I don't find it weird at all. Got certified in 78, dove for five or so years and then two things happened. First I had a career that took ALL my time. Second the rewards of cold water diving in a wet suit just were not enough to compensate for the sheer amount of work it takes to get 30 minutes bottom time. It was pretty easy to let it go - just dive warm on vacation. Then you're supposed to be relaxing and taking 4 hours out of a day to cruse on a sunny day on a boat out to a reef to get a dive or two seems worth it.
I am still working out whether it is worth it even diving dry. On Sunday was 6 hours in total travel and SI to get 75 min. of bottom time on a site that while interesting is not spectacular. And then once you get back another half an hour or so cleaning gear so you have pretty much killed an entire day for 70 minutes of fun.
At the moment I am thinking of it as practice so that I can do more liveaboards and more challenging dives a little further afield. There are some pretty spectacular dives just a little further away. I am thinking Barkley Sound, Race Rocks, Porlier Pass, Nanaimo, Northern Vancouver Island. (There may also be great dives around Vancouver, I just haven't seen them yet. - no flames please I just got back from the GBR, learned to dive in Victoria while owning my own boat to take me to dive sites - Vancouver just doesn't cut it when compared to that. It may be ok, but not in comparison.)
When I was working flat out I simply did not have the time to take an entire weekend to dive. Other parts of my life were more important.
I have talked to a lot of people who only dove for a short while. Always wanted to dive, thought it was a really interesting thing to do, but when they found out a, how much work it is, and b, how cold it is, they determine that the rewards are just not worth it to dive around here.
Now that I am trying to wind down my participation in a business I have more time to devote to relaxing and spending an entire day for a dive doesn't seem such a bad thing.
