Dive Industry Market Data

Snorkeling and scuba diving seem like two members of the same family — a brother and a sister, maybe. In both cases, the activity is practiced by people drawn to the underwater world, who can swim and are not intimidated by jumping into the ocean to discover the rest of the planet.

Numerous dive charter boats supplement their income by organizing snorkeling outings. Meanwhile, local dive shops in urban areas often draw a big chunk of their profitability from their masks, fins, and snorkel displays.

Yet, we allocate very little time to thinking about snorkeling and snorkelers.

Why don’t we have more market data about snorkeling?

Dive training agencies…

Scuba Industry Editorial

Updated on April 12, 2021.

“The pandemic led to an unprecedented consumption shock across countries that upended long-standing consumer habits. But what happens once the pandemic is over?” McKinsey & Company

While we still face COVID-19 surges across the globe with some countries re-imposing lockdowns, vaccines are rolling out, and we perceive signs of the economy trying to get back on track. Eventually, we will be out of this ordeal. Then what?

What is in store for the scuba diving industry after COVID-19?

We’ve already estimated that about 20% of North American local dive shops will have closed their doors by the end of the pandemic. We believe that travel will…

Scuba Diving Industry News & Editorials | Dive Industry Strategy

Updated on April 11, 2021.

I recently read comments on a post in a Facebook group about surface-supplied air dive systems, and it got me thinking. The original poster was wondering if he should buy a unit for his wife to enjoy the ocean. He was a certified scuba diver. She was not.

Some of the comments were pretty extreme.

“If You whanna die… use it.”

Ya! Grammar and punctuation are not readily visible on Facebook, but that is a whole different story!

“Take a gun and shoot her, it is faster.”

So these Facebook “experts” think surface-supplied air dive…

Scuba Industry News & Editorials

Last updated on March 25, 2021.

“Get your facts first; then you can distort them as you please.” ~Mark Twain.

At Scubanomics, we’ve regularly discussed how much the dive industry is operating blindfolded because of a lack of reliable scuba diving market data. We’ve also examined how dive training agencies are a notable contributor to this dive industry predicament. And we got a prime example, this week, with scuba diving certification agency SSI.

On March 23, 2021, under the disguise of a press release, SSI pretended to share information on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its affiliated local…

Dive Industry Market Data | Scuba & COVID-19

Not all outdoor activities were created equal. While the outdoor industry performed very well during the pandemic, the dive industry was the black sheep with drastically shrinking sales.

During the last 3 months of 2020, Johnson Outdoors’ net income was more than 3 times better than its 2019 results (19.8M vs. 6.4M). Not everybody suffered during the pandemic. Some got richer.

But it’s a totally different story in the scuba diving division of Johnson Outdoors.

Scubapro Worldwide Financial Results — A Recap & Expectations

Scubapro is one of the few scuba diving gear manufacturers for which we can obtain official sales results. As such, it can give us an…

I hope 2021 has been good to you so far and especially, that you are staying healthy!

We’ve prepared for you a few analyses on the dive industry after one year of coronavirus pandemic.

• 2020 Scuba Diving Certifications in the USA including Recently Released 4th Quarter: Open water dive certifications during a year of COVID-19 pandemic.
• The State of The Scuba Diving Industry After a Year of Pandemic: Where does the dive industry stand? What should we expect for dive travel, scuba certifications, and dive gear sales in 2021 and 2022?
• Sales of Scuba Diving Equipment (Scubapro) During the First…

Scuba Diving Industry News & Editorials

In late 2020, PADI announced it was jumping on the mermaid bandwagon — or is it a tail?

PADI is now offering a complete mermaid training program. Other scuba diving and freediving training agencies like SSI and NAUI have been offering such a program for some time now.

PADI’s main goal in creating a mermaid training program appears to be to capitalize on the interest in mermaiding in China. It is trendy among the Chinese! In fact, the PADI training program has been released so far, only in English and Chinese.

Closer to home, considering an increased interest in near-my-home…

Dive Industry Statistics | Scuba & COVID-19

Last updated on Feb. 8, 2021.

The Open Water Certification Census for the USA is produced by DEMA, the Diving Equipment & Marketing Association in San Diego, California. A summary is available to all, while DEMA members also have access to the detailed report, state by state.

We’ve already analyzed the first 3 quarters of 2020. After a disastrous second quarter for entry-level scuba diving certifications, the dive industry did better in the third quarter of 2020.

Data for the 4th quarter of 2020 (October, November, December) is now available. Results are very similar to those of the 3rd quarter.

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