How to Engage Younger People in Diving?

[KathyV]

I am an older diver but I enjoy diving with people of all age groups and I am concerned for the longevity of our sport because I see fewer young people becoming divers. Of course, there are some obvious reasons why we don't encounter as many young divers nowadays, including:

- We are Baby Boomers, a huge generation, and smaller generations followed after us.

- There are not as many Dive Shops around, but that is not surprising because many different types of retail businesses are closing due to the popularity of online sales.

- Diving is an expensive sport, and dive equipment and dive trips to exotic locations can be very expensive, so younger people may feel that diving is too pricey, but that is not new.

- Young parents are focused on planning family vacations and find it difficult to go diving when they have children, but that has always been true.

- We had scuba heroes on popular TV shows to inspire us when we were growing up, like Mike Nelson on Sea Hunt and Jacques Cousteau's Calypso expeditions; that is not as common these days and maybe all the "Shark Week" hype has scared people away!

- Diving can be tough, there's a lot of schlepping heavy gear around and you don't exactly look "hip or sexy" when you are geared up, waddling round, and ready to splash - but that hasn't changed.

- Becoming a certified diver takes work - although I think that it is easier and more convenient now as compared to the YMCA classes we took when we were studying to become certified and learning to dive by the Tables.

- There is evidence that wellness is decreasing in younger generations and that obesity is increasing, so active sports may not be as attractive younger people.

- Perhaps sports go "in and out of fashion" and there is just less interest in diving these days? Does anyone know if younger individuals are also showing less interest in other similar activities, like snow skiing?

The reason I am thinking about this right now is due to the news posted by @Doc that the annual Our World Underwater Scuba Show in Chicago has been cancelled for 2020. That show has been a yearly event for us for decades. We've always enjoyed it and looked forward to it, but it has been getting smaller over the years and now it is gone.

Also, I talked with a dive resort administrator in 2019 who told me that some of their customers are aging and getting out of diving and fewer young divers are taking their place. They are trying to think of ways to attract younger folks to take up diving and engage in dive travel.

And there have been posts here on SB by younger divers like @virtualRuben that are finding it difficult to connect and socialize with divers of their own age.

You might argue that fewer new divers will put less stress on the reefs and that may be a good thing, but diving also educates people about the marine life and the need for protection and conservation - and that's also a good thing.

I've been trying to think of ways that the scuba industry can engage younger generations in scuba and I have a few ideas, but I don't know what is practical or likely to be successful. So what are your ideas for bringing younger divers into the sport?

 

[icechip]

I teach at a high school and find that a lot of young adults are indeed interested in activities such as scuba, many just need the nudge or opportunity to learn about it/check it out, even here in northern New England. Our local dive group just arranged a Discovery Dive offering at the high school pool with a dive shop and had a good number of interested young people and newbies show up. We posted notices at the school, online and at the local YMCA. Takes some effort and footwork, but recruiting can work!

 

[Marie13]

I’m of the opinion, and others have shared it here in other threads, that the internet is one factor in the decline of the dive shows. You don’t need to go to them to see the latest gear or find out about new travel destination, book a trip, etc. Friends who are into other outdoor sports tell me their shows have gotten smaller, as well.

We all know I don’t dive tropical and what I’ll relate is what I’ve experienced locally here on the Great Lakes.

I’m 50 and I have a fair number of dive buddies who are under 35. You need to find the hook to get them interested. One gal is from southern California and learned to dive there. I actually met her last year at the Underwater Archaeology Society of Chicago booth at OWU. Getting her into the lake was no issue. She’s used to colder water and really interested in the history.

Many guys are into mechanical stuff. Once they realize they can see old boilers, engines, etc., on the old wrecks here, they love it.

I’m rather passionate about our wrecks and that’s infected a number of folks and they now come back after trying the lake a couple of times. My talking points include that there’s no reason to go months between diving trips. Dive locally and you can go a lot more often. No airplanes involved! Do a morning charter and the afternoon is free for whatever else you want to do.

But me talking about the history (and I know good bits of it very well) and showing my pics in person and on FB has really helped.

 

[BrackaFish]

I am an older diver but I enjoy diving with people of all age groups and I am concerned for the longevity of our sport because I see fewer young people becoming divers. Of course, there are some obvious reasons why we don't encounter as many young divers nowadays, including:

- We are Baby Boomers, a huge generation, and smaller generations followed after us.

- There are not as many Dive Shops around, but many different types of retail business are closing due to the popularity of online sales.

- Diving is an expensive sport, and dive equipment and dive trips to exotic locations can be very expensive, so younger people may feel that diving is too pricey.

- Young parents are focused on planning family vacations and find it difficult to go diving when they have children, but that has always been true.

- We had scuba heroes on popular TV shows to inspire us when we were growing up, like Mike Nelson on Sea Hunt and Jacques Cousteau's Calypso expeditions; that is not as common these days and maybe all the "Shark Week" hype has scared people away!

- Diving can be tough, there's a lot of schlepping gear around and you don't exactly look "hip or sexy" when you are geared up, waddling round, and ready to splash.

- Becoming a certified diver takes work - although I think that it is easier now as compared to the YMCA classes we took when we were studying to become certified.

- There is evidence that wellness is decreasing in younger generations and that obesity is increasing, so active sports may not be as attractive younger people.

- Perhaps sports go in and out of fashion and there is just less interest in diving these days? Does anyone know if younger individuals are also showing less interest in other similar activities, like snow skiing?

