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GEORGE M IRVINE III sez: > What you may not know, being in a somewhat isolated\ > paradise in Hawaii doing scientific diving, is that tec diving > has degenerated into macho thing. People are taught that > depth is the achievement, and that more gear is necessary, > and that more deco and complication are the measures of > susccess. Unfortuantely, I believe that this is largely a marketing thing, and it will not be easy to change. Macho sells, and now that tech diving is here, the dive industry can not ignore this potentially huge market. Look at the situation here in NY: years ago, the primary market for scuba shops was certifying and equiping people for caribean diving. There was a much smaller market for people willing to dive the local wrecks in cold water -- a largely unappealing activity to most people. (In addition, there was the tiny market for boat bottom cleaning, but we won't get into that.) Toss macho image and tec diving into the equation, with dives on the 'Doria and USS Bass as the "merrit badges", and all of a sudden, you open up a whole new market: no longer is this local diving an unappealing activity, but rather it is one which demonstrates true stud muffin status. The attitude has literally become one of, if you are not on a track to dive the 'Doria, you are nothing. How to reverse this is, of course, the question. But with all the financial incentive involved, it won't be easy. -frank -- fhd@in*.ne* | What would this country be without this great land of ours? 1 212 559 5534 | -- Ronald Reagan 1 917 992 2248 | 1 718 746 7061 |
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