Average age of divers today???

[scubafanatic]

I have been an active diver since I was a child. However, it is true, most divers that have the time and money to travel tend to be older, 40 plus. Just a mater of economics, leisure time.

As to the more cerebral and less active part, I go full out at everything I do, always, I will relax when I am dead, hopefully if I don't fall off my bicycle anymore, that will be a long time from now. In any case, I do notice a trend, divers are getting older and I see fewer and fewer replacements for them. There are many reasons including the rapidly lowering life quality here in the USA and most of the western world. This is the first generation of kids that have been told from the beginning how great they are and low and behold, hardly a job for them to prove it any where to be found. Going on dive trips cost money, imagine that.

There is another reason, the increasing girth of people, young people included, precludes an active lifestyle, sitting on the couch and playing video games is real enough I suppose.

N

...a while back I read somewhere (undercurrent maybe?) that in the USA the ave. age is mid-upper 40's. I agree with you about the future of scuba for the 'declining' western world population, our ever-weakening financial/job picture (and our upcoming massive retirement/medical expenses) present strong head winds for the scuba industry to overcome, scuba is a luxury good that will fall by the wayside for more and more people as this country's financial reality kicks in.

 

[NYCNaiad]

I find this poll really interesting. I'm 38 and thought I had gotten into diving late since I just started a yr ago. But from the poll so far, I can see I'm right in the trend.

(btw, I think maybe the title is just missing a question mark: What is your age? I am looking for average age of divers today.)

 

[Potapko]

Well, seeing as I am 50 this year I have been alive 50 years so my average age is 25 so I selected that answer :cool2:

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Most of the younger people I see who are into water sports or the ocean tend to go more for the action type sports like surfing, wakeboarding, skim boarding, etc.
Then there's the smaller group within that group or maybe asside of that group that is into freediving and breathhold hunting, at least in my area. Where I live there are many divers into abalone diving (which legally has to be breath hold).
I see many younger people into this as opposed to scuba diving. I have conversations with them about this when I run into them at beaches and they say it's a matter of economics and also simplicity. With freediving they don't have to invest money into all the extra gear and air fills and then spend more money on training. It's also a matter of athletic skill that they enjoy from freediving.
Some say that they got certified as kids through their parents' actions so they could dive on vacations but as they grew up and moved out they still loved the ocean but had to leave scuba behind as a matter of economics but also because they don't enjoy all the encumbering gear.
Some of them see scuba diving as an old fart sport, probably because all they see are people 40+ years old scuba diving and they feel out of place.

There is a small minority of the diving population that are young. I see a few occasionally at the dive sites. They are usually with divers their own age. I find out that many of them got certified through university programs such as the one at Sonoma State U (NAUI) as part of their ocean studies. Remember I'm talking about my region.

I try to explain to many young people I talk to that scuba doesn't have to be so expensive, that there are ways to do it very economically. I think the ones that take it upon themselves to look into scuba walk into a dive shop and see what the gear costs, maybe when they are getting stuff for freediving, and are blown away by what they see. When a reg costs $600 without an octo, a computer another $400- $500, a BC up to $700, they figure there no way they will ever be able to do it.
But what they don't realize is that there is so much really good used gear out there for pennies on the dollar. Craigslist and e-bay are a good start. The problem is they need someone to show them what to get. The instruction part as also a barrier, but with a little research they will discover that there are several independant dive instructors out there that do a splendid job and at a very reasonable price.

