What is the fundamental reason that prevents scuba diving from becoming popular?

[Chavodel8en]

re: landlocked, I will say that I didnt live 2 hours away from good diving, I doubt I would have certified when I did (early 30s)- when I was younger and really struggling to pay the bills. If I was nowhere near the ocean, and had no set plans to dive on vacation, I just wouldnt have even begun to think about it. What would be the point, if I didnt have any diving opportunities in view. Maybe that is a lack of vision.

Maybe I would have certified once I got older, more settled, and had more $$ to devote to diving on vacation. Or maybe I just never would have, and just settled for snorkeling on vacation, which was my entre to scuba.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Nice to dive in the warm locations. However, the cold locations have far more interesting wrecks and the visibility can be spectacular. Often the colder locations don't cost a fortune to dive either -- obviously depends how far you may have flown.

Would imagine the North East coast of the US & Canada has a lot of wrecks to choose from.
Edit: not forgetting the Great Lakes!

I can't speak to the entire East coast, but the WWII wrecks off N. Carolina are pretty cool. However, the boat rides can be long, and the weather can be unpredictable. Due to the long boat rides, these dives are not inexpensive. I wonder how many new divers give it a try and decide it's not worth the hassle? I confess that at one time I thought I might become a wreck diver, but I think I decided there is other diving that gives me a higher satisfaction-to-hassle ratio.

Then again, I met a family (of four, I think) who had driven down from Canada to take a family dive vacation to N. Carolina. And it was not their first such trip! I asked if they also do Caribbean or Florida trips, and they said no, they enjoy this kind of challenging diving and seeing the wrecks.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I can't speak to the entire East coast, but the WWII wrecks off N. Carolina are pretty cool. However, the boat rides can be long, and the weather can be unpredictable. Due to the long boat rides, these dives are not inexpensive. I wonder how many new divers give it a try and decide it's not worth the hassle? I confess that at one time I thought I might become a wreck diver, but I think I decided there is other diving that gives me a higher satisfaction-to-hassle ratio.

Then again, I met a family (of four, I think) who had driven down from Canada to take a family dive vacation to N. Carolina. And it was not their first such trip! I asked if they also do Caribbean or Florida trips, and they said no, they enjoy this kind of challenging diving and seeing the wrecks.

We used to have people from around the world come here to abalone dive since Northern California was one of the last places on earth with giant red abalone. But that was free diving not scuba, illegal to scuba dive for them.
However since they closed abalone, an entire economy felt it from inns to campgrounds to stores and dive shops.
Of course people still camp and it’s bigger than ever, and the inns are inundated with tourists from the city, but we don’t get the ab divers.
Hardly anyone scuba dives and it’s not enough of a draw to sustain an industry up here.

 

[Belzelbub]

In addition, the events that are offered by the LDS are either far flung (mostly) tropical vacations to places I will never be able to afford, or else guided dives with very little risk. I know it's just me, but going on a guided dive with a group in a dive park doesn't feel like an adventure, it feels like a senior citizens outing.

Yeah, I can understand this, but some of it is location dependent.

The local shops in my area do offer travel fairly regularly, but there are often local options as well. Lots of local charters that can be booked directly as well. I'm not a fan of the big boat guided dives. I much prefer diving with a small group.

And as discussed in some other threads, guided dives, can be somewhat problematic. Especially if the diver does nothing but guided dives. This can lead to divers not really advancing their skills as they just rely on the DM/Guide to keep them safe.

 

[boulderjohn]

This can lead to divers not really advancing their skills as they just rely on the DM/Guide to keep them safe.

It does not only lead to divers not advancing their skills, it can lead to divers losing their skills.

My first couple dozen dives over the first couple years of diving were all in Cozumel, where the DMs do more than lead the dives. The first time I had to set up my own gear, I had forgotten how.

 

[WeRtheOcean]

So many things we do we have more freedom and it does not involve so many people telling us what to do/ not do

I can’t think of a hobby where it attracts so many people who like to police others behavior.

For many people, this can be a deal breaker. Aren't we told what to do enough at our workplaces? The whole point of hobbies/recreation is to have a break from that.

Work is everything that is unpleasant that must be done to participate in the fun of the activity

There are so many hobbies that people leave for this very reason. Our sense of the work-to-fun ratio changes over time. But the above concern -- people policing others' behavior -- that adds to the "work" and reduces the "fun."

Not everyone has several thousand dollars in available funds to invest in gear and travel.

And supposing the discretionary funds are there, they may be limited enough that we must choose just one activity to spend them on. Diving or something else. So then we weigh up the WtF ratios and decide which activity will be the most fun relative to the amount of work.

Take hiking for example. How often do you read advice that says never hike alone? Well, if that was being enforced, I would never go hiking -- trying to find and get to know someone interested in it, who isn't going to chatter the whole time and scare off all the wildlife, or be so goal-oriented that they just push to the summit and not take time to enjoy the route, would be an excessive amount of "work." But if I have the discretion to ignore that advice and take my own risks, I can do it, and in fact I frequently do. I'm not dead yet.

