Post-pandemic comeback? Not yet! The dive industry is still crashing.

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

You can load the family into a boat, diving not so much.

Right. And what do you do after a while? Sitting on the bow and working on catching skin cancer gets old pretty quickly.

BLU3 launched a small one-person battery-operated surface-supplied air system recently and their sales growth mainly came from putting their products in boating stores not dive stores. Typically, yacht owners want the latest toys aboard their boats to entertain family & guests (or simply to please their ego, whatever).

Either way, my point with boating was that people spend plenty of money on outdoor activities. Blaming "the cost of scuba" is an easy excuse. Meanwhile, people of all ages spend money in a growing outdoor industry.
 
So far, there is no “post-pandemic comeback” for the dive industry.
Possible contributor - the extended cruise industry shut down, well over a year. The cruise industry offers a fun, easy, budget-friendly, low risk family vacation introduction to leaving the U.S. and visiting warm, sunny tropical destinations some of which have good diving. I imagine some people who previously had little familiarity with passports get them to go cruising, and leave the U.S. for the first time on a cruise.
That fun money is now going into the gas tank and the grocery store.
Oh, yeah. Used to, our electric bill tended to run around 2 to 3 hundred and something per month. This summer, I had two over $500. Propane tends to run 3 to 5 hundred; out last propane bill (for heating the house) was over $800. I about passed a brick when I saw it. Trips to Walmart Super Center for groceries and miscellaneous goods used to be $200+, occasionally $300+. These days, add about $100 to that. Our home owner's insurance for the coming year jumped from about $1,400 to well over $1,700. I recently got notice a trip booked for me now has a $150 fuel surcharge, time to pay up!

It's not just the price of gas (which is bad enough). It's death by a thousand cuts, per the old adage, and it adds up.
We tried scuba in Dec 2019 in the Caribbean and were quite excited to get certified and then the world shut down. Living in a landlocked city our plan was always to do our certification dives on vacation.
This sort of thing is why I think the cruise industry is important to the dive industry.
I did a thread here in 2020. There were some people who would absolutely refuse to dive locally if they couldn’t get overseas.
Most rivers, lakes and ponds have very poor viz. I can lean over the side of a bass boat on a river, thrust my hand into the water and often can't see it.

I think most people considering diving picture the coral reefs like an underwater flower garden with beautiful tropical fish, neat crabs and anemones, a few 'scary' things like moray eels, barracuda and the occasional small shark.

Most freshwater habitats are poorly divable (unless you're in Florida near a spring). Species diversity tends to be less (though Florida can get interesting...alligators will do that). Quarry diving has its moments, but if that was the end all, be all of diving, I don't think the sport would prosper. Some history buffs love wreck diving, which is fine, but many people view a wreck's value in its role as an artificial reef...otherwise, wreck diving looks suspiciously like walking around a junkyard.

We hear about the student loan crisis (note: the averages I've heard sound like somebody bought a new car-level, not a house), the extended post-high school education to get ready for the job market, the lack of private sector pensions and the woeful deficiency in family savings for retirement in the U.S., many people priced out of the housing market, inflation, sending kids to private schools to reduce them from public schools (or paying more for a home in a good school district), etc...

So, proposing to pony up $3,500-$4,000 for a solo week-long dive trip to a Caribbean destination becomes a hard sell.

Some people come back with various forms of racing, skiing, hunting, boat fishing, etc... Yes, also expensive. Some are more social. A deer hunter can likely join a deer club and hunt in his region. A diver is going alone (so he'll be on his trip with strangers), taking a family member (he has to pay for) or some such. If you travel with a local club, that may satisfy the social aspect some seek.

Perhaps we should flip the question around. Instead of lamenting why aren't people flocking to our hobby, perhaps we should ask 'Why should they?'

Let's take a 30 year old college graduate middle class guy named Bob, engaged, no kid yet but likely in the next 5 years, living in an inland state, has a mortgage, and considering picking up an exciting hobby to get involved in. Why should Bob pick scuba diving over his other options?

