The changing Scuba Industry

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As a millennial myself, I think a lot of why people my age buy less and continue the hobby comes down to money. It sucks, but the fact is that, between student loans and car payment, most of my peers have a higher bills with just those than my parents had to pay in a mortgage. So it comes down to how to spend a finite amount of disposable income. Just looking for a couple minutes, I found an all inclusive week in Cozumel with some diving and airfare for half the cost of a good drysuit. That vacation doesn't have maintenance costs or storage responsibilities.

It also seems like hobbies in general have gone way downhill. I am a hobbyist, I take pride in having interests and doing things that are fun and challenging. Most of my friends are just as happy spending the couple hours they get after work on facebook and netflix.
 
EX
As a millenial myself, and a rather new diver, I can't really talk about the changes in the scuba industry. But here is what I can say about how I (and my friends) came to scuba diving, and how I am approaching it.

As has been mentionned a lot here previously, we (when I say we, I mean mostly me, but what I also see amongst my friends and other people of my generation) value experience above things. I don't really know why we differ on this subject to previous generations, but I believe one of the reason is that because we grew up in a consumer society, things are moslty disposable item. Something is to be bought, enjoyed for a while, thrown, and up to the next. Therefore, the are just tools, and not important. More important than the object in itself is what they offer us as a "user experience".

Also, we are a generation that moves a lot. We grow up in one place (or several - I'm an expat kid myself, so maybe not really representative), study somewhere else, than work in again another place. And when you move a lot, you don't want to own too much stuff. As mentionned previously, it's cumbersome. Ergo, again, the fact that we value experience. It's something that enriches everyone, yet doesn't take any space. So a lot of us would prefer to just rent gear rather than invest in some that would take space, is expensive, and will change soon (I know that good dive gear last long, but we are so used to planned obsolescence and cheap stuff that breaks soon and changes in fashions that it's hard to integrate that in our habits. It might last for a long time, but will we use it for a long time?).

Then, we are a digital generation. Everything we "own" fits in a cellphone or is in the cloud. Also, internet allows us to see everything. We see what is happening on the other side of the world, everything. So we want to see everything in person too. But there is just so many things to do and try! So much we are missing! So we just zap from one thing to another, to enjoy as much as we can. That's why I actually pretty like the fact that most certification agencies cut lessons and classes and certifications in small bits. I can do it one bit at a time, at my rythm, when it's convenient. Although I'll admit to having discovered recently the joy of taking things slowly, and I'm still trying to adjust for that.

Next, I think we are a generation that value lifestyle and convenience. We grew up in a world where everything is just one click away. Everything is processed and pre-packaged and offered to us in a immediately usable way. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way yet to have the ocean delivered to my door (in 24h of course, which is usually the norm in China for online deliveries), so our way to the ocean has to be convenient and easy. I think it's Wookie who mentionned previously a dive shop that offers trips, everything prepared, no hassles. That's what I am looking for if I am paying someone to do things for me. If it's only booking a hotel, flights, etc., I can do it myself, thank you. If I pay for a travel agent (or LDS) to organize a trip for me, than I don't want to have to think about it in addition. Also, a lot of us grew up as the center of our parents world, i.e. of the whole world. So we want personalized attention ^^ (well, that might be because I spent half of my life in China ;-) ). I'd much rather have someone to help me organize a personal trip, or for a small group, tailored to our needs, than join a big group. Unless, as also mentionned previously, this group offers something extra to just the trip (atmosphere, unique experience - again - , etc.)

And I think a last important point is that a lot of my friends have unstable careers and situation (I put myself aside on this point. I consider myseld lucky, with a good and stable situation, but it's pretty exceptional amongst my friends), we probably won't have any retirement when we get there, salaries are low for youngers people, we change jobs often, so it's not easy to find the funds and the time to feed and expensive hobby. For example, a friend of mine is at his third job already this year. We were supposed to take him on a trip for a DSD, but then he had to cancel because he had just resigned from his second job and had to pass interviews/was out of cash instead. Basically, most of us have to make a choice and decide on which experiences we want to spend our cash and time, and we will chose the one that will give us the most value for our money/time. Scuba might be expensive, but I think if we are shown that we can get a great valued experience from it, than I think we are ready to go for it.

So how does all that relate to my scuba experience?

Well, I got OW certified a bit as a "bucket list" item. I was curious about it, it was something I wanted to experience. So a friend and I went for our OW (at least we would get a certification that would last us for a lifetime, contrary to just a DSD). But we went to Boracay, which is not the best known destination for scuba diving, but is a rather "complete" destination. Why? Well, in case we hated scuba diving, there would always be other things to do ^^, others experiences to enjoy (for example, we also went on our first helicopter tour during this trip). And then I absolutely fell in love with diving. So even if I started believing that I would only be a "resort/holiday" diver, in my case, it ended up being much more than that. So I think it's OK to start like this, you never know where it might take you ^^
Exactly. As I said before, that isn't how the industry is set up. There are many trying to get to that point, but a lot of shops sit around and bemoan the loss of the other type of diver. But they will be gone soon. I mean, a dive shop in Tulsa, OK (forgive me, I know dive shops in Tulsa, and I'm not singling them out except that Tulsa isn't exactly a diving vacation destination) doesn't have a reef system, doesn't have a place where you can reliably get 60 feet deep and 100 feet of visibility, so they need to get the instruction, gear sales, and group travel bits sorted. But that isn't what you want. You want to go to the place where you can rent gear, have an experience, and take a helicopter ride. Now, you want more than that and God bless you. And you want to take your friend for their experience and God bless you again. I don't expect you will fly to Tulsa for that experience. You might go to Key West. Or Pattaya Beach, or Cairns.