 

[Mrs. B]

I come from a family of six and we all grew up diving with my parents who dived the caves in Florida and took us to the Caymans instead of buying Christmas gifts. They made their own wetsuits and had us all certified at a young age. My brother was seven, earned a NAUI junior certification and went on our deep dives at Bob Sotos. The other brother, a Marine pilot, is dismayed at the medical paperwork. It’s difficult for them to transition to the new “safety first” mindset.
I love diving the most, probably because I lived many years in the Caribbean, Hawaii, Catalina etc but finally my husband (also a Marine) finally admitted to me that he didn’t want to spend every vacation diving because he doesn’t like all the supervision. It turns out, after getting married, what he really meant was he did not care to dive anymore at all.
So I was pretty much forced to move on to other things that he enjoys. With couples, it’s always a compromise although he definitely tricked me.

I would love to dive with Kimela and Roger!

 

[Lorenzoid]

Our sense of the work-to-fun ratio changes over time. But the above concern -- people policing others' behavior -- that adds to the "work" and reduces the "fun."

Maybe perceptions about "people policing others' behavior" in diving mirror the perceptions about "safety" in other areas of our lives nowadays. For instance, some people feel comforted by the web of regulations in California intended to keep people safer, healthier, etc., while others disparage it as a nanny-state. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you; just wondering whether the perceptions might balance each other out, such that this is not impacting the popularity of scuba. Maybe for every free spirit who wants to be left alone, there is another person--call them naive if you wish--who believes the nannying makes scuba safer and therefore more attractive to them?

And supposing the discretionary funds are there, they may be limited enough that we must choose just one activity to spend them on. Diving or something else. So then we weigh up the WtF ratios and decide which activity will be the most fun relative to the amount of work.

As I wind down my work and ease into retirement, where I no longer can simply work more to earn more, this has increasingly been on my mind. I enjoy several activities, and I kind of fear that scuba may take a backseat if my budget really does get strained. As mentioned in many replies here, the travel is a huge time and cost factor--much more so than any of my other activities.

Take hiking for example. How often do you read advice that says never hike alone? Well, if that was being enforced, I would never go hiking -- trying to find and get to know someone interested in it, who isn't going to chatter the whole time and scare off all the wildlife, or be so goal-oriented that they just push to the summit and not take time to enjoy the route, would be an excessive amount of "work."

Hiking is an interesting example with respect to my point above. What if there are some people who would actually prefer a system in which trails enforced a hiker buddy system over the traditional system of self-reliance in hiking? Maybe the idea would draw in as many hikers to this "more safety-conscious" park or whatever as it would turn off? Who knows. Maybe finding a compatible hiking buddy would be worth the "work" to them? I don't hike alone, except on the most well-used trails, though I know there is a long tradition of solo hiking, and I really don't care what other people do. Hiking is a poor analogy to diving, but it's nevertheless an interesting thought to me.

 

[scubadada]

...I love diving the most, probably because I lived many years in the Caribbean, Hawaii, Catalina etc but finally my husband (also a Marine) finally admitted to me that he didn’t want to spend every vacation diving because he doesn’t like all the supervision...

...Hiking is an interesting example with respect to my point above. What if there are some people who would actually prefer a system in which trails enforced a hiker buddy system over the traditional system of self-reliance in hiking? Maybe the idea would draw in as many hikers to this "more safety-conscious" park or whatever as it would turn off? Who knows. Maybe finding a compatible hiking buddy would be worth the "work" to them? I don't hike alone, except on the most well-used trails, though I know there is a long tradition of solo hiking, and I really don't care what other people do. Hiking is a poor analogy to diving, but it's nevertheless an interesting thought to me.

I do most of my diving in Boynton Beach Florida alone, have for many years. No supervision except being dropped and then picked up after a reasonable amount of time. I find the solitude very relaxing. Nobody else to pay attention to, do whatever I want. I often don't see another diver. Even when I go with a group drop in West Palm or Jupiter, I have no buddy and often surface by myself on my DSMB unless I just happen to end up near the guide at the end of the dive.

@Lorenzoid reminded me that seeking solitude is not new to me. I lived in California until after I graduated from medical school. I spent most of my spare leisure time backpacking solo in the Sierra Nevada. I often had free time when none of my backpacking friends did. Once I owned my equipment, it was nearly a free activity, only food and some gas. I ended up doing most of the John Muir Trail and most of the Sierra High Route in segments over more than a decade. On the High Route, I would frequently not see another hiker except going in and coming out of the portal. From what I gather, backpacking in the Sierras has changed a lot due to popularity and number of hikers. Back in the day, you came and went at your whim.

Doing activities like scuba diving and backpacking alone is not for everyone. For some of us, it is the essence.

 

[boulderjohn]

Take hiking for example. How often do you read advice that says never hike alone?

Another analogy would be to rock climbing. In rock climbing, the solo climbers are venerated. See the movie Free Solo as an example. The movie openly states that free solo climbers are likely to die, but they are still exalted. I cannot begin to estimate how many people have died in falls from the cliffs in my area, yet they barely mention an item in the daily paper. There is no talk of closing the cliffs to climbers the way there is with closing caves with nearly every cave diving death.