Generations of divers

​The children of today will be the divers of tomorrow.  Every generation thinks that they know better and understand more than the previous generations, and then rushes headlong into making their own mistakes.  I think that the approach that each generation takes to their diving career is formed during their childhood.  Post war rationing lead to a generation that ‘made do and mended’ through their diving career.  This the era of diving with an upturned milk churn and someone manning the pump, putting on an extra sweater to keep out the cold and huge innovation.  This was a “can do” generation that wasn’t scared to take chances.  The Baby Boomers population increase was rapid and experienced an increase in leisure time as the rise of modern appliances dealt with domestic drudgery.

What followed was Generation X (born 1963 -1976 ish) or Generation Me.  Their childhood was associated with an increase in child care and the best education.  They are characterised by low voting participation, high levels of scepticism and a rising divorce rate.  Gen X were teenagers during the Thatcher years, they had their milk snatched, saw mines closed down and saw their parents in negative equity.  Gen X are the ones largely in charge of our branches at the moment.  So if you moan about poor turnout for your AGM, infighting in your branch and people changing branches, please don’t blame them as individuals.  It’s how they grew up and the society influences that made them that way. 

Gen X don’t tolerate inequality and have a sense of entitlement.  They come from a diverse background and expect equal opportunities, fair treatment and, rather than challenge authority as their parents did, they will steadily work towards institutional change.  This slow, steady approach to bringing about a better environment for all is probably evident in all BSAC branches over the last 10 years or so.  Rather than challenge the ‘old guard’ head on, Gen X just get on with changing attitudes and practises in the background.

Generation Y (born 1977 – 1994) formed the next set of new kids coming through into dive clubs.  They are sophisticated, good with technology and immune to traditional marketing ploys.  These guys are hard to recruit but once in your branch you can expect them to embrace new equipment and technology.  The Gen Y divers will also be bringing new ideas into branches, challenging the Gen X to keep up with them, ideas gained from the internet will rapidly spread through the diving community and the Gen Y divers will be right there to try it.  And they expect results, they are less community minded, less interested in current affairs and more likely to switch jobs.  What will this mean for our traditional model of branches? The Gen Y will want the turn up and go diving approach to their branch.  We will find it hard to persuade them to attend instructor training events, resulting in a smaller pool of instructors in the future. Worse still, this generation are parents to Generation Z.  As parents they will be pushy and expect a “service” from your branch, and they will damn well hover over you to ensure you deliver.

So we come to Generation Z (born 1995 – 2013), about whom we don’t know a lot yet, but we do know about the environment they are growing up in.  This is an era of league tables and SATs, of corporate responsibility, austerity and growing environmental understanding. Expect the demand for league table style scores for how many trainees complete within 6 months, failure rates for SD theory tests and incident rates.  Expect Gen Z to ask about qualifications of the instructors, boat handlers and dive managers.  Don’t be surprised if someone asks about the carbon emissions of the boat engine.

These divers will have grown up with technology as an intricate part of their lives and will expect that technology to be present in their diving equipment and instruction.  The Gen Z kids will be even more internet savvy than Gen Y.  Dive clubs will have to move away from the traditional book learning, and into interactive teaching methods that mirror school teaching today.  Expect more videos of skills, online exams and electronic log books.  Hanging from the grab handles on the console of the club boat will be drybags with hats and gloves, but also iPads for recording dive details and posting them on FaceBook before you are even back to the harbour.  Gen Z will compare and judge dive clubs in a way we have never experienced before. 

Gen Z will be connected, in a way that Gen X will struggle to understand.  Tiktok will display their every move.  If they do a try dive with your branch and have a fantastic time, you can expect half the neighbourhood kids to be following you in no time at all.  If they have a bad experience with you….the ripples from their near-drowning experience will spread across the internet before your kit has stopped dripping water.