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All right everybody. I must apologize for taking 2 weeks longer than
planned to get this out. It's been a busy month of running here, and we're
all just rushing to get in the water. Here are the results from that
survey I put out about a month ago. See if it makes any sense.
1994 Survey of "Techdiver" Forum
# of Respondents: 34
Where do they dive MOST OFTEN?
(note: some people reported more than one site)
France/Sweden: 2 Caribbean: 4 Northeast US: 5
Southeast US: 2 Northwest US: 7 Southwest US: 4
Midwest US: 5 Pacific/Hawaii: 2 Australia/UK: 4
Finland: 1
What is the Average Water Temperature overall? 57 degrees f.
max:80 deg.
What is the Average Minimum water temp? 41 degrees f.
min:30 deg.
Do you use a drysuit? 68% YES 32% NO
Type of drysuit used: 4 Nokia Rubber suits
1 Viking Rubber Suit
2 Typhoon Rubber Suit
1 Loitokari Rubber Suit
1 Avon Rubber Suit
2 Harveys neoprene Suit
1 Poseidon neoprene Suit
1 Aquarius neoprene Suit
1 Henderson neoprene Suit
1 DUI suit (unknown type)
1 OS suit
2 unreported brand neoprene suit
Do you use a full face mask? 20% YES 80% NO
Types Used (may be > 1 per person)
4 Aga Mask
2 Parkway/Cressi Sub
What is your preferred Regulator?
18 Poseidon
8 U.S. Divers
7 Sherwood
8 Scubapro
1 Tekna
4 Zeagle/Apeks
3 Dacor
2 Oceanic
1 Mares
What regulators do you dislike strongly? Most common Reason:
7 U.S. Divers tend to freeze easily
3 Mares didn't say
3 Tusa poor performance
3 Dacor poor performance; hard to repair
8 Sherwood poor performance
2 Scubapro didn't say
1 Oceanic ddin't say
Favorite Brand Preference:
No real report for this one. Not many people responded, although those
who did most often put Poseidon, Scubapro, U.S. Divers, Zeagle, Diverite,
and one Oceanic.
Do you use U/W Communications? (Electronic)
24% YES 76% NO
3 Ocean Technology Systems
1 Dive-Link
2 Unknown
What is your most commnly used Dive lite?
20 Underwater Kinetics
3 Pelican
4 Ikelite
3 DiveRite
2 Homemade
6 Other
Do you service your own equipment?
(for this question, I meant regulators and full overhauls)
35% Yes 65% No
Are you a member of the dive industry?
(Store owner, Instructor, WORKING Divemaster...)
41% YES 59% NO
What is your Average Maximum Dive Depth?
91.95 Feet overall for all members
What is your Deepest Dive?
Average DEEPEST was 185 feet deep
Deepest DEEP dive was 425fsw
What is your deepest AIR Dive?
Average DEEPEST AIR dive was 179 feet deep
Deepest AIR dive was 360fsw
What agencies do you hold a certification from?
68% PADI
32% NAUI
6% YMCA
3% NASDS
32% IANTD
3% ANDI
9% CMAS
3% NSS-CDS
6% SSI
6% TDA
6% DAN
How many years have you been diving?
Minimum .5 yrs
Average 8.33 yrs
Maximum 30 yrs
How many dives have you logged?
Minimum 27 dives
Average 513 dives
Maximum 3500 dives
(although a great majority were between 150 and 400 dives)
Have you ever used a rebreather?
9% YES 91% NO
Have you used Mixed Gas (i.e. helium/nitrogen/oxygen mix)?
18% YES 82% NO
Have you ever used Nitrox?
41% YES 59% NO
Do you use Oxygen for Decompression gas?
26% YES 74% NO
Do you dive with Doubles?
50% YES 50% NO
How often do you dive?
(this was a bad question... many people vary according to season
and some people dive weekly, and some monthly, so I'll answer with
the maximum and minimum.)
Maximum: 6 times per week
Minimum: every other month
Have you ever had severe Narcosis and at what depth? What mix?
Peoples Depth of SEVERE Narcosis
--------------------------------
170 fsw on air 270 on mix
100 fsw on air
160 fsw on air
140 fsw on air
140 fsw on air
95 fsw on air
200 fsw on air
125 fsw on air
100 fsw on air
120 fsw on air
175 fsw on air
What skill level do you consider yourself?
21% Expert
12% Experienced
53% Advanced
6% Intermediate
0 Novice
3% Instructor
Do you use a dive computer?
85% YES 15% NO
Do you calculate your deep tables on a PC?
29% YES 71% NO
Have you ever had Dcompression Illness?
17.5% YES 82.5% NO
50% of these people were diving past their table limits for this dive.
Publications listed taht people think should be read by technical divers:
Deeper into diving
Rodales SCUBA DIVING
AquaCorps
Instructor Publications
DAN's Alert Diver
Dive Training
SPUMS Journal
NOAA (guide)
Mixed Gas Diving
Scuba Times
What could be done to improve the dive industry?
(I'll list some popular responses)
Lighter tanks
Cheaper equipment and travel
A solar powered air compressor <---- my favorite :-)
Lower the liability of instruction, stores, and charters
Have less political problems with training agencies
and other divers.
Have a more unified training organization
Better availability of Mixed Gas
More divers join diving
AquaCorps be more consistent
More industry support for nitrox diving
more professionalism in the industry
Make Technical info more available to everyone
Have more dive clubs
Better coordinated training programs for tech diving as in
recreational diving
Better availability and affordability of rebreathers
better instruments
Free Gear <--- another good one
Require retesting of instructors
There you go. I know it's a little thrown together, but it's been a rough
enough time just getting it all out. If anyone has any questions, feel
free to E-mail me and I'll help you out. There are a couple of comments I
would like to add for myself. One is that some responses were very similar
within a dive area. For instanace, people in the NW part of the country
were more likely to like the same brands of equipment. One interesting
note was that many people disliked US Divers regulators because they free
flowed easier than some, but they didn't comment on the USD Arctic
regulator, or the Sherwood Blizzard, which are 2 that perform much better
in these areas. When it came to training, I found that although many
people were participating in tech. diving, many were doing so without
special training. In fact, it seems that people who had been more recently
certified and had taken Nitrox courses were the majority of people who had
any special training at all, while many of the mixed gas divers had no
special training at all. With all of the responses, and the large number
of topics of questions, it was sometimes hard to decipher it all. Well,
everyone have a great spring dive season. I'll be on and off each day or
two to keep up on your conversations. Maybe in a week or so you'll finally
see some responses from me again...if I can make it that long.
Tim Olson
Wolfmk@cn*.uw*.ed*
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