2007 DAN Diving report

The 2007 DAN Diving report is out. Not many people read the annual DAN reports but some of the trends may be interesting

Interesting facts from DANs PDE (2005 - latest report)
The greatest number and average age of divers is in their 40's
years diving: about 7% of divers in each of the years 1-5, 5% each in years 6-10 and the remaining 40% having more than 10 years
About half are AOW or OW with <10% instructor and <5% Cave/Technical
about 70% of dives were shallower then 90' more then 95% were shallower then 120 and less then 1% were 150' or deeper.

65% used wetsuits, 15% drysuits, and the remaining 20% lycra, diveskin or swimsuit

About half as many women as men
women less likely to become Dive Master / Dive instructor then men
women about twice as likely to get into Cave/Technical
(As a result there may be as many or more women in Cave/Technical diving as men despite a lower overall number of women in diving)

About 78% of dives are planned using dive computers (up from 71% in 2003)

The overall rate of DCI is around 3 cases per 10,000 dives (down from a high of 5-10 prior to 2000)

Non PDE trends
It is assumed the number of dives and number of divers has been growing yearly
the number of diving fatalities has generally lessened since 1970 and remained relatively constant since 2000
the number of breath-hold diving incidents is increasing since 2000

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Originally Posted by Gary

About half as many women as men
women about twice as likely to get into Cave/Technical
(As a result there may be as many or more women in Cave/Technical diving as men despite a lower overall number of women in diving)

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Something does make much sense here.... Maybe it's a case of the Mondays but the way I read these statements....

"about half as many women as men" so that would mean that there are about 2 men divers for every woman diver.

"women about twice as likely to get into cave/tech" would mean that for every guy diver going tech there are about 2 women going tech.

Well if you take both together, we should be seeing the same proportion of men and women in the tech world. We are far from there for sure. Maybe this is applicable for current certification but still I don't believe we see anywhere as many women taking tech/cave course as men.

Should be interpeted as 2x(1/2) = 1
Or about as many women tech as men tech

There are certainly a lot more women in cave diving now then there used to be. The PDE data though is taken mostly from OW divers, liveaboards etc so it may not be accurate for the dive environment you experience.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gary

women about twice as likely to get into Cave/Technical
(As a result there may be as many or more women in Cave/Technical diving as men despite a lower overall number of women in diving)

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Now THAT is some great news. :clapper :-D

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Originally Posted by Gary

women about twice as likely to get into Cave/Technical
(As a result there may be as many or more women in Cave/Technical diving as men despite a lower overall number of women in diving)

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This has been my fortunate experience (for caves not OW tech/deco)

Really?

Perhaps they all run away when I show up! :)

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Originally Posted by aainslie

Really?

Perhaps they all run away when I show up! :)

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Especially when you refer to them as "Jeff".

(BITES LIP)
(ZIPS LIP)

ROFL

Jean

P.S. I would love someday to have a chick-cave-dive and the guys can "tag" along lol

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Originally Posted by jeandiver

(BITES LIP)
(ZIPS LIP)

ROFL

Jean

P.S. I would love someday to have a chick-cave-dive and the guys can "tag" along lol

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I remember a couple years ago you and Tracy did a chick-cave-dive out past the peanut restriction toward Challenge while I was spending the day on dry land trying to unclog my ears and sinuses. I didn't even get to tag along on that one! Tracy took great delight in telling me what a wonderful dive it was!

Mike

See you in October, Jeano!:)

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Originally Posted by Gary

(As a result there may be as many or more women in Cave/Technical diving as men despite a lower overall number of women in diving)

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One of each at our house.:)

I never get any argument if I want to spend money on dive gear - I just have to buy two!

Mike

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Originally Posted by MORGAN

One of each at our house.:)

I never get any argument if I want to spend money on dive gear - I just have to buy two!

Mike

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Excellent, that is how we have two SS scooters and two megs...(I bought them....) :-)
and virtually two of whatever else we have.... yeah for toys!!!

Dive safe,

Celia

I think the men still out number the women because there were such a higher ratio of men to women for so long. It would be interesting to compare the numbers in the agency memberships. I would really like to see the gear and dry suit manufactures take note of these numbers and start making Cave Diving Equipment that can fit women without so much modification. And not all of us are skinny little gals that fit in the mens small size. We are older and unfortunatly women get a little wider as they age. The dive industry seems to think we are all 18 and tiny. By the way I was at 18. But with a median age of 40 it would seem that some of the sizing would change. Baby boomers are aging and women in that group have raised their kids and becoming active. To me the companies need to start looking at these market changes. I will cry with joy the day I can buy an off the rack dry suit! LOL, Cindy

As cave diving has gotten to become a poplar form of "sport diving" there has been more women introduced, to something which was male dominated. By the way I do not consider cave diving a recreational sport! It has been destroyed by aggressive instructors who do it for the money.

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Originally Posted by EGIB

Especially when you refer to them as "Jeff".

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Just spotted this.

Damn! Sorry about that, Elisha.

Paint those tanks something other than black!!!

And I owe you a beer...