If we divers don't have a compelling answer to that question, why would we think Bob will come up with one?
 
Right. And what do you do after a while? Sitting on the bow and working on catching skin cancer gets old pretty quickly.

BLU3 launched a small one-person battery-operated surface-supplied air system recently and their sales growth mainly came from putting their products in boating stores not dive stores. Typically, yacht owners want the latest toys aboard their boats to entertain family & guests (or simply to please their ego, whatever).

Either way, my point with boating was that people spend plenty of money on outdoor activities. Blaming "the cost of scuba" is an easy excuse. Meanwhile, people of all ages spend money in a growing outdoor industry.
Yacht owners and boat owners are not the same thing, people spend money based on their own needs and wants and entertainment per $ or at least how they perceive it. Watching the anger and venom spewed at a busy boat ramp indicates these are not people having fun but not to worry there is a cooler full of beer to make it “better” I for one hope those people keep on with boating because I don’t want to dive anywhere near them.
 
The standard scuba industry “high volume low quality” business model (instructors, shops, mainstream agencies and manufacturers all alike) has been failing for ages. However, I do believe the low volume high quality operators and manufacturers are thriving. Those passionate enough and willing and able to put in the resources to have a higher level experience will never fade away.

However, being able to cater to that crowd takes a huge investment, both in time and money. It doesn’t happen over night and requires a lot of sacrifice. Many of the shops and instructors I’ve seen struggle have usually not invested resources in seeking higher quality training or continued education for themselves. They look for the next cheap and easy thing that their sales and agency reps say they will be able to profit off quickly (like cheap rebreathers with fast tracked instructor training), and then wonder why that is the same type of customer they get.

It’s scary to tell a student “no you’re not ready yet”, raising training fees and making courses longer to improve quality, knowing they may well walk out and choose a cheaper easier option. But that’s what it takes to secure high quality customers and turn profit with lower overhead.

I don’t think the industry shrinking is really a bad thing as long as it’s the passionate customers, retailers, instructors, agencies and manufacturers that remain.
 
Possible contributor - the extended cruise industry shut down, well over a year. The cruise industry offers a fun, easy, budget-friendly, low risk family vacation introduction to leaving the U.S. and visiting warm, sunny tropical destinations some of which have good diving. I imagine some people who previously had little familiarity with passports get them to go cruising, and leave the U.S. for the first time on a cruise.

Oh, yeah. Used to, our electric bill tended to run around 2 to 3 hundred and something per month. This summer, I had two over $500. Propane tends to run 3 to 5 hundred; out last propane bill (for heating the house) was over $800. I about passed a brick when I saw it. Trips to Walmart Super Center for groceries and miscellaneous goods used to be $200+, occasionally $300+. These days, add about $100 to that. Our home owner's insurance for the coming year jumped from about $1,400 to well over $1,700. I recently got notice a trip booked for me now has a $150 fuel surcharge, time to pay up!

It's not just the price of gas (which is bad enough). It's death by a thousand cuts, per the old adage, and it adds up.

This sort of thing is why I think the cruise industry is important to the dive industry.

Most rivers, lakes and ponds have very poor viz. I can lean over the side of a bass boat on a river, thrust my hand into the water and often can't see it.

I think most people considering diving picture the coral reefs like an underwater flower garden with beautiful tropical fish, neat crabs and anemones, a few 'scary' things like moray eels, barracuda and the occasional small shark.

Most freshwater habitats are poorly divable (unless you're in Florida near a spring). Species diversity tends to be less (though Florida can get interesting...alligators will do that). Quarry diving has its moments, but if that was the end all, be all of diving, I don't think the sport would prosper. Some history buffs love wreck diving, which is fine, but many people view a wreck's value in its role as an artificial reef...otherwise, wreck diving looks suspiciously like walking around a junkyard.

