the boat etc) the majority of whom do not frequent the local quarry or lakes and only dive on 1 or 2 warm water dive trips per year.

The net result of that is increasing diving pressure on a fiuxed number of reefs and wrecks from more divers who roto-till them or otherwise beat them up. Similarly, there are more techncial divers on an only slightly larger number of ever deteriorating wrecks and in an only slightly larger number of caves.

The cave diving community recognize their resources as being fragile, finite and irreplaceable and strive hard to educate and enforce a policy of conservation. If the rest of the dive industry is going to have a future with any degree of quality, they need to get serious about a similar policy instead of just talking about it and giving it lip service while churning out divers where "churning" is a very descriptive word. Better training standards and proficiency standards before you are allowed on a reef or wreck (maybe a mandatory "reef" card you need to dive on a coral reef?) is a major breakthrough we really need.

Artificial reefing programs sound great, but the environmental agencies have taken cleaning to such an extreme that the costs are incredible and quiote frankly, they exceeded "reasonbable" interms of cleaning standards a long time ago. So until a much better balance can be achieved there, the vast majority of suitable ships will continue to be scrapped and the number of ships that are artificially reefed will remain very very small and noteworthy. We could use a "breakthrough" there as well.

We seem to be on the cusp of recreational rebreathers that can be thrown in the dish washer to clean and that will run a self diagnostics test on startup to make them more or less idiot proof - although in my experience, it's really hard to out engineer a really talented idiot. Whether that ends up being a breakthrough depends on whether they can be marketed at a price that is not much higher than the cost of a recreational BC, tank(s) and reg set with an operational cost no greater than diving nitrox.

 

[Sinbad the Diver]

If you look at Scuba and the basic tools divers use they are for the most part not technology driven, other than dive computers. So technological advances don't have huge impacts on the key issues of diving. The drivers on diving are air and preasure, basic physics and as much as technology can do, it can't change the laws of physics.

Technology can make the tools of the trade more reliable, more effective and easier to use but they can't overcome those two basic limitations, just help divers deal with them more effectively and hopefully more safely.

Advances in computers and communications to me are changing the sport though from the standpoint of the convenience and enjoyment aspects. For example, new divers may never learn much about using tables, some agencies teach diving with computers from the start. The ease and flexibility the diver computer adds to the equation is to me a major improvement to the recreational diver (more time enjoying the sport, less time planning and more flexibility during the dive). GPS has made finding and relocating dives sites easier and more reliable, hopefully GPS will become more available underwater to make underwater nav easier. Changes like this help the occasional diver expand their diving ability faster and thus makes it more enjoyable. On the other hand, these technologies are expensive and it is making the sport more expensive which may tend to change the demographic of who enters the sport to and older, more financally stable group.

 

[ucfdiver]

Computers and nitrox have greatly increased the bottom times, that's the biggest change I've seen since I was certified in 1999....they were around, but not as popular. Backplate and wings seem to be gaining popularity. The "DIR" Gear config is rapidly growing. Helium gas (trimix) is making it's way into recreational diving fields with classes like recreational trimix. Classes have become shorter, making the overall skill set drop. Rebreathers are becoming very common.

Kind of think about it, a lot has changed in 9 years.

 

[Blackwood]

I think most of the changes will come in how divers are trained. I imagine that more and more online certification programs will crop up, leading to an even more watered down average curriculum.

Gear wise, I see rebreathers becoming more common as gases, particularly helium, become more scarce (and thus expensive).

 

[Nemrod]

Question:

A. What forthcoming technology is going to have a big impact?
B. Which unique new diving experiences await in the future?
C. How are the socio-demographics of diving changing? etc. etc.

Answer:

A. Rebreather technology will continue to improve both in reliability and compactness. It will slowly work it's way into advanced enthusiast recreational level diving.

Electronics and computers will continue to invade the sport including a "Radar" mask with LCD pane and sonar vision that can synthesize a real time HD virtual view even in water with zero viz.

Mixed gas will become more widely used as has nitrox over the last decade.

As rebreather technology becomes more wide spread divers will want open circuit regulators that look and fucntion and train them for their use, the open circuit double hose regulator will make a return in force as their advantages become apparent to a more educated advanced/enthusiast diver population.

Minimalism, streamlined and modular equipment with simple execution will become more popular. Integrated systems will return to popularity.

Color will return to the sport, black will fade away.

B. Man made diving resorts in inland areas, giant aquariums, diver theme parks?

C. Divers are becoming older and more wealthy, local diving will continue to decline, vacation diving will be the norm. Guided tours and hand holding will continue to be the rule as training further declines at the entry level requiring ever more post certification training.

Additionally, there will be a decreasing diver population and as a result there will be a thinning of resorts and manufactuers.

And a prayer, giant storms will wash all of the condos from the shores of Florida and return the US coastline to the people.

N

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

C. Divers are becoming older and more wealthy, local diving will continue to decline, vacation diving will be the norm. Guided tours and hand holding will continue to be the rule as training further declines at the entry level requiring ever more post certification training.

Short term job security for the Island Instructor

Additionally, there will be a decreasing diver population and as a result there will be a thinning of resorts and manufactuers.

Long term goal; find resort that won't get thinned!

 

[ian@1904]

I don't see any radical changes to OC or CC technology. The physics won't change. Rebreathers will become more mainstream as the electronics are seen to become more reliable. This will enable more trimix diving to take place. A trimix fill in the UK costs £45-£75 (Say $90-150 USD) plus nitrox fills.

I suspect that the quality of initial training will decline. Over in the UK, divers trained overseas have a steep learning curve compared to those trained in the UK. It was so bad in Cuba that one diver was no inept she could not assemble the rental gear, she was offered a snorkel only dive instead. (It was standard kit and she claimed to have dived a couple of resorts)

In the UK costs will rise due to fuel costs and the weather. The weather has been poor this season and skippers have fewer dives to recover their costs. So the price will rise. So there will be a decline in younger divers with less disposable income.

Oh and Scubapro may actually allow some spares stock into the UK. But I expect hell to freeze over first.

 

[Chatterton]

Seventy percent of the planet is covered by water. We couldn't ignore it, even if we wanted. Divers will continue to explore, work, and play in an ever widening arc of known seabed.

Considering that the sport is only a little over 50 years old, we actually have seen some amazing advances in technology. Two hose, Single hose, SPG, Fenzy collar, Buoyancy Balls, Stab Jackets, and even the ultimate underwater tool, the Dive Computer. More technology is surely coming, and we don't have any more idea of what it is that we do of what will power the next generation of automobiles. Some new ideas will stick around a while and some will only be here for their 15 minutes of fame (like the Buoyancy Balls).

Some of our fellow divers will do amazing things that inspire not just all of us, but even future generations of divers. In spite of a collective effort to save them, other divers will continue to do stupid crap.

Then again, I am no psychic?


Cheers

JC