DIVE LOCAL
U.S. Dive Clubs
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Dive Clubs are one of the four pillars of local diving communities.  The four pillars of every local diving community are the dive stores, dive boats, dive clubs, and dive instructors.  These four industry stakeholder groups are the ones responsible for building a local diving community, growing it, and maintaining it.  These full-time, part-time, and volunteer Dive Industry Professionals teach people how to dive, sell and service diving equipment, take people diving, and keep them active in our recreation.  Dive Clubs keep divers active in the recreational diving community.  Their purpose should be to make a one-time experience into a lifelong passion for every person that becomes a certified diver.

Dive clubs have been around since the early 1950’s and in my opinion, are the foundation of what eventually became the global diving community.  This article is not about the history of dive clubs.  Our purpose is to bring the current awareness of the purpose and importance that dive clubs have to the global diving industry.  We want to show how important dive clubs are to our industry’s future, and how we can research, analyze, manage, promote, and contribute to the growth and development of dive clubs on a worldwide basis.

Dive Club Specialties: Historically, dive clubs were started as a regional group of likeminded individuals to facilitate social interaction, based on a common interest.  If we were to construct a template for dive club start-ups, the first thing we would consider is the purpose of the club and what the future members’ common denominator would be.  Some clubs in the past have focused on certified divers.  Anyone who was a certified diver was welcome to join the club.  That’s a pretty wide range of diving interests.  Other clubs, and successful ones at that, have specialized in Spearfishing, Freediving, Wreck Diving, and Underwater Photography.  Dive clubs that have started in the past twenty years may have added common denominators such as tech diving, cave diving, dive travel, mermaiding, and environmental conservation.  It is up to the club founders to decide if they are going to specialize in one common denominator or offer membership to all certified divers and cater to several specialties within the club.

Side Hussle: In our research, we found a number of clubs that were borderline dive club / dive business.  Dive clubs are sometimes formed specifically to teach diving, sell more diving equipment, fill a local dive boat, or sell group dive travel.  When thinking about joining a local dive club, you may want to look at the club’s charter, the club’s Board of Directors, and the frequency of rotation of their directors, dive instructors, and dive travel specialists.

Need For Dive Club Research: We have access to historical data on dive clubs going back to the early 1950’s and continuing on until just a few years ago.  Understanding the past history of dive clubs gives industry planners a good perspective into this industry sector’s historical timeline, but before the diving industry can begin promoting Dive Clubs to the current roster of active scuba divers, we need to research the current data that is available on this important stakeholder group.  Current data will give us a better idea as to how dive clubs are positioned in the new millennium.   What is their organizational structure?  How are they run?  Where do they meet?  How often do they meet?  How many members do they have?  What do they offer their members?  What are the benefits of membership?

Dive Club Differentiation: Dive clubs can be started as a social activity or for an educational pursuit.  I’ve seen the formation of dive clubs at high schools, colleges & universities, military bases, and with professional trade groups like fire fighters and police officers.   So, when we think of dive clubs, we should not limit ourselves to just thinking about civilian clubs or clubs started by dive stores.  Clubs can be very effective in making people aware of scuba diving and getting them started on a lifelong adventurous journey as a certified diver.   This may be a good time to expand our concept of what a dive club is and could be if managed correctly.

Establishing Industry Norms: There are a few things we already know that make dive clubs successful.  First of all, they need to be organized as a separate entity, even if they are run by a dive store, dive boat, university, or independent scuba diving instructor. Incorporating a dive club is a good idea.  Making it a non-profit organization is even better.  Having a separate bank account and a physical location that does not change every time a new president of the club is elected gives the club a sense of stability.  A club should have its own website and social media accounts.  Local dive clubs should be active participants in their local diving community, and the local diving community should promote and support dive clubs active in their community.  Promotion and support is an integrated strategy of local diving communities.

Researching current dive clubs will shed more light into the preferred organizational structure of 21^st century dive clubs.  We will be able to establish dive club norms and publish best practices.  With enough industry support from active dive club members, we can document the things that make modern-day dive clubs successful and identify some of the club challenges and roadblocks they face.  With defined problems we can collectively work to resolve industry conflicts and help create a roadmap for recovery and growth.  And the best thing about an organized community sector is that each dive club will be aware of each other and be in a position to discuss things that dive clubs have in common.

Establish Strategic Partners: Dive clubs can grow exponentially in numbers and influence by forming strategic partnerships with dive businesses and industry professionals in the Global Diving Business Network, especially the ones in their local dive community.  With proper mentoring and guidance, dive clubs can make people aware of scuba diving, assist in getting them certified, conduct local dives, and promote vacation dive trips.

Dive Club Listing: Based on the success we had with our U.S. Dive Store Directory on our DIVE LOCAL website, we started listing Florida Dive Clubs on its Florida page. The next step was to list all the Dive Clubs in the U.S., which has its own webpage.  Our long-range objective is to eventually list all dive clubs worldwide.

For more information about the Global Diving Business Network, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director of the Dive Industry Association, 2294 Botanica Circle, West Melbourne, FL 32904.  Phone: 321-914-3778.  Email: gene@diveindustry.net  Web: www.diveindustry.net

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