Effects of coronavirus alias Covid-19

[Anthony Appleyard]

Due to age I am now out of the active diving scene. In Britain, and across the world, how much has active sport diving (weekend and one-day diving, and diving holidays) been affected by the coronavirus public lockdown?, apart from what I know via the newspapers and the television news.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Speaking from a British perspective, that's quite an easy question to answer; there has been zero recreational diving here since lockdown on 23rd March.

Some people have very recently ventured out on shore dives in England, but it's still a fraction of the usual. All inland sites and training pools are still closed, but some are hoping to reopen (under restrictions) over the next few weeks.

The instructors and DM's on our work WhatsApp are joking that we'll all need refreshers before we can start taking students again.

 

[D_Fresh]

Pretty much the same as @Graeme Fraser said, except here in Philippines.... The gov't here is doing "stepped down" quarantine plan, as some areas of the Philippines have been less impacted. As of June 1, there are a few where diving is allowed, but inter-island travel is still severely restricted and is not currently allowed for leisure. I expect the rest of the country will be diving again in July, but foreign travel into PH is not allowed, and not seeing an end-date for that yet....

 

[BlueTrin]

Some (if not most) inland sites are planning to reopen around the 15th of June with new rules and pre-booking.

Some boats are doing charters with limited numbers and new rules.

A few people are doing shore diving too.

 

[Marie13]

Great Lakes region: inland sites (quarries) have mostly been open for a while now. My local quarry opened Monday. Lake Michigan charters out of Milwaukee and Chicago (Hammond, IN) are starting this weekend. Reduced capacity on my local boat. Unknown about charters out of Milwaukee.

 

[TMHeimer]

"Beaches" opened in Nova Scotia a couple of weeks ago. Most of the shore diving isn't really from public beaches--more like pull off to the side of the road and dive. My (solo) diving hasn't been affected during it all.
Actually, I did dive from one of the usual beaches before beaches were open (there were a very few people on the beach walking). I wasn't aware that beaches were even closed, so guess I lucked out and avoided the $700 fine....

 

[Eyegore]

I live in the SF Bay Area. My brother and I make shore dives and occasionally reserve spots on a charter. The shut-down meant no more charters but we kept shore diving up to April 11th when the Gestapo hassled us; we dove that day in spite of the unpleasant encounter. Then the SM county board of supes decided it wise to institute parking restrictions along the county's entire coastline, not to mention some other bizarre rules. Insanity. Last Friday we made a shore dive in Monterey. About time! We've reserved spots on a charter for this coming Friday. Fingers crossed.

 

[Degenerate]

I'm in Sweden and I've been diving throughout this entire thing.
Our club has been heading out with the boat most saturdays/sundays (I avoid going on those, unrelated to covid though), I've even finished a course and still super simple to find people who are up for a dive whenever.
The part of the country we're in has only had a very mild count of cases, and the club trips have been very strict about divers keeping their distances and avoiding contact.

All in all I'm convinced the path our leaders decided on was the wrong one, but being able to put in 50+ dives in the past 3 months has at least kept me from being miserable.

In short, covid has barely affected diving here in southern Sweden at all.
Can't say about further north, but judging from the posts I see from people on facebook divers don't seem to give a crap about covid up there either.