Why Aren't There Scuba Celebrities?

[Doc]

It is now time

 

[tomfcrist]

It is now time

Awesome

 

[Ayisha]

Lots of divers who are famous at least within their diving cohort have been mentioned. On a small scale, those well known divers are often given free gear to test out, review publicly if they like it, and to model. While everyone else is trying to get their hands on some new equipment, those divers get beta or full prototypes to try out for free. They're also given clothing and hats by companies as free advertising. They get their perks, but on a much smaller scale.

 

[RJP]

Lots of divers who are famous at least within their diving cohort have been mentioned. On a small scale, those well known divers are often given free gear to test out, review publicly if they like it, and to model. While everyone else is trying to get their hands on some new equipment, those divers get beta or full prototypes to try out for free. They're also given clothing and hats by companies as free advertising. They get their perks, but on a much smaller scale.

Pretty much any diver with a professional rating can swing swag and gear deals. I've got a closet full of hats, shirts, etc.

 

[divad]

Free hats and shirts!? Where do I sign up?

 

[KevinNM]

Pretty much any diver with a professional rating can swing swag and gear deals. I've got a closet full of hats, shirts, etc.

Getting paid to full-time dive with all expenses covered essentially just to demo Brand X's gear seems a bit harder to arrange. I suspect mostly because there isn't effective coverage of this be any sort of enthusiast media like there is for a sports with competitions. For example, have you ever had someone ask you how to get a sponsorship deal like many people get even in fairly niche sports, like surfing? Which, depending on whose numbers you choose to believe, can be said to be roughly comparable to scuba in total participants. HOW TO GET SPONSORED | SURFLINE.COM

 

[Vegan Shark]

North Face is a great example of how to correctly market in niches; you use the sport to represent your image, while selling to the general public. Climbing and mountaineering are very small niches, probably even smaller than scuba, and yet North Face is a massive company. How? By sponsoring climbers and events to brand its image as "outdoors," while the majority of its consumers are just regular people wearing their backpacks, jackets, etc.

Surfing is similar. Not many surfers out there, yet guys like Kelly Slater still get multi-million dollar sponsorships, since the marketing is focused on selling shorts/shirts/sunglasses/whatever to the general public, rather than surf boards or other surf-specific gear.

 

[Ayisha]

Pretty much any diver with a professional rating can swing swag and gear deals. I've got a closet full of hats, shirts, etc.

I've seen some of the well known divers that have received free computers, regulators, etc., not just hats and shirts or deals on gear.

 

[drbill]

Uh...

Cousteau?

So.... We have one....

one.

I am absolutely astounded at the number of younger divers who have no idea who Jacques-Yves Cousteau is!

 

[DKL]

Because celebrities are only tough when they have a stuntman/women do the tough stuff. Other than that they are mostly just pampered morons.