What is going on with the Dive Industry?

It seems to me like the big question in the dive industry these days is why do divers choose to go to the Internet instead of using the local dive shop?

Go to just about any SCUBA Diving forum on the net and you will find this topic actively being discussed. To me the question shouldn't be why do people buy off the Internet or from the local dive shop but why do divers not come back after training?

I go to the local dive sites just about every weekend of the year and I see all the open water dive classes. What I don't see are the people that are there to do fun dives or to work on fundamental skills. Fundamental Skills? What is that? You know that annoying part of the class where the instructor made you take off your mask, share air with your buddy, and learn a little (and I mean very little in most open water classes) about neutral buoyancy.

I, for one, do not understand how you can make a confident safe diver in one weekend. The industry concept of drive-through dive instruction is ridiculous. The idea of asking someone to give you anywhere from $150 to $350 for a quickie one weekend dive class and then in return telling them they will be a confident and skilled diver is almost criminal. How much time was actually spent teaching this person how to dive? In most classes I would say less than an hour. You show your skill to the instructor a few times in the pool and then once or maybe twice in the open water during your check out dive and just like that your ready to dive on your own.

Now this same diver takes a trip to Cozumel a few months down the road and finds out currents are real, your air does go a lot quicker at 90ft than at 20ft and there is a lot to think about. Then guess what's next? Nothing, that's it! For most people the final answer is "I tried diving it was ok but I am ready for the next chapter in my life."

The true answer is my training sucked and I wasn't prepared for real life diving so I quit. The diver is not to blame the industry is to blame. Teach people how to dive, tell them they have to spend time in the water to get good at it and truly enjoy it.

Diving isn't cheap, equipment is expensive, training can be long and extensive but when your done you will enjoy it for the rest of your life and you will be safe doing it.

I am not saying I am the perfect diver or that I am better than most the people out there. I just want people to take the sport I love more serious. It is a sport that will offer you a few hours of peace or it can be a sport that will push you to your limits. It's what you want it to be. The problem is that the people that are learning how to dive today are not given a chance to learn the sport well enough to enjoy it therefore they leave it.