I try to do my part when I can. I put feelers out with the young crowd to take it's temperature and see what they are thinking. If I see an inkling of interest I try to convince them to pursue it further and give them some ideas and suggest dive clubs and websites (like SB)

For the ones that don't scuba dive I conclude that:
some are happy with just freediving,
some are scuba certified but don't like all the hassle or the gear,
some would really like to get certified but can't afford it,
and some will never dive in the ocean either free or scuba because they don't want to get eaten by a shark, but yet they surf

 

[petrieps]

I started when I was 24. Back then I had the time but not the money, but I was able to piece together a whole set. Most of it was used and from the 1980's. If there is a will there is a way. I averaged 80 dives a year in that sorry looking, but functional set of gear. It wasn't until I was 30 that I could afford to buy the new gear I always wanted. By then everything had changed though, I had the money but not the time any more. I'm 39 now, with a family and I average 30 to 40 dives a year.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I started when I was 24. Back then I had the time but not the money, but I was able to piece together a whole set. Most of it was used and from the 1980's. If there is a will there is a way. I averaged 80 dives a year in the sorry looking, but functional set of gear. It wasn't until I was 30 that I could afford to buy the new gear I always wanted. By then everything had changed though, I had the money but not the time any more. I'm 39 now, with a family and I average 30 to 40 dives a year.

Getting started in used gear as a newbie can be great because when people see you they think you are already pretty experienced to have gear that well used, coupled by the fact that most new divers don't say much simply because they don't know that much yet.

It's the ones that show up in all brand spanking new gear head to toe that tell everyone how much they know that worry me.

 

[Zaixon]

I'm 24 and started diving a year ago. I do all I can to dive when I can but I will say usually my girlfriend and I are the younger ones on the dive boat. That being said I dont really mind it, I have met a lot of really cool people, made new friends, and learned a lot from diving.

 

[gregdwulet]

I'm currently 17 and first got certified as a Jr. Open Water Diver at age 10 (from NASE). I'm so happy that my mom dives and that I had access to the sport at such a young age.

 

[beertiki]

I agree with ZKY, the younger kids are into free dive spearfishing. For much less than the cost of just the OW class, they can get all the gear they need. If they are able to hunt from shore the cost of a day of fun is some gas money and a parking space, and maybe they come home with dinner. Call up some friends (girls) and say we got some extra fish come over for beer and fish tacos....

As they get older, they will want to explore the deeper depths and wrecks with a longer bottom time than a breath will allow. Then they will look into getting certified.

 

[jimthediver]

I like this thread! I'm pushing 60 and I don't feel so old after reading through it.

I started diving when I was 20 while I was working on my engineering degree. I was at General Motors Institute an engineeing school owned by GM back when GM was the biggest, richest company in the world. I became a GM employee when I started at 18 so I was able to pay my way through and still manage to get certified and scrape together enough money to do some diving in the short summer Great Lakes wreck diving season. Back then premium gas was 35 cents a gallon! Money was still tight but I lived a rather austere lifestyle and you find a way to do what you really want to do. I finished with my degree, a good job. and no debt. Opportunities like that for young people today are pretty rare so its no wonder not as many are getting into the sport.

When I was 35 I got married to a gal I met on a dive trip to Australia. She worked for Republic Airlines before they merged with Northwest. She had this T-shirt that read "Marry me and fly free!", so I did. For a few years we were in diving heaven flying business class anywhere in the world for $75. After a couple of years she (oops! make that we) decided we should have a couple of kids to spoil with our lifestyle, so we did that. Boy does that cut into your diving dollars! Then we decided she should go on and quit her job so she could be a full time stay at home mom, bye bye business class.

My daughter went snorkling with me the first time when she was three over a shallow reef at Kunkungan Bay in Sulewasi. She nearly strangled me when she jumped on my back after a damsel fish "charged" her, but she was hooked. She was certified when she was 12 and has 30-40 dives in her log book. She has been dry docked for a few years now as all of her "diving dollars" are devoted to her college education. She has been working hard the past year because she and a college chum have hatched a scheme to go diving in the Caribbean as soon as they can scrape the money together.

Meanwhile I am semi-retired and the wife and I are back to diving a couple of times a year. On our last trip, Raja Ampat aboard the Damai, we were the youngest couple on the boat! We are headed to PNG in September and we know that is going to be an older group also. We have been blessed to be able to live the lifestyle we have and to have seen the places and things we have. Today's economic realities are going to make it difficult for our daughter and her generation and future generations to experience what we have. It will be interesting to see if the diving industry evolves, or slowly fades away.


Live to dive, dive to live!