Diver drop out

I was hanging out at my LDS a few days ago and someone walked in to pick up their nitrox card. The owner flips through a file with a bunch of C-cards. He must have had over 50 laying around going back several years (I think he had some from 2001 he hadn't thrown away). He said that most of these cards are for people who got their temporary card, went on a vacation and never came back into the shop.

I never took a class involving OW dives from this LDS (I got all my cards in college) but I know the shop has been around for 30+ years in an over-saturated market and has a very loyal following. It isn't as if they are just throwing students through the class and handing out cards at the door like some shops I've seen. So, if a good dive shop with quality instructors has this high of a diver drop out rate, what is this doing to the industry? How can LDS's turn on-a-whim OW students into divers who will go out to the local mud holes, go onto more advanced certifications and keep their fins off the reef? Do instructors have a good idea of who they're going to see in the shop again and who is going on the cruise and never coming back?

It seems that most good shops have a group of skilled divers that all know each other through the shop, spend some of their free time just hanging out there talking about diving and dive some of the local sites together. Perhaps LDS could use these divers in some sort of Big Brother/Sister program that might help covert some of these on-a-whim divers into real divers. Any thoughts? Would any of you I'll-dive-in-anything-but-raw-sewage types be willing to make some dives with a potential drop-out in the local sites to keep them interested?

loosebits once bubbled...
How can LDS's turn on-a-whim OW students into divers who will go out to the local mud holes, go onto more advanced certifications and keep their fins off the reef?

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1) Promote LOCAL diving - whatever the conditions.
2) Promote the social aspect of diving.

loosebits once bubbled...
Do instructors have a good idea of who they're going to see in the shop again and who is going on the cruise and never coming back?

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Sometimes.......... I had one lady who brought her 2 children to me for OW - it took a little over a year for her to bring what she considered satisfactory pictures to the shop so I could send there certifications in......... depsite repeated messages that I would be happy to take the pictures for her. To my knowledge they have never been back into the water - after their trip.

Todd

Good question. I guess the majority of people take their classes before a planned vacation and also think that diving in a sport that can only be done in adequate climate zone.

Face it, the majority of the population doesn't live at (or close) to the shore and a little percentage travels regulary to a 'beach and sun' climate. When I told my friends last week that I would go diving this weekend, they were surprised that you can dive all-year-round recreationally, have a great viz and actually have a lot of fun (because it is not so crowded).

I believe there is a general misconception that local quarries or even colder sea waters are dark, murky, scary and have a low viz. In fact, if you look around at all the shiny photos in the ads, they're all showing reef-diving with a 200ft. viz, you can hardly find a broschure promoting North Atlantic diving.

Cold water diving can be fun as well! Sure, you don't have the 200ft. viz, the bright colors and the population, but it is just a lot of fun to just go to local quarry, dive around the submerged objects, socialize and just have fun.

When I started, I asked a few LDS in my area, if there was something like a local dive club and they all shrugged.

Also: People are lazy. They go on vacation and have everything pre-prepared for them. Get on the boat and dive. A lot of people probably find it annoying to drive to your LDS, pick up the gear, drive to the quarry, etc etc. - just a theory.

So in conclusion I think I can sum it up: Lazy folks, misconceptions and a lack of local diving promotion.

Yeah, what Pat said..........

As a new diver up here in CT - USA I have corresponded with several potential dive buddies. Quite a few only do tropical dives (some have the $ to travel extensively, some not) Even many of the students I certified with were only there for a C-Card to go to the tropics. Some will only do local diving when it's toasty warm up here (for this climate). I'll admit I'm pumped to go to G. Cayman soon for my first "real dives" after certs., but I enjoy the local FW dives too. It's cheap and gets me experience in between the warm water trips. It also gives me skills that warm water diving won't (although warm water has it's own skills) I did notice that many of the instructors and folks hanging around the shop loved cold water diving, not just because they need to for training divers, but they really enjoy it. I've actually met several "online potential buddies" right here on SB so there IS a need for some type of "community", club, board or whatever to keep local divers connected. In fact my local LDS is setting up a mailing list for activities, sales etc., I think that would be of benefit not only to their business but to local divers as well....

