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First, John, this was an excellent analysis of the situation, and filled with great suggestions specific to what I am dealing with. Thankyou. I have forwarded a copy to my buddy that I do most of my diving with, and he agrees. I would, however, like to go over a few items on the list. On Wed, 25 Feb 1998 john.r.strohm@BI*.co* wrote: > 1. Talk with the Japanese dive operators you use most frequently. I work part time (mostly to get free diving) for a diving shop here in Tokyo. The lucky part about this, is the owner of the shop is also one of the cofounders of IANTD Japan. Both of the two guys that started IANTD Japan are good friends of mine, and this is a regular topic of conversation with us. The main problem is, one of the guys doesn't know much about diving. He is the buisness end of the whole deal. The rich Japanese guy who dives as a hobby (PADI rescue diver) and owns a few companies. The other guy knows alot about diving, but very little about "tech" diving. As a result, I have become the cheif advisor to these guys on what IANTD Japan should be doing. The first thing that I am strongly pushing right now is availability of O2 for deco. The next thing I plan on working on is the manifolds. Last week I spoke with the distributor for Genisis and asked about importing a couple manifolds to Japan. Looks like there is a posiblity there, but I still have to get tanks. If everything goes ok, on that end, I will contact a diving service, and see if we can convert a couple of their tanks over to manifold doubles. One problem is that noone has a BCD that can handle doubles yet, but that just means lots to sell and rent, right? > (Hint: A couple of the bigger non-WKPP names from cave > diving were over there a while back; you can probably point to THEIR > equipment and say "this is what we want to do, and this is why we want to > do it this way.") Apperently they didn't get the right permissions, and that caused quite a few problems. I don't actually know any details on this, but my buddy knows more, so when he gets back to me, I will expand on it. > 2. Talk with Japanese divers. Talk up safety issues. Explain how and why > manifolds are safer. It may take a while, but the word will get out. Great advice. I have been doing this with my long hose. So far, I have seen only two long hoses in Japan. Mine and one of the two IANTD Japan guys who actually knows a bit about tech diving. But, I tell you, this is a great way to actually get some tech nookie. Every time I dive, you would be amazed by the number of women who are curious about my equipment and how long my hose is. Oh, and as a side note, my buddy who I sent this to sarcastically mentioned that Spare Airs will catch on just as much, if not better. Funny thing is, I have seen more Spare Air's in this country than the sum total of ponies, independent doubles, and manifold doubles. Safty First, you know. > 3. Have you and your buddy, and a few of your diving friends, considered > going in together, organizing a small dive club, and buying a few sets of > manifolded doubles and a van to haul them all? This fixes your motorcycle > and train problem. You still have the cost problem of the tanks. Actually I have. We are working through prices now. One major issue is parking. A parking spot near me will be about $200-$300 a month. Just for the parking spot. If I can somehow figure out how to get free parking, this is probably the route we will take. > 4. Pitch manifolds to the Japanese dive companies as an opportunity to > sell equipment to the more specialized operations. Japanese survive by > selling to each other. There is this whole technical diving market that is > being neglected there. I am amazed at how poorly IANTD Japan is doing at this. They have been around for almost a year now, and havn't done much of anything. Ok, a couple of diving services now offer EANx tanks (remember, fills are rare, you just rent full tanks). But, actual new equipment(backplates, ponies for deco bottles, manifolds, etc) just isn't being imported or sold. > 5. Figure out a way to sell Japanese women divers on manifolds. They can barely lift a single tank as it is. I would be impressed to see them in a set of doubles. > 7. Look into rebreather diving. Although the Fieno is off the market, > because of the North Koreans, there will be other options. Again, this is > an opportunity to manufacture and sell. (Look at the Japanese 4WD market.) I thought the Fieno was off the market because of poor sales. Can you give me some more details? Actually, I have been considering getting a rebreather. The AP Valves Inspiration rebreather is in an acceptable price range. My major concerns are that I wouldn't know where to get scrubber material and where to get O2. But, it is a viable option. > 8. Look into setting up your own dive operation, using manifolded doubles. > You'll need Japanese involvement, because the unions probably won't take a > gaijin front man seriously, and the Yakuza certainly won't, but it can be > done. One dive shop here in DFW was opened by a technical diver who was > also a PADI instructor and who got tired of hiding his mixed gas > proclivities. This is something that my buddy and I regularly discuss. The main thing, is that the prices we would have to charge to make up for all the extra equipment would be outragous. We might be able to pull it off, but I'm not too sure. But, personally, I would love to do this. Would you like to invest in our new company? > 9. Move to Florida. Hmmm. Yeah. One thing that I will miss, or that I like about tech diving in Japan, is that I am really pushing the edge here in Japan. I am doing the exploatry first steps. In FL, it is an established industry that is, relatively speaking, easy. I think it would loose a bit of that adventure. But, I would love to have all the great oppertunities that you guys have there. Thanks again for you comments, Andrew -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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