STICKING with it !

[divedude]

Originally posted by noshow
Come on only 10%?!?!

I am extremely surprised at that low number and am curious as to the source. If that is true I wonder what drives them away? Diving is so cool that it would have to be a bad experience(s) or instructor / intial lessons.... what do you think?

I know it seems low but I'm sure it might be a little high.

Opportunity to dive is a large factor, where I was first trained it was 70 miles to the nearest dive site so in the class I was in I am the only one still diving. I also worked in the same store after my divemaster course and out of a few hundred people who passed O/W I only know of about 5 that are still hard core divers. In the last 10 years of being in the charter business I see the same faces for 3 or 4 years then they disappear.

I read the 10% in a dive mag. and tend to believe it

 

[tchil01]

I was talking with the guy that runs my LDS about this very question a little while back. Out of the 16 in my class a year ago, only 4, including myself and my dive buddy are still diving. Two people are back taking the class this year because they never finished their OW.

According to Harry, the owner, 10 years ago 90% of the people that were certified by them stayed local and dove off on NJ. Of that, a fairly high percentage were still diving 3 or 4 years later. Now, 90% of his classes get referrals and go somewhere warm for their OW. There are very few students who stay and dive localy. Even with the referrals, very few continue to dive or only dive on vacation maybe once a year. He even has a drawer full of C cards that people have never picked up.

I'm with Pug in that they are the soon-to-be used equipment sellers. Now how can we get them to buy the stuff we want, so we can buy it off of them cheaply in a year or so

Ty

 

[Liquid]

My initial course was with three friends. Out of the four of us 3 are instructors and one a comercial diver. But from what I see-about half the people will quit after the initial course, maibe do a few more dives years later. Sad , but that's the way I belive it is.

 

[dvleemin]

I think that figure is low. I suspect a much higher percentage does a couple of resort type dives in the tropics, and never own thier own equip - with the exception of mask/fins/snorkle. I know a lot of divers get certified right before they go to the carribbean, and never intend to dive locally.

Darryl

 

[otter-cat]

I bet the percentage depends a lot on where you live. If you live far from water, or far from warm water, a lot of the students in the class may give it up for lack of opportunity or lack of money. If you live where diving is warm and plentiful, many more that take the class will stay with it, especially among locals.

I bet that a lot of the students in my OW class were turned off by the cold water here, and won't be seen in the LDS anymore, but will still dive on vaction in warmer areas. I'm pretty sure that about 20% of my OW class went on to take AOW here, though. But I know that a lot more would have were it not for the cold water temps and the large expense of gear, (especially drysuits!)

I wonder what the retention statistics are for classes in, say, Florida compared to those for Oregon.

otter-cat

 

[Welshman]

Many people must get certificated when on holiday where the weather is good and the water warm. This is what I did last year when sitting getting bored on a beach in Krabi, Thailand. I didn't dive again until our most recent holiday, again in Thailand, but this time I made the plunge and bought my own regulator set. Now that I'm back in the UK I'm making a positive effort to keep going and have signed up for a Rescue Diver course, bought a cold water wetsuit and a BC. The outlay focusses the mind to make use of the equipment.

 

[wetman]

Out of our original class of about 10 last year, i know 2 are extremely active (me and my primary buddy) and i've heard 2 are quite active. I tried to get a few of the rest out but that was a challenge I gave up on. Fortunately, there are no shortage of divers i know that are willing to get out quite frequently. But i also know many that are challenged by the finances of it. I wonder if gear was cheaper just how much more would stick with it because they'd own their own. I'm a huge recruiter (my friends get quite sick of hearing me talk about it i'm sure). They always express how much they'd love to get into it but just cant afford to start up. This year i should have almost enough to equip 2 fully outfitted divers but it seems to be that initial 600 or so outlay between the course and starting gear that gets them.

My guess is it would only take an intro to scuba type night that would be able to pursuaid them to join the dark side but they don't seem to happen enough (or at all).

I would think buddy availability would have a lot to do with it too.

steve

 

[CuriousMe]

The poll question is how many stay with diving, but the discussion seems to be how many dive local in cold water?

Just seems to be a very different thing.

I intend to keep diving, but I'm not sure how into diving in cold quarries I would be.

My .02

 

[jbd]

Curious Me,

I think the main point about sticking with it has to do with peoples willingness to dive locally where ever locally happens to be. For those of us that are inland it means cold water low viz diving. I learned to dive in 1994. I have not yet been to any ocean for diving. If it wasn't for local diving I wouldn't be diving anymore. Just by itself the tropical ocean wouldn't provide enough motivation for me to dive if I could only go once every year or two.

 

[BigDiver]

Out of my original class of 12 I am the only one left. In my opinion most do not dive because the did not have the chance to do so afterward. Whether they did not have the money or other divers to push them. The main reason for me staying with it is that I have the strange attraction to the cold, deep and dark quarries around here. It also helps that I live so close to the Great lakes. Don't get me wrong I love the ocean. Not to mention I nagged and pleaded with my dad and brother to do it, and what do you know? They love it.