TDunbar once bubbled...
1) Promote LOCAL diving - whatever

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I couldn't agree with you more. There are a couple of shops near me. The closest one does a good job of training divers but the cater to the carribean crowd. They wouldn't admit it, but based on the gear they stock and the reactions to some of the questions I ask, they don't think there is anything north of the keys that's worth diving. I think this is one of the worst things you can do for the sport.

...or new divers won't stick with it.

If their first experience (OW checkout dives, for example) is a real misery, poor vis, ill fitting exposure suits, cold and dark and rainy/windy with nothing to see and an instructor harping at you or the other students over lousy skills,

well then only the most dedicated (or obsessed) divers will stick with it as opposed to suffering through the checkout dives as a means to an end.

I think ScoobyPat is also right. People want stuff handed to them on a platter and if a newbie's first dives away from checkouts are those full-service Caribbean style ones, they won't want to go through all the 'effort' of arranging their own local dives for dubious payoffs (admit it, where can North American dives really compete with warm-water terrific-vis reef diving etc?)

I think that in addition to local "buddy lists" or scuba clubs, fun type activities need to be organized and advertised. Things such as pumpkin carving (underwater of course!), treasure hunts, etc. Even just arranging for cut-rate charters can bring a few more divers out. For the "lazy" diver even full gear rental could be arranged for a flat fee.

IMHO the largest obstacle is that there are very few "centralized" buddy lists etc out there. Once a student leaves the OW classroom, they're more or less on their own as far as meeting other divers and arranging dives.

I hate to say this seeing as how I am completely broke as are most of my diving friends, but I have to second the books when they say to buy your own gear. It really keeps you diving. When I go to dive spots other than charter boats...springs, shore dives etc....everyone else there diving have thier own gear except for maybe tanks. I just believe its true that if you have the gear sitting in your garage (or porch or dive closet LOL) you will have a tendancy to dive more.

Laurel- The Frog Queen
:royal:

ScoobyPat once bubbled...

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Face it, the majority of the population doesn't live at (or close) to the shore and a little percentage travels regulary to a 'beach and sun' climate. When I told my friends last week that I would go diving this weekend, they were surprised that you can dive all-year-round recreationally, have a great viz and actually have a lot of fun (because it is not so crowded).
<snip>
Also: People are lazy. They go on vacation and have everything pre-prepared for them. Get on the boat and dive. A lot of people probably find it annoying to drive to your LDS, pick up the gear, drive to the quarry, etc etc. - just a theory.
<snip>
So in conclusion I think I can sum it up: Lazy folks, misconceptions and a lack of local diving promotion.

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Actually, ScoobyPat, one of the more interesting facts I heard on NPR one morning (which is not always credible) is that 90% of Americans live withing 200 miles of a major body of water. Referenced were the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Carribean.

Conversely I totally agree with you in regards to the Lazy. I see it at my work every day (I'm the biggest lazy guy of them all!) and continue to see it regularly with some who get certified and thats about as far as they go. My brother-in-law/best friend of 16 years now is 110% that when it comes to doing anything anymore, diving included. I don't complain though, my wife and I are as active as ever now that our son is old enough to hang with a baby sitter on shore and we hardly miss a weekend where we aren't diving, hiking, camping, and hopefully soon, all three!

FLArmyBrat once bubbled...
I hate to say this seeing as how I am completely broke as are most of my diving friends, but I have to second the books when they say to buy your own gear. It really keeps you diving. :royal:

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Agreed! With what I've spent this year to get into this....ouchhh!!!!! I want to dive.........that's why I'm going to Cayman in 3 weeks! I've gone this far, now payoff time!
According to my LDS, the first year kills you, after that I'm sure you still spend money but not as bad, not all at once. They really pushed the training on me too! I got OW, AOW and Nitrox this summer and I've still yet to get in my first "real" dives! I passed up a Rescue Class so I could go to Cayman, I can hit that later. I don't mind them pushing training though, they gotta run a business. I was lucky to get what I consider a very thorough instructor and learned much from her. Always answers any questions I have about diving, never rushes you in and out and makes sure you get what you paid for. And for me, although the cold water, low vis diving is nothing compared to tropical diving, I'm glad I trained up here. I think the skills learned in this environment will help anywhere I dive. Just as cave diving skills would most surely make anyone a better diver....IMHO