We hear about the student loan crisis (note: the averages I've heard sound like somebody bought a new car-level, not a house), the extended post-high school education to get ready for the job market, the lack of private sector pensions and the woeful deficiency in family savings for retirement in the U.S., many people priced out of the housing market, inflation, sending kids to private schools to reduce them from public schools (or paying more for a home in a good school district), etc...

So, proposing to pony up $3,500-$4,000 for a solo week-long dive trip to a Caribbean destination becomes a hard sell.

Some people come back with various forms of racing, skiing, hunting, boat fishing, etc... Yes, also expensive. Some are more social. A deer hunter can likely join a deer club and hunt in his region. A diver is going alone (so he'll be on his trip with strangers), taking a family member (he has to pay for) or some such. If you travel with a local club, that may satisfy the social aspect some seek.

Perhaps we should flip the question around. Instead of lamenting why aren't people flocking to our hobby, perhaps we should ask 'Why should they?'

Let's take a 30 year old college graduate middle class guy named Bob, engaged, no kid yet but likely in the next 5 years, living in an inland state, has a mortgage, and considering picking up an exciting hobby to get involved in. Why should Bob pick scuba diving over his other options?

If we divers don't have a compelling answer to that question, why would we think Bob will come up with one?

If large scale cruising dies, that is only a net benefit for humanity. If the end of mass polluting, reef destroying, floating petri dishes happens sooner rather than later that should be celebrated not bemoaned. The ramifications on the scuba industry be damned.

 
If large scale cruising dies, that is only a net benefit for humanity. If the end of mass polluting, reef destroying, floating petri dishes happens sooner rather than later that should be celebrated not bemoaned. The ramifications on the scuba industry be damned.

It would be wonderful if we could turn those cruise ships into artificial reefs!
 
If large scale cruising dies, that is only a net benefit for humanity.
Wonder what the environmental and 'carbon footprint' impact of the average cruiser is compared to that of the average traveling diver? Might be a case of 'pot, meet kettle.'

A common criticism against Americans is the idea that on the individual citizen level we allegedly don't pay much attention to what goes on outside our borders and don't travel enough (though the U.S. is larger than western Europe, so we can do a lot of traveling without leaving our borders, in fairness).

Cruising has harmful impacts, yes. It also introduced people to foreign travel, encourages more people to get passports, helps some people get a start in diving and better appreciating our natural resources, etc...

It's not all bad.
 
Wonder what the environmental and 'carbon footprint' impact of the average cruiser is compared to that of the average traveling diver? Might be a case of 'pot, meet kettle.'

A common criticism against Americans is the idea that on the individual citizen level we allegedly don't pay much attention to what goes on outside our borders and don't travel enough (though the U.S. is larger than western Europe, so we can do a lot of traveling without leaving our borders, in fairness).

Cruising has harmful impacts, yes. It also introduced people to foreign travel, encourages more people to get passports, helps some people get a start in diving and better appreciating our natural resources, etc...

It's not all bad.

Per traveler cruising is reportedly about 4x worse than air travel just on the pure emissions, how the person stays once at their destination (and associated activities while there) will then determine the rest. Hopefully most land based resorts aren't dumping sewage and trash into the ocean, or dragging anchors across the reefs.

It's still a terrible industry that needs to go away, preferably as quickly as possible. And yes if removal of the cruise industry stops some from traveling while unfortunate, would be well worth it.
 
Wonder what the environmental and 'carbon footprint' impact of the average cruiser is compared to that of the average traveling diver? Might be a case of 'pot, meet kettle.'

A common criticism against Americans is the idea that on the individual citizen level we allegedly don't pay much attention to what goes on outside our borders and don't travel enough (though the U.S. is larger than western Europe, so we can do a lot of traveling without leaving our borders, in fairness).

Cruising has harmful impacts, yes. It also introduced people to foreign travel, encourages more people to get passports, helps some people get a start in diving and better appreciating our natural resources, etc...

It's not all bad.
Where does one catch a cruise ship in Ky?
 

Back
Top Bottom