Even More Excuses…

“But we’ve always done it this way.” Okay, now we’re getting to the real reason. Dive stores and dive educators are notoriously resistent to change. It’s always easier to keep doing things the same old way than it is to keep up with the changes in your customers’ needs.

For example, just think of the number of instructors who persisted in teaching conventional buddy breathing long after dive operators stopped allowing anyone to dive if they were not equipped with some sort of alternate air source.

The ability to adapt to change is necessary for survival. If you think you can keep doing the same old thing indefinitely, you won’t be in business for long.

“If we switch to using weight-integrated BCs in training, we’ll lose several hundred dollars a year in weight belt sales.” Okay, this one I can understand. One out of five dive stores currently sells weight belts to all of their entry level students. Admittedly, that’s a tough sale to walk away from. Consider this, however:

You can always have students purchase something else to make up for lost weight belt sales. For example, it’s heartbreaking to go to the pool and see your students’ expensive masks, snorkels and fins spread all over the deck because they lack a proper carrying container. In place of a weight belt, you could always require that students purchase a suitable mesh or other equipment bag.
You can use the money students save to put them into better-quality masks and fins. The money students save by not buying a weight belt, for example, could make it easier for them to move up from cheap, plastic, non-split fins to top-of-the-line split fins made from advanced polymers.
If you put students in weight-integrated BCs, you’ll sell more weight-integrated BCs. The extra money you’ll make will help offset any lost weight belt sales.
You’ll have fewer pissed off customers. Sooner or later, customers will ask, “If you only rent and sell weight-integrated BCs, why did you make me spend $40 on a weight belt? Were you trying to rip me off?”

It’s Not Only Right, It’s Defensible

Dive stores originally got into diver training so that we could safely teach divers how to use the equipment we were selling them. As items such as BCs, power inflators, alternate air sources and dive computers became standard equipment, we’ve expanded our curriculum to include their safe operation and use.

It’s time to do the same with weight-integrated BCs. Students need as much instruction in the safe use of this equipment as they do any other piece of gear. We, as an industry, need to step up and meet this responsibility.

Weight integration is chiefly considered an issue of comfort and convenience. It’s much more than that, however. Conventional weight belts have some serious drawbacks in the areas of fit, safety and environmentally responsible diving.

You should check out the August-September issue of StupidDiverTricks.com, and see why weight belts have been awarded the Bronze Turkey Award.

The vast majority of diving consumers have long since let us know that they consider weight belts obsolete. In fact, about the only thing keeping them alive is our stubborn resistance to change. We can do a lot better than this.

Bragging Rights

It feels good to be doing the right thing. Last year, I was with a group of students at our store’s local open-water training site. Our students, like most others present that day, were using weight-integrated BCs. One of our students, however, was watching in fascination as another group of students from a local YMCA were struggling with 20- to 30-pound weight belts.

“What did those divers do wrong?” our student asked.

“Nothing that I’m aware of,” I replied.

“Then why are they being punished?”

All of us like to feel good about what we teach. Using only modern, up-to-date equipment that reflects what divers are actually buying and using is something worth feeling good about.

Were this the “bad old days” of the 1970s, it’s likely a store in our position would succumb to the temptation of telling prospective customers things like, “You don’t want to learn from that other dive store. They force students to use archaic, uncomfortable and potentially dangerous dive gear.”

Of course, these days we realize that making such statements is unprofessional and doesn’t help diving in the long run. Nevertheless, just because you don’t want to say things like that doesn’t mean you have to deny yourself the satisfaction of thinking them. — Harry Averill

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