Cost per Dive?

[OTF]

I'm curious if any of you ever look at things this way. Overall (lifetime?) cost of fills+gear+travel+charters+etc. divided by number of dives. What number do you come up with personally? What does the cost-per-dive comparison look like between tech divers / occasional vacation divers / avid local-cold divers?

Sometimes I think about it and do out the math, sometimes I try to put such terrible thoughts out of my head. I could be way off, but I think I'm at about $50-$75 per dive. I feel I get at least that much personal value and enjoyment out of each dive so I'm OK with it. It's hard to minimize that number as I progress towards more serious dives and complex gear. If nothing else it makes me want to do more cheap local shore dives to amortize the costs.

Maybe a stupid concept but I thought it might spur an interesting conversation. Cost is obviously one of the biggest barriers to entry in our hobby.

 

[wnissen]

I bought pretty nice gear, mostly new, including tanks and weights, so I'm about US$3000 / €2600 in, figure another $1000 for training. So the sunk cost is $80 per dive so far, and I'm looking at getting a drysuit, so I don't think that'll go down all that much in the long run. Add in $25 each way for mileage (gas/insurance/maintenance) and $7 for a fill, it's about $115 per dive. Definitely not cheap. I would have to do more dives per day and dive more often to get that number down significantly.

 

[Damselfish]

I don't want to know.

I quit local diving long ago so I can only amortize by taking cheaper trips, which is not really our taste. I have no idea after 30 years how much I've spent on gear along the way but suspect it's not a major factor. There's a wide range of "vacation" diving both in frequency and expense. My last (cancelled) trip on an Indonesian liveaboard would have been around $150/dive. Not including airfare, but I was hoping to use ff miles.

 

[JaminBrown]

Ooof!

I don’t want to do that calculation right now.

One live aboard trip with gear rental + Gear purchase for shore diving in Maine + Open water certification course cost divided by 29 dives (including my 4 Open Water certification dives).

Okay, I lied, I did the calculation. $275 per dive. Which will only go down as I do more shore dives here in Maine while traveling isn’t something I’m willing to risk.

 

[BRT]

Even diving in our state costs me a lot more than $75 per dive. Mexico dives? Horrors! I don't want to know.

 

[OTF]

For some context on my number, I'm a total cheapskate on gear and I never travel.

Nobody should feel bad about having a high number, especially new divers who just bought all their gear and haven't had time to "dive it off". I don't want to get competitive or scare anyone off with this thread and it's not really a fair metric for anything anyway. Diving is incredible and the ridiculous privilege of breathing underwater is worth almost anything.

 

[Dubious]

I guess that depends on how you calculate the cost per dive. It is hard to calculate gear purchases. I have two budgets, Maintenance/fills, and trips. Maintenance and Fills turn out to be about 8.74 per dive based on 50 dives per year.

 

[Johnoly]

.. It's hard to minimize that number as I progress towards more serious dives and complex gear.

It's easy to minimize that number !!
Many of us generate money from our dives to basically dive for FREE. Dive Masters, some outstanding photographers, and then those like me who are harvesters. I can easily dive for free and even make a tiny profit on the lionfish and other products that we sell. Just catching 20 lionfish at about $9 per fish is $180 per dive day. And all it takes is a $12 fishing license with a $25 SPL add on. And you are helping clean up the ocean of an invasive species to save the reefs.
You can work harder and longer hours at your job to spend more on dive items, or dive smarter and be happier underwater and your dives pay you!!

 

[Zeke XA3]

Im not sure what the Cost per dive would be but your on the right track how the groups you mentioned will be very different.

My cave dives in Florida/Abaco run at about $400-$500 each (usually a weekend of 4 dives) including airfare/travel/accom/gear hire/entry fee/guide but not including the investment i made in specialsed gear and training

My live aboard/shore dive holiday in Indo ran at around $100 per dive (25-30 dives) including airfare from Aus

I dove Iceland and South Africa as part of holidays so hard to put a price on those dive past the actual cost of the dive as i was already there. Whereas Florida/Abaco/Indo i only went for the diving.

If i costed my diving where i am now it would be maybe $20 per dive but it is covered by my work (free boat fuel and gas fills, insurance paid by company)

Averaged out over my life,i reckon the dives would be in high double digits if just including the paid dives+Courses+Insurance etc or course negative cost if you include the $50 per dive i was paid for several years as a full time instructor

The more you dive the cheaper it becomes as long as you dive enough to equal the average cost for that year per dive for servicing and insurance costs .

 

[TMHeimer]

I will answer based on my shore diving here locally, since I haven't done a charter since 2015.
Air-- $6.00
Car gas-- $12
Total of $18 CAD ($13 US).
Not counting equipment purchases ( rare for me).
Not counting yearly tank visuals, reg workups.