Have scuba diving changed?
Hi!
I got my open water certificate in june this year and my dad, who got his certificate 40 years ago but haven't scuba dived in 10 years, did a reactivate course. We both love scuba diving and being able to do this hobby together but we also got a small shock by how expensive this hobby seem to be now. My dad has been diving in a lot of diffenent countries, mainly during the 80's, 90's and 00's. He described it as all you needed was an open water certificate and everything else you rented at the diving shop, and usually was included in the dive price. A dive always included a dive instructor as well, there was no need to plan for a safety stop yourself as you would just follow the diving instructor who would end the dive by taking everyone to a depth of 3-6m and everyone would just dive around at that depth for a couple of minutes before going to the surface.
My dad have since the reactivate course done one dive with the diving shop that held our courses. He said it was fine but a lot less organized than what he remembered dives to be. A lot of divers in the group seemed very new to diving and the instructors were so busy taking care of them that my dad and his dive buddy missed their safety stop. My dad did not have his own diving computer at that time and the rental diving equipment did not include a computer or a depth gauge which ment he had no idea how deep he was.
We decided to try diving with a different dive shop. This dive shop is a lot more expensive but diving computer was included with rental equipment. We were very clear with the dive center that we are very inexperienced divers and might need suppport during the dive. They said that was totally fine. Now, a week and a half before the dive we learn that the alredy very expensive dive (around 250-300 dollars) does not include a guide and we are expected to do the dive more or less on our own.
I feel like there is much more of an expectation to buy and own your own equipment now than what my dad experienced in the past. The fact that depth gauge or dive computer isn't always included in rental equipment makes it almost necessary to own one to know how deep you are. It feels dangerous to dive without knowing your depth. Also the fact that rental equipment are not included in dives and usually costs more than the dive itself gives me the sense that you are expected to buy all your own equipment once you have decided to stick with the hobby.
One thing that both me and my dad was suprised by in the e-learning material from PADI during the open water course was the recommendation that you should do a reactivate course every time you haven't dived in 6 months. We live in a nordic country and diving any other time than during the summer months would basically require a dry suit. Are we really supposed to do a reactivate course every year unless we also do a dry suit course and dive every winter as well? That sounds really expensive. My dad remembered no such recommendation when he used to dive in the 90s and 00's. He would basically just bring his diving certificate and his log book when he happened to travel, which was usually years in between. No one expected him to do a reactivate course just because it was a couple of years in between dives.
Right now I just feel like I have gotten addicted to a hobby that there is no way I can afford, which really sucks. My question is, have scuba diving changed to a much more expensive hobby since my dad used to dive? Or is it different in other countries?