Which state certifies the most divers?

[MikeFerrara]

The crowds at Gilboa aren't the large number of local divers who dive locally. They are students mostly with the rest being divers who travel from all over the midwest to get there and for that matter all over the country.

 

[Rottekatz]

Be very wary of the Colorado model for SCUBA shops; we have some unique demographics here. Much of the population is young, fit outdoors types and there’s a lot of disposable income in the greater Denver area (Boulder especially). Diving is “just another outdoor sport” to these folks, and the shops make most of their money selling training and equipment and trips to folks that only dive once or twice a year on trips to Cozumel. Most are equipment junkies so they’ll buy entire setups, dive a couple times and then let it sit in the garage when they move onto whatever next sport they want to get into. Get outside Denver and things change radically. Colorado Springs, which is a big city, can only support two dive shops. We had three for awhile but one went out of business. Contrast this to Denver where there seems to be a SCUBA shop on every other corner!

The SCUBA travel industry in Colorado is huge. 99.9% of the SCUBA divers in the state travel to warm-water destinations exclusively. Those of us that dive locally hardly warrant consideration in the shop’s yearly planning. I know of only one shop that has successfully managed to run a trip to California. All the divers I talk to about California say the same thing: “Too cold.”

For those that have followed my posts for the last year or so know I’m pretty bitter about quality of basic SCUBA training. This may give you some idea why; the instructors here are Nth generation PADI graduates, and all they know is how to teach and dive in warm water. Instructors who only teach and dive in warm water have taught them, and they’ll go on to teach the next generation of instructors. They don’t know what they don’t know. There are exceptions, but they’re few and far between. I was unable to interest any local instructors in the DIRF class; heck, they have over a thousand dives under their belts! What could they possibly learn?

20% of the video taken during our DIRF class was not of us, but of instructors doing absolutely insane things with classes, like hanging onto the platforms because they were unable to control their own buoyancy. Within the first 10 minutes in the water Andrew, the GUE training director, rescued a woman coming up from about 50’ with no mask and no regulator. She was bolting. Her instructor surfaced a couple minutes later after Andrew had gotten her over to shallow water and calmed her down.

Colorado shops are successful because the demographics allow them to be successful, not because they have any secret to success. In my opinion in the vast majority of cases they’re successful DESPITE their numerous shortcomings.

Roak

So true. Since moving to Colorado 1.5 years ago it has been extremely hard to find someone that wants to dive. I still go to California 2-3 times a year to do boat dives; don't want to make the trip for a beach dive to find high surf and low vis. Hard going from diving

 

[BDSC]

You realize this thread is 13 years old?

 

[Rottekatz]

You realize this thread is 13 years old?

Yes I do and the information is still applicable.

 

[urbaneve71]

but the link is now dead ----

 

[The Chairman]

 

[TMHeimer]

I wrote something in The Pub recently and someone replied like "a slow night, huh?" So who cares which State certifies the most? What about Canada?, the rest of the world? It is what it is.

 

[beaverdivers]

Colorado might have the most divers per any inland state, but we definitely have the best dive shops, training facilities & tropical divers!

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I have frequently heard and repeated the assertion that Colorado has the highest per capita rate of certified divers. Now that I think about it, I don't recall what source this is based upon, or if it is true.

The source is us poor landlocked Colorado divers. We have to have some stat to talk about, and the per capita stat is hard to refute, even if we did make it up
DivemasterDennis

 

[boulderjohn]

The information about Colorado divers is based on DEMA statistics, so it does have some basis.

BTW, if you are having trouble finding someone who wants to dive in Colorado, let yourself be known. Go to the Rocky Mountain region forum and ask around.