Is more better?

[rstofer]

As I recall, gear was as attainable then as it is now. I managed to kit myself at 17, so it couldn't have been all that bad. I believe we would arrive at the same point we are today with the same number of active divers we had in the 80's, so I don't see gear as an advantage of a greater number of divers.

You are tossing in the word 'active' and that is vastly different than 'certified' divers. Nevertheless, look at the number of charter boats and resorts and reconsider your opinion. There are MANY more resorts and MANY more charter boats today than there was in the '80s and they must be servicing someone. When I consider charter boats, I think in terms of the Hughes boats Peter Hughes Diving - Live-Aboard Excellence to World Class Dive Destinations, among others, not the small time local operations. There may be fewer but larger local boats. In any event, market forces work to provide enough boats for the divers that can afford them.

Now, if you are talking about the number of divers at your local beach, I would suspect the number has increased greatly on a percentage basis but not a whole lot in actual numbers. But local beach diving isn't the world's market. Resort diving is. Why would anyone go to Cozumel if it wasn't for diving?

I'm still not convinced more is better.

Doesn't matter... You don't get a vote.

I think if you view diving as a pyramid, you could consider a larger base as supporting a larger top. That is to say, if one million divers results in a few thousand advanced divers (top 1/2%) wanting sophisticated gear, another million will result in even more demand. Once the demand is created, supply is sure to follow.

To get to a point where we can support DiveRite, OxyCheq, Deep Sea Supply, (and all the other niche suppliers I have omitted), we needed a large enough base to create enough high end divers to create the demand for high end goods. Otherwise, we would all be building our own BP/Ws using whatever we could find in the garage. Or we would be diving the way Mike Nelson did it - no BCDs, relatively non-compressible wetsuits and surface floats.

BTW, his tanks were made of balsa wood. That's why he could toss triple 38s over his head. Do you know what that does to the ego of a new diver who struggles to toss a single Al 80?

Richard

 

[scubafanatic]

...somehow, we need to invent a system to encourage new divers to enter the sport, load up on new gear...to keep the dive gear manufaturers profitable/interested, so they remain in business for the rest of 'us'.....and get these new divers interested in actually diving...but only in the local lakes/quarries......but stay as much as possible out of 'our' hair (as in don't go traveling and clogging up 'our' precious/private exotic/beautiful/remote/unspoiled dive spots.)

 

[scubafanatic]

BTW, his tanks were made of balsa wood. That's why he could toss triple 38s over his head. Do you know what that does to the ego of a new diver who struggles to toss a single Al 80?
Richard

...I didn't know that, Richard...interesting 'factoid' ! I've never understood the need to actually do that...unless I were trying to impress a girl I guess ???

 

[HowardE]

...soo, are you saying that American divers actually represent...... 50 % ( HALF ! ) of all the world's divers ??? I'd not have expected 'us' to be that dominant...interesting !

I'm just citing what someone (whom I know has some insight, and interest in knowing this) told me.

 

[rstofer]

More now than ever, I believe the priority has shifted from producing independent, capable divers to producing as many as is possible.

It is the stated goal of every agency to turn out divers that are capable of diving in the environment for which they were trained with a buddy of similar training. The wording may be different but that's the goal.

Somewhere along the line, instructors may fail to live up to the goal. I'm not saying that they do because I don't have one shred of proof that divers are inadequately trained. Sure, they're not pretty to watch, and, yes, their buoyancy control sucks. But so what? No entry level participant in any hobby or sport does it very well. It takes time. And a whole lot more than 4 training dives.

And some participants don't want to progress to high levels of proficiency. They just want to swim around with the fishes.

I used to bowl a little. I was never very good (150-180) and I never wanted to be very good. I certainly didn't want to spend the time and effort it would take to be on TV bowling in the very high 200's. Bowling wasn't very important. And there was no certainty that, regardless of how hard I worked, I would ever be very good.

I still dive a little. I have never been very good at it and I will never dive as well as those fellows on U-Tube doing the nifty S drills and such. Frog kicks are right out the window! You know what? I don't care. GUE and DIR are not in my future. I had a couple of classes a long time ago and I pretty much remember everything I was taught. But I'm not in that 1/2% bracket and that's ok too. Maybe my grandson will have enough interest to reach those levels of accomplishment. Maybe he won't. And that's ok too.

But I certainly don't put my failings back on the agency, instructor or shop. My mistakes are strictly self-induced.

Richard

 

[rstofer]

...I didn't know that, Richard...interesting 'factoid' ! I've never understood the need to actually do that...unless I were trying to impress a girl I guess ???

Well, duh...

Richard

 

[scubafanatic]

Well, duh...

Richard

.....well, while I'm sure there is a PADI 'specialty' for Tank Tossin'....maybe I'll skip that one as Mike Nelson was always gettin' in way too much trouble an' imitatin' him too closely probably isn't such a good idea.......

 

[Web Monkey]

Of course. We all do. the industry has a certain total budget. The FACT that we have high quality, extremely well engineerd and reliable gear is a direct result of the R&D budgets manufacturers can afford. If, for example, Aqualung, had 100k per year to put into engineering then we would have the same regulators now that people were using in 1972. We *all* benefit from a healthy dive industry.

My favorite regulator is my SCUBAPro Mk1, which was manufactured around 1964. If regulator technology had never improved, I'd still be happy with it.

Although I like my Atomics because they have a higher flow rate and are sealed, my Mk1 would have been perfectly good for most of my diving.

Aside from computers, which are very cool but not really necessary, I'm having a very hard time coming up with any sort of significant actual improvement (not just change) that was produced by SCUBA company R&D.

Terry

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

.....well, while I'm sure there is a PADI 'specialty' for Tank Tossin'....maybe I'll skip that one as Mike Nelson was always gettin' in way too much trouble an' imitatin' him too closely probably isn't such a good idea.......

Actually, other than setting the assembled tank and gear on a bench, wall or tail-gate and sitting down into a similar position as on a dive boat or dock, dry self donning of a rig is not part of the PADI skill set. AIRI, demonstrating any standing, lift it your self don it yourself solo gear up is forbidden by PADI. The lawyers and insurance companies are not interested in the back injuries (both instructors and certified divers) that were common in the bad old days, and buddy diving means there is always a buddy to help you.