Did Sportarizing Diving do it an injustice?

[seakrakken]

I'm not trying to diss anyone or any organization with this. My question is asked because, I sometimes wonder if the frontier aspect of diving wasn't lost because of marketing ploys. What would it take to Un-Sportarize diving? I read about and remember many of the great pioneers. I still admire their bold plans and projects and pure inventiveness and wish that diving were still about exploring the ocean world and not about vacationing packages. What would it take to turn it around? Can it be recaptured? Or is it a dream lost to executive board meetings and stockholder dividends? It seemed like that about the time the Double Hose Reg was abandoned the whole mystique of diving declined. Thats why when I see a well maintained Mistral or Aqua Master I get caught up again in the romanticism of the dream of those great pioneers and want to explore the world like they did, with a double hose reg

[John A]

It is that same argument that was made by the early spear fisherman of the new “aqualung” divers. Technology has made diving “easier” and “safer” to a degree and opened it up to more people. What was considered a breakthrough dive with a Mistral on a set of steel doubles with air is an everyday occurrence with trimix and some apeks TX50’s.
There are still great pioneers out there, it is just that they are going a lot deeper into caves or a lot deeper into the ocean. There is still plenty to explore if you don’t mind 15 hours of decompression!

[Captain]

Most dive shops are travel agencies that sell diving equiptment. With out selling the travel they would not be able to generate enough business to survive. That is what drove the industry to what it is now. The last years of Skin Diver magazine was all about travel and very little about diving. That's why I gave up my subscription long before they folded.

Tom

[John Ratliff]

Most dive shops are travel agencies that sell diving equiptment. With out selling the travel they would not be able to generate enough business to survive. That is what drove the industry to what it is now. The last years of Skin Diver magazine was all about travel and very little about diving. That's why I gave up my subscription long before they folded.

I did the same with SDM; haven't subscribed in years before it went away. The travel industry is not what diving is about, in my estimation.

I take a different tract, and do not go deep, or explore caves. We really have a lot to see right around us. In Oregon, there's a lot of basic biology which is unresearched because this is a dark, cold environment with limited visibility. But, there's a lot of life happening here. This is both in salt water, estuarine water and fresh water. Diving is a means for me to get there, and see these things.

For instance, my best regulator for UW photography is my USD Overpressure Breathing DX, the predicessor for the Mistral. It is quiet, because of the hose within the hose.

I see things most have never looked at, and I look small and close. I dive rivers a lot, in current (or under the current) and observe the biology happening around me. It is still facinating to me.

Cousteau popularized the warm seas, mostly coral areas. He was into wrecks and the biology he could easily film.

There's a lot more out there to see though, but only a few are talking about it. Few are telling students about what is right under our noses.

SeaRat

[dogsbodydiving]

Hi Ya.
The only good thing about sportarizing diving is that it has given more people the oppertunity to dive like myself. Now mums, dads, kids, nan, grandad can dive together, at home or hols, which cant be bad (future vintage divers). If you have read any of my postings you know I'm not a vintage diver 'practically' but have lived vintage & I've always taken note of what my dad has said over the years.
Having read through this site it has made us grin because it's what we've been saying for years. My dad always moans at so called 'NEW' ideas and always goes on about how it used to be, but then backs it up with 'We can never go back'.
The thing is actuall diving doesn't change, it's a means to an end. You're on the surface & you want to go under all we need a tank & Reg of some sort.
The really scarey thing is that I have only been diving for 6yrs ish & with the 'NEW' invention of manifolded twinsets, rebreathers & such like I'm vintage before my time.

[Mistral]

I started diving just before scuba diving became big business and was redefined by the marketing folks to appeal to and include a much larger potential market. I really hated it when wet suits began to be available in anything other than black or blue and BC's started coming in colors other than black, yellow and orange.

I remember feeling cheated when I started diving that most double hose regs were already at least 5 years in the past as a single hose reg just did not engender the same romance and excitement as a double hose reg.

But at the time diving was still considered to be an adventurous sport in the true sense of the word with much more value placed on in water ability, self sufficiency and just plain old aggressiveness in pursuing the sport. We did ice and cold water diving all winter in high waist wet suits just for fun and I did not know anyone who was exclusively a traveling/tropical diver. We dove what ever water was available just because it was there and we considered it to be fun.

Courses at that time were still heavy on theory, gas laws and math and a high degree of comfort and skill in the water was assumed as a prerequisite for an Open Water course.

Today, open water and advanced open water courses have indeed been diluted to allow the participation of nearly any one with a pulse and no serious health conditions. Swimming ability is still nice to have but only marginally required. Any theory is limited to the basics, the gas laws are hardly mentioned, and the proper use of dive tables is barely covered as it is assumed everyone will use a computer anyway.

All of this is perhaps ok given the advances in equipment that reduce much of the physcial and mental demands on divers. But in truth it is the reduction of those demands that have led to the loss of romance and adventure previously associated with diving.

After a couple decades of diving it got to be pretty boring and I made a return to vintage diving to put the fun back into it. It was also a very good excuse to buy the double hose reg that I never got to use when I started diving.

