Blackwood
Contributor
When someone says auto racing the first thing that comes to most peoples mind is NASCAR or Indy professional racing but there are tens of thousands of people racing at local tracks every weekend.
Formula 1 for me.
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When someone says auto racing the first thing that comes to most peoples mind is NASCAR or Indy professional racing but there are tens of thousands of people racing at local tracks every weekend.
However, you may be onto something re: the younger divers who don't stay with the activity. Why not turn it into a video game!
Over the last few months, as I have been kicking around the idea of getting into the Dive Business, I have wondered why there are so few younger Divers that stick around and how maybe to connect with them a bit more...
I realize there are a number of factors involved here, but after looking at a few of the sports that have grown from specialized activities into major sports, it became clear that activities which had sporting competitions associated with them had given a way for younger enthusiasts to follow the sport, and also given sponsors an opportunity to groom new stars. Snowboarding, skate-boarding, even mountaineering and surfing to a lesser degree, they have all used competitions to get people interested and following the sport..
So I was wondering, where are the Dive Sports? I know there is free-diving, which is close, but where are the competitions in Scuba Diving? Are they out there and some of us just haven't heard about them? Or do they exist at all?
And if they don't exist already - we are a VERY creative group of people - couldn't we put our minds together and come up with one?
Well.
I guess the most difficult part is trying to have a respectful discussion.
But let's accept you feel what you do. Back to my point..
Diving has a high attrition rate - according to one study, only 7% of Divers ever Dive after one year of Certification. It also has a poor retention rate - by one estimate less than 20% of all Divers who continue Diving after the first year ever become "Active Divers", defined in one study as those who Dive at least more than once a year.
Additionally, new Diver Certifications have declined by roughly 2.5% each year for the last two decades. And the demographic of Diving continues to climb, with the median age now at 46.
And finally, in a 2003 survey, non-divers, when asked why they didn't want to be certified gave these as some of the primary reasons:
Its an isolated experience
It is too difficult
It is too dangerous or frightening
It is too boring
There are concerns about the quality of training
People dont know where to learn
There is no-one to do it with
SO, the question is not so much about my personal decision to destroy the entire Dive Industry with my crass motives, but INSTEAD to try to find a way to help an ailing industry that allows us to do what we love...
I have spoken to a number of very dedicated but listing Dive Shop owners who have struggled in the last few years. And the prospects are even worse for the industry with a possible recession looming...
The question is how to help the Sport - or activity - we all love so much, how to help it reach out to new people so that it can flourish..
All that being said, your unbridled verbage actually made my wife and I laugh... And I apologize I upset you so much...
Oh good grief, the OP said it was his love of diving that is the motivation to get others involved, not that he thinks its a bore. I think he makes a great point. We love this sport, this activity, this participation event, or whatever the heck else you want to call it. Sad when people say that something will NEVER be popular....or something will never work. There are a lot of great ideas that were the right thing at the wrong time.
I love how the SB "cold water committee" shows up anytime someone suggests something new. No one wants to tear up reefs, destroy the tranquility of your diving, push things to dangerous limits....he asked a simple question. What can be done to help bring this event we all love to a new generation? Not a bad question at all. O
The OP is right on the money....many of us are diving because of an early TV show that featured diving.....many of us had the love of diving instilled in us by watching a guy with a thick French accent, show us things we had never seen before. I was hooked from an early age....how, by seeing others experience it before I ever knew what Scuba was.
Nah, getting a new generation interested in diving is not possible....there is an old saying in sales, "If you think you can't....YOU CAN'T" I say, I love Scuba Diving so much I want others to experience it too......So, DREAM ON....let's explore new ways to make it happen.