How has the internet affected diving? Good/bad or both?

[Chavodel8en]

I mainly see a lot of good from the internet

1) I certified in 2003. I dive locally. I got some buddies via a dive club organized by my LDS and so forth. After awhile all my analog buddies drifted away. I went thru a few years where I barely dived, partly because of no buddies. Once I intentionally relied on the internet for finding buddies, I became much more active diving locally. The internet makes finding buddies so much easier.

I also appreciate all the local dive reports, altho right now Im really hating on all these reports showing apparently epic local conditions, as I haven't been able to dive since early April (and cant this weekend).

2) I have really learned a lot about diving from the internet, mainly here at SB. For example, I would never even have known that shooting a SMB is something that should be done. I wasn't trained for it, and nobody does it on my typical local shore dives. Thanks to SB, I was ready to use a SMB when I went drift diving in the Yucatan. Another example, I put a thread on here in Near Misses about a near OOA, and folks deduced that my old SPG was probably defective and needed replacing (and to better monitor my air to detect problems).

Theres some bad, Im sure, but you can always selectively ignore the bad.

 

[Diving Dubai]

One can not base the industry based on key or prime spots in the world. It may be years before we get a well known if any LDS in our area again.

Equally you can't base the health of the Dive industry around a local area SE Texas doesn't appear to be an International dive destination?

In years gone by people dived locally because that's all they could afford, now people are generally more affluent and want more bang for their buck. They get their "fix in warm high vis water rather than cold quarries or shorelines.

 

[txaggie08]

I would suggest that the jobs coming back is because of divers now having the money to spend on travel and diving from a bettering economy. One can not base the industry based on key or prime spots in the world. It may be years before we get a well known if any LDS in our area again. My nearest ones are 100 miles. Its hard to compete with 3/4 of your customers quiting all together and the remaining 1/4 shifting business to outlet LDS's. For places like Leisure Pro and others their size, they probably did not see much detrimental impact of the past ecomony. What customers they lost they made from the gain of closed LDS's customers.

I'm unsure of what part of SE Texas you're in, but there is a great LDS trying to become more and more active in Groves. SouthEast Texas scuba, Tommy Smith is the owner. They're running trips almost every weekend, I think this coming weekend is the run to cozumel.

There are also some of us trying to dive locally, although I'm not getting back in Smith Lake until the rain abaits a bit, there's a thermocline around 9ft that drops from mid sixties to upper fifties..... I'm a fat wuss, not happening.

 

[NAM001]

I'm unsure of what part of SE Texas you're in, but there is a great LDS trying to become more and more active in Groves. SouthEast Texas scuba, Tommy Smith is the owner. They're running trips almost every weekend, I think this coming weekend is the run to cozumel.

There are also some of us trying to dive locally, although I'm not getting back in Smith Lake until the rain abaits a bit, there's a thermocline around 9ft that drops from mid sixties to upper fifties..... I'm a fat wuss, not happening.

I was unaware another shop was starting up. We have all hoped one would. There is still a shop in VIDOR near the area of smith lake. Now we have 2 I guess. The economy killed divers den, gulf coast, and aqua scuba. I will guess that if they remain the lone shop for a while they will succede. Ill send PM

 

[NAM001]

Equally you can't base the health of the Dive industry around a local area SE Texas doesn't appear to be an International dive destination?

In years gone by people dived locally because that's all they could afford, now people are generally more affluent and want more bang for their buck. They get their "fix in warm high vis water rather than cold quarries or shorelines.

Agree totally

 

[txaggie08]

I was unaware another shop was starting up. We have all hoped one would. There is still a shop in VIDOR near the area of smith lake. Now we have 2 I guess. The economy killed divers den, gulf coast, and aqua scuba. I will guess that if they remain the lone shop for a while they will succede. Ill send PM

I remember divers den and and gulf coast from years ago. Shame scuba brothers closed as well.

The shop Is still there in Vidor, but i don't think I've been in it but a couple of times. This one is on main @ 39th

 

[Diving Dubai]

My favourite "Pre internet" Stories are thee (non diving)

In the early 90's - pre conference call and skype etc, Twice a month I would leave San Diego on a Sun morning to attend a meeting in the UK on Mon morning, having to leave that same day to be back with the customer for Tuesday morning. Did that for 12 months, and the BA crews pretty much knew me on sight.

At the same time, My company (BAe) and what ws then call McDonnell Douglas, both invested $30,000 on a silicon Graphics computer and rented a transatlantic ISDN line (128kps) so we could transmit sub 100kb JPEG and TIFF files to each other - we were cutting edge!!