Biggest thing killing dive shops?

[Eric Sedletzky]

Just to add:
My open water course including gear rental was $350 twenty years ago.
My friend just got certified a few weeks ago and his OW course was $400 with gear rental. That was with a groupon. There was no groupon when I certified.
And, his rental gear sucked!

So, relative to inflation, how does that math work?

 

[HantsDiver]

The free market approach is to keep cutting training time and instructor qualifications until some deep pocketed training agency loses a massive death lawsuit.

Oh Kevin... Really?

Do you really believe that? Have you really ignored what I've said?

A free market doesn't continue to discount training to anything entirely. Otherwise a new agency would pop up with 1 day or 1 hour super cheap training. Once people start dying then it will change. If people start failing it will change.

Which is why a degree takes a minimum of 2 years rather than 2 days in some parts of the world. 2 years is the minimum the market will accept. 3 days to dive to 18m is the minimum the market will accept at the moment.

But it works. It really does. Otherwise, the market will change it.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

My OW course was $140 in 1981 which is about $377 today. I had my own mask, snorkel, snorkeling fins, wrist depth gauge, wrist compass, weightbelt, and weights at the start of the class in Sept. My parents gave me horsecollar BCD, regulator, and AL50 for Christmas. By summer for OW dives, I had my own 1/4" thick wetsuit. boots, and AMF Mares Mark X fins (looked like Jets). Students were required to buy mask, fins, snorkels and rental gear was free.

 

[Marie13]

Although I agree that many here lack the motivation to learn new dive skills. They would like the card however....

And yet I've seen eager new(ish) divers with who are highly motiavated being told to not take it so seriously. Heck, I'm one of them.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too. (That's general use of you). Quit trying to take down the motivated newbies or those willing to work at it. People here complain about cruddy divers, yet I've seen ones who are serious about diving and extremely motivated being told to not waste their time on pool practice or quarry diving or whatever. Some folks take longer to get things than others and want extra practice.

Someone once privately told me to not waste my time swimming as I wasn't going to make it as a diver anyway. Hah!

 

[Aviyes]

Just to add:
My open water course including gear rental was $350 twenty years ago.
My friend just got certified a few weeks ago and his OW course was $400 with gear rental. That was with a groupon. There was no groupon when I certified.
And, his rental gear sucked!

So, relative to inflation, how does that math work?

But, how many hours/days was your OW course 30 years ago? That may be an easy way to show the difference.

 

[MichaelMc]

The terminal whingers will complain about why the system isn't working for THEM. If a system isnt successful they have will find a reason to criticise it. If it's failing they will criticise it. The only thing that isn't a problem is them. They are the gods, but the stupid simple customers just can't see it.

Diving will be fine. If you let the free market work out what works and ignore the people who talk a lot and do very little.

The free market is the actions of many who engage in the market or try to change the market, for financial or personal reasons. You seem to feel there is nothing to debate on how this market could be changed. So why are you in the thread about ways to fix it?

 

[HantsDiver]

You can't have your cake and eat it, too. (That's general use of you). Quit trying to take down the motivated newbies or those willing to work at it. People here complain about cruddy divers, yet I've seen ones who are serious about diving and extremely motivated being told to not waste their time on pool practice or quarry diving or whatever. Some folks take longer to get things than others and want extra practice.

Someone once privately told me to not waste my time swimming as I wasn't going to make it as a diver anyway. Hah!

Marie - I can be negative on here. I sometimes feel like I'm swimming against a current. But if you are doing that, I challenge you to keep going.

Most "tech" diver have a humungous chip on their shoulder. They feel they are some sort of special forces diver whilst in reality, they are more special needs. I'm a "tech" diver. It's not overly complicated and hard. My realization comes from not charging money from this "special rare information" rather than just going diving.

Honestly hanging around ar a depth for deco is not hard. It's a bit boring usually, but not hard. Those who say otherwise usually are financially interested in selling their courses. Working out for how long this is done on a modern computer (or two) and/or a dive programme.Technical diving is overrated and sold as rocket science by glorified conmen.

 

[MichaelMc]

Honestly hanging around ar a depth for deco is not hard. It's a bit boring usually, but not hard. Those who say otherwise usually are financially interested in selling their courses. Working out for how long this is done on a modern computer (or two) and/or a dive programme.Technical diving is overrated and sold as rocket science by glorified conmen.

The difficulty of technical diving is likely not at the core of any industry issues, given its small size. Issues of 90' and above diving and beginning divers are likely at the core.

 

[HantsDiver]

The free market is the actions of many who engage in the market or try to change the market, for financial or personal reasons. You seem to feel there is nothing to debate on how this market could be changed. So why are you in the thread about ways to fix it?

If we ignore those who feel the free market is fine and those who feel it isn't then we can never come to a consensus. Ultimately, the market decides.

My assertion is that the market doesn't need radically fixing. Hope that clarifies.

 

[HantsDiver]

The difficulty of technical diving is likely not at the core of any industry issues, given its small size. Issues of 90' and above diving and beginning divers are likely at the core.

Clarify exactly what you mean, please.

I'm just a rec instructor and an average tech diver.

I started diving in the early 00's. What is the problem? What skills am I lacking? And why can't the free market compensate for them if it's a problem?