And my experience is very US destination centric. As Bob stated, he has a fine time teaching in the Northwest, and still caters to divers he created and nurtured 12 years ago. But he doesn't do it through a shop. Because the shops are not supporting the diving he wants to teach. They support the same thing the Tulsa shop does, which is run them through a fast course, sell them a set of gear, and take them to Cozumel for an open water class. Which makes them almost dinosaurs.
 
you just described a opportunity for the dive center that books travel, not a problem

No, I've described an opportunity for a general travel agent, a Sandals agent, or a cruise ship. For the lucky LDS, an opportunity? Maybe, if that customer inexplicably goes to an LDS for advice. Not seeing that.

I remember my first trip to CocoView with Cap10 Randy. Someone in the group was complaining about the meal. .

It wasn't Randy. I've seen him eat Armadillo. And re-order. You know he ain't right, bless his soul.
 
No, I've described an opportunity for a general travel agent, a Sandals agent, or a cruise ship. For the lucky LDS, an opportunity? Maybe, if that customer inexplicably goes to an LDS for advice. Not seeing that.



It wasn't Randy. I've seen him eat Armadillo. And re-order. You know he ain't right, bless his soul.
disagree
 
hmmm..interesting, just went to cnn.com and the ad before the story (video) was godivenow by dema,
 
I tried to become a service center specifically for the MR-22 Navy. NOAA has hundreds of these regs, all needing service. I have no intention to service them for the general public, no intention to buy parts (NOAA buys their own kits), and no intention to sell their regulators, but as a long time NOAA contractor, I intend to continue providing a service for NOAA.
Here are a couple of cautionary tales.

A friend of mine was a commercial artist in Washington D.C., and he did really well making educational materials for the Social Security Administration. The guy in charge of that really liked his work, and before long they were giving him all the work his business could handle. One famous day a plane went down in the Potomac River, and that guy went down with it. A new guy was put in charge, and he decided to take his business elsewhere. Suddenly my friend went from all the work (and income) he could handle to no work and no income.

When I was in the central administration of Jefferson County Schools in Colorado, we shared a large office building with NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Their job was research alternative energy sources. One November a Republican President was elected, and we suddenly had a huge amount of unused office space available to us as their staff was cut to a bare bones minimum.

The lesson: have you looked at how massive the cuts will be to the NOAA budget in the coming year? They may be close to going out of business.
 
The lesson: have you looked at how massive the cuts will be to the NOAA budget in the coming year? They may be close to going out of business.
And now you know the exact reason we did not invest in a new boat. I tell my friends at NOAA and NPS that they will have to man a phone bank and tell folks how nice the park was last time they were there because they will need second jobs anyway.
 
Here are a couple of cautionary tales.

A friend of mine was a commercial artist in Washington D.C., and he did really well making educational materials for the Social Security Administration. The guy in charge of that really liked his work, and before long they were giving him all the work his business could handle. One famous day a plane went down in the Potomac River, and that guy went down with it. A new guy was put in charge, and he decided to take his business elsewhere. Suddenly my friend went from all the work (and income) he could handle to no work and no income.

When I was in the central administration of Jefferson County Schools in Colorado, we shared a large office building with NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Their job was research alternative energy sources. One November a Republican President was elected, and we suddenly had a huge amount of unused office space available to us as their staff was cut to a bare bones minimum.

The lesson: have you looked at how massive the cuts will be to the NOAA budget in the coming year? They may be close to going out of business.

Having a single customer represent a large portion of your sales is never a good idea. When that customer is a government agency and you don't have or can't afford to buy the requisite number of representatives and senators to protect your interests it's a real gamble. This land is littered with the dried corpses of all sorts of companies that hooked themselves to a single government nipple.

Tobin
 
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It's interesting to see how things are going in the US. I live in Brazil and just started diving. I got a feeling that the diving hobby here is groing really fast. I live about 300 miles from the ocean and my city has at least 4 dive shops (that makes money mostly from courses and dive trips).

Another thing is, at least in Brazil, I've noticed that only instructors have the full equipment. Most people only have masks, fins and wetsuits. Maybe this happens because we have really high taxes for imports and the currency isn't helping in the past few years.

When I tell people that I want to buy the full equipment, most of them suggests that I rent. Thinking only about the money, renting really is the best option since I have to make a small trip if I want to dive and th best I can get is one dive weekend a month, but I think that owning my own gear and getting used to it has a lot of benefits.
 
I just finished binge reading this entire thread and can't get enough. Thanks Wookie for getting this show on the road! I don't have a lot to contribute, but one thing I have personally experienced and has mystified me (and maybe it has only been my experience-- so take it for what it's worth)-- has been the complete lack of enthusiasm from my previous LDS staff, ownership, instructors and divemasters to want to get out and do any kind of fun diving or create any ongoing sense of "community" around diving. I did my AOW, Rescue and Divemaster certs there over a number of years and could never get anyone out to dive with me. Super happy to crank out classes and get people certified, but no desire to get out and dive regularly. The whole reason I started down the solo diving road was because I couldn't find anyone that wanted to actually get out and just dive. I just found the whole business model a bit odd in terms of not proactively leveraging all of those newly certified divers into a "real" social network that would dive together and "buy" together. I have recently moved to another part of the country a thousand miles south and am already running into the same thing. I hope this is not a trend.
 

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