When we go diving, we feel like the antiques in the crowd. The 20 something's...the same folks we feel are here, make up the vast majority of those folks actively and avidly scuba diving. The same goes for sailboarding and water hang gliding. When we went to a resort in Florida, we got to be pretty good friends with the young ladies and gentlemen who ran the "rental" booth for "gear". They always write down drivers license numbers for rentals of sailboards and other larger items. We had this talk with them, and as they went down the "birthday" list of at least 100 rentals, there was not one single one over 30!!!

That is why we asked a few dive questions here. We expected a BUNCH of answers, honestly. If you go ask on the dive blogs (we have) people are too darned opinionated. They either love a place or hate it. They either think Technical diving is the best thing ever, or that you need your head examined if you think about it. No middle ground.

It will indeed be interesting to see if there are responses. Why is it you think there are no divers here? Just curious.

Hubby just chimed in too. He thinks divers tend to be "toy geeks". Into their "hardware". Probably the same folks who want the best and coolest dive computer on their wrist is going to want the best vibe with six thousand options, on their nightstand!

I agree with Stormy, it is very expensive to scuba dive. And besides, not everyone lives in the right location and/or climate where he/she can just sail out and dive into the water whenever he/she wants.

This, too. It's really a matter of money and location. I know a good portion of our contributors are from the midwest or other land-locked areas. I don't know about you guys, but there are very few lakes I'll swim in, let alone dive in.

For instance, Lake Lanier is a man-made lake. At the bottom of this lake is basically an entire town that was flooded when they dammed up the river -- I don't even want to think about the things that live in those abandoned homes.

I like to scuba dive but have yet to do it past my open water certification.

I know there are a variety of gases you can use nowadays for diving deeper and longer (that sounds so x rated haha). If I recall from my instruction regular oxygen is good for about 250' then there's nitrogen which I can;t remember the dept but it was deeper for less time though and then there is helium based which is good for both deeper and longer but it's really expensive.

I could have some of this mixed up but you get the point.

I'm probably going to take a refresher course before I go diving again, it's been a few years now

Scuba diving is actually really cheap in comparison to other outdoor spots. here in texas you can rent a tank and equipment (minus fins, snorkal and mask) for about $30-$40 for a weekend and you can scuba pretty much anywhere that has water. you don't need a boat, you can walk right into the water and that water could be ocean, lake, river or even a pool. the expensive part is traveling to a specific location but you have to do that with activities too.

How much did it cost to get your certification?

It's interesting that, in a site which ostensibly starts as an online store, so many people would be of limited incomes. I would think sex toys would be the ultimate in "frivolous expenditures". Mind you, we LOVE our toys, but just about every other bill and expense would come first, right? Thus, if my income were extremely tight, how would I end up here? I am not disagreeing with you. You seem to have far more insight into this then us. We just find it very interesting and unexpected.
Even when you speak about people "being in college", that is where we both learned to dive. We were far from rich, dirt poor, starting out, in fact, and we rented everything. I learned to dive in a YMCA course and hubby learned in a college credit course. Again, even now, when we go diving, we see mostly younger people doing it. Hard to believe some of them, at least, are not hanging out here on EF. If not, then where are they hanging out on, online???

Bingo. We were able to dive local lakes and then later, in the ocean, for far cheaper then almost any other activity. Our friends who were going skiing and boating spent tons more then we did. Diving was the "affordable" exotic sport. We often didn't have to "stay" anywhere. We drove to the water, dove some, ate take out or cook out on the beach, and then were home in our bed that night.

Cost me about $35 at a YMCA course, as I recall. Yes, it was decades ago, but it was still cheap, cheap. The "expensive" part was the certification dives, and you had the option of a trip, where some people went to the Bahamas, or the "poor folks" certification, which I did, in the Great Lakes. That probably cost another $50 total. Hubby paid nothing. He took it as a college course and was on full scholarship. In fact, here we are at the end of 2013 and there is a $250 course, all rented equipment included, for sale on one of those "public sale" sites today.

I did mine as a college credit course, I don't remember the exact cost of the class, I want to say about $125 plus $20 for 2 days at the site we did open water training at. Then the equipment I had to buy for open water (fins, booties, mask and snorkel) cost about another $130-150.

those are all one time costs though, shouldn't have to replace any of the gear, at least not any time soon and you only have to get certified once, then it's good for life.

Ah but you're forgetting that at the time you could use all of your points for an entire order and many, many people did.

So, so true. This did create the most "unique" purchase dynamic I have ever seen, in a store or online. I still don't understand how EF did it, financially.

Take a refresher just to be safe. Equipment has changed...and improved. Yes, however, you are correct, you need NITROX or other special gas combo's and special dive computers to do "deep" (Technical) diving beyond about 200 feet or so.