At the same time I started pursuing technical diving. I have found that in large part tech diving provides the same emotional appeal that I experienced when I started diving. In most respects it carries the same expectations of self sufficiency and proficiency in the water and has the same spirit of adventure that comes with doing things that ordinary divers would not consider doing or even consider prudent.

So I would not say that the pinoeering spirit that used to present in diving is dead, it's just found in a different branch of the sport.

To me the saddest part about the modern sport of recreational scuba diving is that virtually none of today's divers will ever experience the fun and freedom that comes from diving with the minimal equipment and minimal drag associated with vintage diving.

[seakrakken]

I'm glad that you all are here and willing to discuss this issue with me. I feel better now that I know I'm not alone in my perceptions of whats happened to diving. My romantic notions of Haas and Cousteau may be overblown but, anyone can see that diving now seems to be an industry focused on accessorizing and excessive redundancy of equipment. I too dislike that training agencies are watering down the training in theory and self sufficiency. I choked in astonishment when I spoke with a recently certified coworker when he told me he's not allowed to dive beyond 60'. My 5th dive was to 120' at Bluehole NM back in '78. I want to see a resurgence of the minimalist school of diving which taught complete theory and practical skills. I don't feel that there should be anymore training agencies started up to fill this void, I would like to see a reform of the ones that are already in place. I'm glad that technology has advanced to the point that underwater dive computers exist. I just don't want one. I bought one a couple of years ago. It was a Dacor Wisdom. It was impressive but, it only told me what I had already planned on. I have a set of plastic dive tables that I plan with and carry with me in the water. I later sold that computer. I'm to the point now that I agree with VintageDiverMN. A Mistral, a 72' and a J-Valve has got to be the ideal configuration.

[nemrod]

Simple answer, YES.

I think a certain well known agency has ruined the diving sport. I know exactly what you mean and I remember when it happened. It was between 1969 and 1973 when things started moving toward the travel industry dominated certification agencies. NAUI, YMCA and all the others rather than holding the line caved in! The result today are divers with advanced and tech ratings who simply cannot swim a lick!
Divers today, if you call them that travel through the watery world in a vertical sense primarily. They inflate their vests on the boat, all jump in and then while venting their BCs and singing songs while holding hands sink to the bottom thanks to their being far over weighted. There they look about, smash coral and terrify the critters before once again inflating their BC for a return to the surface. The horozontal and 3D experience of diving is nearly abscent.
As to Skindiver, once it was a great magazine, then it became a travel brochure and advertising rag for companies that make neon gear like--gag--gag--Tusa (twice in one night--I need a pill) .
Maybe I am to rough on the whole thing , probably not. Nemrod (Just Say NO to Padi and their snorkel Natzis)

[seakrakken]

I think I've hit on a nerve with everybody I think we need to look at what can be done about it. Any ideas?

[Mistral]

We need to get Sea Hunt put back on prime time television.

[seakrakken]

I think you're on to something! Sea Hunt and Cousteau put back on television could respark the populace in the right direction. Perhaps a ground swell of the general public with a preconceived notion of what diving is supposed to be like may alter the trend that diving has taken and still keep the various industries alive and well. I'm going to start writing letters to various T.V. Broadcast Corps and see if I can get some kind of responce one way or another. I urge others to join me in this effort to see if we can get this first step going!

[Deleted]

It aint just diving. Its everything! Look at magazines like Outdoor Life and Field and Stream. Used to talk about working on old guns, now its advertisment for new gadgets, GPS powered range finders, etc. In our society the money people jump into anything they can. Blue Cross used to be sort of a medical savings account, now its stockholders and investment bankers selling policies and trying to keep from paying claims. For me, diving is still adventure. I can make gear, build a helmet, buy old stuff on ebay, and do whatever I want on my own boat. I dont have to buy gadgets or dress like I am going to the moon wearing BCs that talk about "Flight Control". When I started diving what excited me was the freedom to swim wherever I wanted underwater. Some of today's divers are more burdened down with junk than some surface supplied guys! I can watch Sea Hunt on Fri night on video just like I watch Basil Rathbone and Bella Lugosi. I can dive with minimal gear just like I hunt with a rifle from the 40s or 50s and leave the GPS in the airplane. John

[Mistral]

A year or so ago the Outdoor Life Network was playing Seahunt episodes twice a week. Unfortunately it was just filler between seasons for some other program.

I and a couple other people on Scubaboard tried to get and e-mail campaign going to show the viability of giving Sea Hunt it's own slot but it never amounted to anything.

[heavy breather]

Remember when I got into diving (almost 30 yrs ago)
we had to be able to swim 400 yards, underwater for 25
yards, tread water for 10 min including 2min with feet
only (hands over our head) - even then some old
timers considered it soft. They told tales of running laps
and doing pushups - in full dive gear! Now diving has
become "lots of pretty fishies" where anyone over 8
can dive. Many of todays divers can barely swim! While
todays equipment is ligther, better, safer, more reliable
I still find myself wishing for "good ole days" where a
being a diver meant something.

[cstmwrks]

NASA suffers from this as well, in the "old" days an astronaut has to be a combat vet who had already come to terms with death. Now it just takes money.