Posted by JRM on November 21, 2000 at 18:57:33:
In Reply to: Re: What's wrong with dive industry economics? posted by kelphead on November 21, 2000 at 18:16:45:
I think that SCUBA is marketed as "non-life threatening." I mean, when I talk about diving to a non-diver, the number one thing I hear about are sharks. No-one ever really thinks about equipment failure (hey, it's modern, it never breaks), nor OOA.
I think that we on the list should do a bit of a survey. Let's all walk into three or four dive shops in the next couple of days, and ask the question "Is diving dangerous?" I'd really like to see a compilation of the answers. Especially if we could get a mix of chains, big shops, and little shops. I'm going to be diving pretty much the entire break (albiet free diving mostly), but I'm going to hit the shops in the Santa Barbara area. Please, I really do think that the results will be very telling.
Without the results of the above survey there really isn't much backing this up, but I really do feel that the reason people consider their training as just another thing to be faster, easier, cheaper is that SCUBA really isn't being advertised as the dangerous sport that it is. And yet it actually has formal training and certification. I don't have any form of formal climbing or mountaineering training, yet I can easily get a wilderness permit from the government to trek into the death zone in the middle of winter with nary a question asked. I know it's dangerous, and the people I work with think I'm nuts. But I strap on my life support and head underwater, and everyone thinks it's so cool. Oh, and yeah, they did it on their vacations and it was fun. No danger associated with it at all. I think that is the main reason that people don't activate their "danger exception meter" to the faster, cheaper, easier trap.
JRM