The reason I am thinking about this right now is due to the news posted by @Doc that the annual Our World Underwater Scuba Show in Chicago has been cancelled for 2020. That show has been an yearly event for us for decades. We've always enjoyed it and looked forward to it, but it has been getting smaller over the years and now it is gone.

Also, I talked with a dive resort administrator in 2019 who told me that his company is very worried because many of their customers are aging and getting out of diving and fewer young divers are taking their place. They are trying to think of ways to attract younger folks to take up diving and engaging in dive travel.

And there have been posts here on SB by younger divers like @virtualRuben that are finding it difficult to connect and socialize with divers of their own age.

You might argue that fewer new divers will put less stress on the reefs and that may be a good thing, but diving also educates people about the marine life and the need for protection - and that's also a good thing.

I've been trying to think of ways that the scuba industry can engage younger generations in scuba and I have a few ideas, but I am a customer and not a vendor so I don't know what is practical or likely to be successful. So what are your ideas for bringing younger divers into the sport?

Interesting question. Living near Daytona Beach where we have two large motorcycle events every year, we have seen the effects of an aging population as Harley riders age out. I would think that raising awareness of global issues such as pollution, climate change and other ocean related issues might be one way of getting younger generations interested. The industry needs to work on being more inclusive IMHO. From my limited view of teaching open water students, it seems like most of them are involved because of family or friends. Social media could also seem to play a bigger roll again this would have to be industry driven. Just my two cents and I am interested in what others think.
Happy New Year and safe diving

 

[Marie13]

The Chicago Scuba Meetup, of which I’m a member, usually does local charters that are deep and for experienced folks. I suggested a charter on shallow wrecks for the Great Lakes newbies. They filled every seat (16!) on the boat and folks had a great time.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Most of the explanation have already been given, and I see this very well with my two sons, now aged 24 and 29:
They were introduced to diving very young (around 2 years), doing diving holidays with me and my wife until going at high school. As soon as they started the University, they did loose most of the interest, as many other things were appealing them: computers, internet, social media, etc.
They also dropped most of the other outdoor sports we practised with them since their first years: offroad motorcycles, alpine ski, mountain climbing.
And this appears to be common: when I see a group of enduro bikers removing their helmets, all of them, like me, have white hair!
There is some young guy or girl, but the number is diminishing year after year. The same for skiing, or mountain climbing.
Most parents also consider "safer" to leave their sons in front a computer or a smartphone than practising "dangerous" outdoor activities, and this completes the scenario, and explains why our sport (as many other ones) is going almost to dying.
So the question is: can we do something for at least attenuating this tendency? Yes, of course. As said, I and my wife attempted to stimulate our sons to practice all these sports, which were our passions when young, but the results were poor. As they grow up, they want to do something different than their parents, and this is normal. When we were young, doing these "extreme" sports was a way of exiting form parental control, and proofing our-self that we were brave and independent. A motorbike was the way of travelling independently on the parent's car, going diving was the excuse for spending the weekend at the sea with our friends, the same for skiing or climbing mountains. All these activities were appealing to us, because potentially dangerous, requiring training and competence, technically challenging.
They were also socially successful, creating good stories to tell your friends after returning safe at home.
I can see all of this simply not existent for my sons and their friends, despite for them most of the barriers we had to break are instead easily overcome: travelling is now much cheaper, renting or buying equipment too, and you can get certified in 2-3 days instead of 9 months.
In a certain sense, the attraction was coming also from the obstacles to overcome: when something is too easy, it looses attraction.
In these seventies, being a scuba diver was something exceptional, reserved to special people with particular talents and physical capabilities. Then PADI started spreading the word that everyone can dive, that no special effort, knowledge, or intimidating training is required, and that scuba diving is for everyone.
Masses of people were hooked, bringing a lot of money to cert agencies and tour operators.
But in the long term what was an activity reserved to brave explorers of a new world became a normal mass sport. Scuba diving is not anymore something making you special within the group of friends, hence youngsters search something else for improving their social success and for emancipating from their parents.
So my conclusion is simple: if we want that scuba diving becomes attractive again for youngsters, we must make our sport to appear, again, to be dangerous, to require special attitudes and capabilities, and to provide some behavioural models to follow: as already remarked, we had some of our favourite heroes (Cousteau, Maiorca, Mayol, Pellizzari, etc.), while now for most youngsters the models to imitate are singers, actors, or football players.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

I agree. Start them young. My son was 13 when he learned to dive. Started night diving with me at 14 years of age. Loves lobster diving and is now over 40 years old.

 

[divad]

How to Engage Younger People in Diving?



Tell them its cheap.

 

[Bob DBF]

Tell them its cheap.

That’s it, build the relationship on honesty and trust, the way dive shops do it now.



Bob

 

[Angelo Farina]

I agree. Start them young. My son was 13 when he learned to dive. Started night diving with me at 14 years of age. Loves lobster diving and is now over 40 years old.

Perhaps I did start my ones TOO young, they had their first 3-liters air cylinder at around 2 years...
They were crazy about scuba diving until 14-15 years old. At that age, both of them were already well beyond 100 dives each, with also some small caverns, and reaching regularly 30 m depth.
But as soon as they started going on holidays without their parents, they gave up almost entirely.
If they do not find some buddies, this activity is not appealing for them...
And all their friends are people who do not drive motorcycles, nor climb mountains, nor go skiing or water-skiing, no windsurf, no kayak, nothing!