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ALL CHANGE
NIGEL EATON, EDITOR
HOW HAS SCUBA-DIVING CHANGED OVER the past few decades? On the occasion of our 40th birthday, I decided to ask some of the Diver magazine team what they saw as the single biggest shift in the sport since they first got involved.
For Technical Editor John Bantin, the acceleration in dive gear technology during the past decade was the most striking development in his 24 years as a diver. "There is a lot more good kit to choose from and fewer under-performing products such as the feeble regulators that were still being sold in the '90s," he said.
"Ascent rates could never be managed properly before the Decobrain [the first dive computer], and recent advances in battery technology and smaller microchips mean that such devices are now much cheaper and more user-friendly."
Diver's Internet Editor Louise Trewavas felt that the attitudes of UK divers have loosened up significantly since she started diving in the early '90s. "Divers are less concerned with what qualifications they hold and more focused on just getting on with it and having fun," she said. "They are less up their own bottoms!"
Editor-in-Chief Bernard Eaton, whose experience spans four decades, pinpointed a similar trend. "The major difference is that the various training agencies are no longer putting up barriers but are instead meeting and collaborating," he said. "This is reflected in the more friendly and tolerant attitude that divers of different agencies are showing towards one another, often sharing pool sessions and weekend dives."
Diver's Advertisement Director Jenny Webb learned to dive in 1970, entered the diving industry in 1971, and edited a rival UK diving publication before joining Diver in '82. For her the key difference was straightforward. "It used to all be a bit esoteric - like a secret society. Nowadays everyone you meet has been diving or knows someone who is a diver."
Managing Editor Steve Weinman is not known for being short of opinions. He wanted to highlight three trends since he began diving in 1991. Firstly: "Divers are more worried about damaging marine life and less worried about being damaged by it." Secondly: "UK divers aren't nearly as fascinated by RIBs as they used to be - and aren't the hardboat skippers pleased?" But in Steve's estimation the biggest change was that "families now go diving together!"
What strikes me as the biggest change since I learned to dive in the early '80s? As stated in The Shape of Diving to Come , the growth of email, cell phones and the Internet in the past five to 10 years has transformed the way divers communicate and exchange information - on a personal level, as consumers, and professionally.
This has brought a greater sense of freedom, open-mindedness and individual choice. In many ways it has also turned the diving world from a virtual community into a real one.
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