Question How old are you and how long certified? Poll- please take part!

[Scott G. Bonser]

Norine Rouse died on Dec 27, 2005, a few years before I started diving in SE FL in 2009.

See the many, many comments made on her obituary https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/palmbeachpost/name/norine-rouse-obituary?pid=16138604

Thank You for the info, as I have lost track of many acquaintances over my lifetime.

 

[Scott G. Bonser]

To make this work we need to know how many people Vera ll were certified in each decade, how many stuck with it vs how many are getting certified in the past few years and will stick with it or come back to it in the future.

Tally my original certification date as April 21, 1977. YMCA & NASDS
giantfroginthepool
Scott G. Bonser

 

[Scott G. Bonser]

There’s also the fact that scuba diving in general is stupid expensive to get into. Look at the price of gear, a mid to upper end reg between $600-$1200, computers between $200-to over $1200, bc’s up to $1500! Then you have certification costs. Young people will spend that kind of money on a lot of other things before they will do scuba. Life is expensive enough just to survive. There are a lot of other things they need to spend money on before dumping thousands into a hobby for training and gear, and then have to spend thousands more just to fly somewhere to do it.
So this poll doesn’t surprise me at all.

I am so,glad that I ‘certified’ when I did. I missed the ‘Sea Hunt’ heyday, but wasn’t too far behind.
giantfroginthepool
Scott G. Bonser, Harrellsville, NC

 

[Cthippo]

44, certified a year, and not that many.

Need to get back out there this year!

 

[FishWatcher747]

I am sure that majority would be even stronger today, even though all across the country you will see dive shops that do not sell BP/Ws run by managers who have never seen one.

I was on a Cozumel dive boat with an inexperienced diver last month. I'm pretty sure he had never seen a BPW or a pony tank because he wanted to know how my rebreather worked (I was on single back tank OC with a slung pony)

 

[ACHiPo]

59 years old. Certified in 1980 and AOW/rescue in 1981 both by YMCA (now SEI). Somewhere between 50 and 100 dives (old logbook and dive gear at ex-wife’s house—choices—so not sure of the exact number).

 

[apedai]

The poll is growing but still is holding roughly the same shape. 60-69 group still rules!
Come on you youngsters, go get your friends certified and get them to take the poll so the younger groups get bigger!
I’ll keep this poll open indefinitely.

Young people dislike stay at bbs, they go tiktok I think. So you can see active users are mainly those uncles and grandpas

 

[Litefoot]

63 , certified 5 months ago. Got home from FL to find my wife sick. They discovered cancer. Been helping her as caregiver. This site has been a welcome respite as we dream of brighter sunnier days ahead on the beach somewhere.

 

[nicoh]

@Eric Sedletzky fwiw, this poll was repeated over on r/scuba:
After about 24 hours, that poll is trending with a nearly inverted age response from here, and ~4x more total voters. It does tell a story of two different sets of divers, with divergent age-related diver social media preferences. One thing I find interesting is that there's nearly 25x more poll responders for 29 & Under divers (542 vs 22 at the time I'm writing this) on reddit than sb.

This further backs up the suggestion that there are a lot of younger divers, they just aren't here on sb.

 

[Marie13]

@Eric Sedletzky fwiw, this poll was repeated over on r/scuba:
After about 24 hours, that poll is trending with a nearly inverted age response from here, and ~4x more total voters. It does tell a story of two different sets of divers, with divergent age-related diver social media preferences. One thing I find interesting is that there's nearly 25x more poll responders for 29 & Under divers (542 vs 22 at the time I'm writing this) on reddit than sb.

This further backs up the suggestion that there are a lot of younger divers, they just aren't here on sb.

I’ve had younger divers tell me they can’t figure out how to work SB. They can figure out FB, but they can’t figure out SB? Blows my mind.