#142
Reasons Why People Don’t Sign Up for Scuba Lessons?
USACMASDiver - 7/24/2014 5:38 PM
Category: General
Replies: 16

Dear Scuba Forum Members:

I have been teaching diving for a number of years, like, a "lot" of a number of years. I thought that I had heard it all, but yesterday I asked a person why she didn’t dive, and she told me one that I had never, ever heard. So, would other instructors care to share the reasons they have heard why people don’t dive? We know the obvious ones, but if you have heard a unique one, especially if it is one that you heard and it made you go "What?" (Que?) it might be fun to hear it. I will share what she replied after things get redundant because I want to see if any another instructors have heard this one.
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SeaGoat - 7/24/2014 6:43 PM
Wow...I haven’t heard any off the wall reasons but I’ll give you my standards. You’ve piqued my curiosity and I want to know what she said!

Mine:
"I can’t swim"
"I’m claustrophobic [and wearing all that gear underwater will make it worse]."
"I’m broke."
"We’re landlocked and won’t be able to do it often enough for it to be worthwhile." (from my midwestern friends)
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Greg - 7/25/2014 6:01 AM
Scared, claustrophobic, cost too much, no time, sharks, can’t swim well, problems with ears (can’t equalize).
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WarmWaterTurner - 7/25/2014 6:27 AM
Never had the time to take the class, cant swim, also sharks and claustrophobia and cant breath through the mouth.
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LatitudeAdjustment - 7/25/2014 7:32 AM
My cousin (a diver) has a husband (MD) who dives doubles, stage bottle and drysuit but only in fresh water because he is afraid of what’s in the ocean! So fear of the fish is not just for non-divers :(

We have talked about my wife here before, she was hit on the head by a DM with his al80 while taking her OW. Now she is paranoid about suited up divers around her and I’ll probably never get her on a diveboat again :(
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AggieDiver96 - 7/25/2014 8:33 AM
I’m not an instructor but I’ve asked several friends if they would be interested in learning to dive and have heard more than once that they are afraid of various sea creatures, and not just sharks. I’ve also heard the "no where to dive" excuse a few times as well.
#142
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USACMASDiver - 7/25/2014 9:26 AM
Okay, guys, here goes: The reason why she doesn’t want to dive, drum roll, is, I promise I am not making this one up, she replied, "I don’t know exactly what kind of monsters there are down there, but I have seen them on TV, still I figure that if they are going to get you, they are going to get you - it is just such a yucky thought to be down there swimming around in all that undersea monster pee. Ah, that is disgusting."
#142
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USACMASDiver - 7/25/2014 9:31 AM
Another one that you will hear in the Western Pacific, but I have heard this one all the time, and I don’t think American diving instructors have heard this one too much unless they are traveled in the islands of the Western Pacific, but, you will often be bumming around, diving island to island, and boat into an island where not many people who are actually from that island dive, and the dive operations are run by people from other island or Japan, or Australians, etc. The reason is often .... ghosts. And, underwater, ghosts have a very hard time making turns, so they will, if they are there, bump right into you.
#142
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USACMASDiver - 7/25/2014 9:46 AM
Apart from the American lady who told me that she thought diving in the ocean was disgusting because of undersea monster pee, I had a conversation with an island fisherman who was considered "the" old timer on the island. You might have noticed I like to "gab." In his view point, there was a certain nation that was reasonably close by that produced exceptionally poor sailors. Accordingly, think about it, hundreds and hundreds of years of poor seamanship, and where did all those souls go? Right, ... , in his backyard. Go diving? Are you joking? The whole ocean around his island was filled with ghosts. He thought the people who came to his island to dive were the craziest people on the planet. He finished, "Don’t those people know there are ghosts out there!" It is the result of really, really bad seamanship for a couple of thousand years. I came from the land of the Easter Bunny Rabbit and Santa Claus, so what he said to me made perfect sense.
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Greg - 7/25/2014 11:07 AM
Not wanting to scuba dive because of ghosts! Now I’ve heard it all :)
#142
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USACMASDiver - 7/25/2014 1:07 PM
LDJ, I am sorry to hear about this. Ouch.
#142
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USACMASDiver - 7/25/2014 1:08 PM
The cannot breath through the mouth + the taste of the mouth piece. She is, however, starting to see how much fun it is ...
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uwlover4u - 7/29/2014 4:31 AM
It’s all a matter of perspective I guess. Here’s a little experiment: We do it every day without even thinking, what is it you ask, we swallow. Our mouths may fill with saliva and we swallow. Now then, instead of swallowing, spit it out in a glass. Would you now drink it? Gross right? Most people would answer "no way, yuk." But what’s the difference really? It’s a different perspective but I guess that lady was right about the "monster pee". I wonder if this same lady swims in public pools. LOL
#142
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USACMASDiver - 7/29/2014 11:03 AM
Lol, I love it. No, she wouldn’t get into a modern public pool to save her life. Hot tubs are questionable.
#142
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USACMASDiver - 7/29/2014 3:14 PM
EskimoBluDay -

After you posted the comment about the Zombie Course i looked into it. At first I thought you were joking, but then I thought, hold it, you didn’t sound like you were joking. So I looked it up. Oh my, my. Somebody up there said that because I suggested a sport called "Kraken Wrestling" that I must not have any friends or something, but I meant it entirely as a joke. I wasn’t really going to suggest that we have an underwater, giant octopus wresting sport, but now, looking at the Zombie Course, as there seems to be such a thing, "Giant Octopus" wrestling is only "half-stupid."