Why aren't more people taking up scuba diving?

[Aguablanco1]

As Dr Bill has stated, this sport is as expensive as you want to make it. The manufacturers will tell you that you need all the bells and whistles and more. It would be very easy to spend $3K-$4K on gear that seems necessary but is not. In reality you need mask, fins, snorkel, bcd, smb's, watch, regs, wetsuit, maybe a dry suit and maybe some tanks if you can't rent them. You could probably, without the dry suit, buy it all for $1000-$1200 and make it last at least a decade, and most likely longer, with proper maintenance. The cost of a good set of golf clubs is higher than that and so is the gear for rock climbing, whitewater rafting and many other adventure sports. This may be the crux of the problem, the sense that this is a very expensive sport. Consider a 2 tank dive is ~$100 and will take maybe 4-5 hours out of your day. We pay way more for a concert or a sporting event. Plus we get to see so many cool things other people can only dream about.
RichH

 

[kelemvor]

You can't text underwater.

False! Underwater Text-Messager Makes SCUBA Diving Safer

 

[Insta-Gator]

:shocked2: $1,500 each. Require minimum of 2, maybe more if you want to communicate with the boat also. Now the price of scuba just jumped up (for those wishing to text)

 

[Lorenzoid]

How many times I have heard that "I SCUBA dive to relax" and then I think of all the youtube videos filmed by young(er) people showing back flips on MTBs and flying off mountains on skis and then contrast old and often overweight and sedentary folks talking about SCUBA and relaxing. Yeah, that will get them in the sport, but, wait, most divers think of SCUBA as a hobby like model trains or knitting.

SCUBA gets older, grayer and less appealing to young people with each passing year. And the death of local diving does not help young people who are challenged by the "O" economy (or whoever one wishes to blame it on) and cannot pop five to ten thousand routinely to go SCUBA diving.

Safety, it is way over rated. And so is boredom. Less gear, more go!

N

It's hard to believe that BREATHING UNDERWATER and swimming around in a 3-dimensional world the way only fish could do is now considered yawn-worthy.

 

[boulderjohn]

another interesting point is that we pretty quickly transitioned from the recreational diving mindset to a technical one and seek to do very advance diving.

I live in Colorado, a state which suffered less than most in the recession and which is doing pretty well now overall. During those last few years we lost two dive shops in the Denver area--went out of business due to a decline in sales. One of them was the shop most focused on technical diving, one of the few places that could put helium in your tanks. A few years ago it was easy to find people who were interested in advanced recreational and technical diving. I started as a part of such a group. Today it is very different. The most experienced technical diving instructor in the state has pretty much stopped doing it altogether--couldn't get enough students to make it worthwhile.

 

[Wookie]

I live in Colorado, a state which suffered less than most in the recession and which is doing pretty well now overall. During those last few years we lost two dive shops in the Denver area--went out of business due to a decline in sales. One of them was the shop most focused on technical diving, one of the few places that could put helium in your tanks. A few years ago it was easy to find people who were interested in advanced recreational and technical diving. I started as a part of such a group. Today it is very different. The most experienced technical diving instructor in the state has pretty much stopped doing it altogether--couldn't get enough students to make it worthwhile.

Interestingly, I have more technical trips on the books this year than ever before. Part of this is the change in attitude I was forced to take. We would never mix and match technical divers with recreationaldivers, as the mission is different, and it's hard to keep everyone happy. What that means is a technically oriented diver can't go with their more recreationally oriented spouse. We fixed that by planning a trip last year to the Keys artificial reefs, boring (IMHO), but allow those with AN/DP to dive with their single 80 partner. When the single 80 partner is done, they come up the line, while the AN/DP joins with another AN/DP and finish their dive.

I have 3 of those on the books for this year, and they are filling quite nicely.

 

[Mike]

Read the PADI stats again...

"Represents total entry level and continuing education diving certifications for all PADI Offices combined. Divers may have multiple certifications."

It's total number of certs, not total number of divers. So includes AOW, Nitrox, Rescue, Specialties, Etc. So with a total number of certs being flat for the past 10yrs or so, and with many of those certs going to the same/existing divers, that means the absolute number of new divers is on the decline. Factor that in with older divers leaving diving... at some point we all will... you've got a pretty rapidly contracting customer base. And, as mentioned earlier, with the number of shops/instructors/resorts (and presumable manufacturing capacity/etc) growing to accommodate the rapidly increasing demand of 80's-90's (see PADI's chart on number of PADI members and Shops/Resorts) You've got roughly the same number of instructors and shops now as 10yrs ago, but with a contracting customer base. I'm a marketing guy, not an economist... but I know that is a problem.

New customer growth is the lifeblood of any industry... and Scuba Diving ain't got it.

PS - median age being 29 and "holding steady" is meaningless. Guess what the median age of THE WORLD is... Yup - 29yrs old! (Median Age (Years) | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation) and it's been "holding steady" for about the past three decades.

Good catch, I didn't realize that.

Where are the stats for the actual number of divers historically?

 

[Nemrod]

I stopped by a dive shop, just to check it out. While there, I asked about their boat schedule.
The guy told me that it was $90 for a two-tank boat dive. He saw the shocked look on my face....and then I asked....
..."Are you kidding me??.....It's only $90 for a two-tank boat dive?"

That's so cheap! What a deal. I don't see how the boat operation is making much money on that price.
I wish it was that cheap back in Japan.

He told me that many divers in the area acted like it was too much.

That is because the ancient boat takes you only about 1.5 miles out of the inlet over to the bridge rubble or they stop at the jetties which can be reached by walking. Now, if for the 90 dollars they took people to the Timberholes, I would be shocked all right.

N

 

[RJP]

If you live in a coastal county, diving should not be a cost-prohibitive activity.

Really? So for a family living in a housing project in Newark NJ, where the median income is below the federal poverty level, diving will not be a cost prohibitive activity... even though feeding and clothing the same family IS a cost-prohibitive activity?

 

[billt4sf]

I think a better question might be: why do many people stop diving a few dives after the OW class? What can be improved in that transition?

- Bill