Cooperation, Not Competition: A Better Way Forward in the Dive Industry

Scuba diving is supposed to be about peace and discovery, yet too often our industry looks more like a schoolyard spat than a professional community. Think about it: when you’re hovering weightless over a coral reef, watching schools of fish swirl in unison, the last thing on your mind is petty squabbles. Yet, somehow, once we climb back on the boat or log onto social media, those peaceful bubbles turn into storm clouds.

We all know examples — snide comments online, half-truths whispered at dive shows, and instructors competing with each other instead of focusing on their students. I’ve personally seen situations where one professional, rather than picking up the phone and seeking a respectful resolution, turned a minor difference into a running feud. It didn’t help anyone. It discouraged divers, burned bridges, and left a bad taste in the mouths of students who just wanted to enjoy the sport.

The real threats to diving aren’t each other — they’re the other hobbies, sports, and industries competing for people’s attention. If we want diving to grow, we need to replace rivalry with cooperation and make the sport welcoming for newcomers.

The Futility of Infighting

When we pick at each other, post barbed comments, or spread stories we didn’t even witness, we’re not actually competing — we’re cannibalizing. A diver who gets turned off by toxic behavior isn’t leaving one shop; they’re leaving the sport entirely.

That means fewer students, fewer trips, fewer gear sales. Every time we chase someone away with arrogance or gossip, we’re not just hurting “them” — we’re shrinking the future of scuba itself.

The True Challenge We Face

Let’s be honest: our real challenge isn’t the shop across town or the instructor who teaches with a different agency. It’s the other thrilling activities waiting for people’s time, money, and imagination. Paintball, hunting, rock climbing, snowboarding — these are the hobbies the next generation is choosing.

Why? Because those communities often do a better job at welcoming newcomers. If a 20-year-old walks into a paintball arena, they’re greeted, geared up, and encouraged. If they walk into a dive shop and get eye-rolls for not knowing the difference between DIN and yoke, do you think they’ll stick around?

The youth aren’t avoiding scuba because it isn’t exciting. They’re avoiding it because too often they don’t feel welcome.

When We Trip Ourselves Up

Over the years, I’ve seen the same patterns repeat:

The Social Media Sniper
An instructor posts a photo of their students’ first dive. Instead of a “Congratulations!” another pro jumps into the comments with a laundry list of everything they would have done differently. The students see it. Their excitement turns into embarrassment. A moment that should have inspired a lifetime of diving instead becomes their last dive trip.
The Whisper Campaign
At the boat dock or on the boat, one operator spends more time sharing gossip about another shop than promoting their own trips. The story wasn’t even something they personally witnessed — just hearsay passed along. The result? Visitors walk away with the impression that divers are cliquish and mean-spirited. Who wants to join a community like that?
The Intimidation Factor
A young diver, fresh out of certification, shows up at a local dive along. Instead of encouragement, they’re told, “You’re not ready for that trip,” or laughed at for not knowing what a pony bottle is. That diver doesn’t stick around — and neither do their friends, who were watching to see if scuba might be “their thing.”
The Turf War
Two shops in the same town spend months undercutting each other, spreading subtle digs, and fighting for the same handful of students. Meanwhile, nobody is investing energy into outreach at local schools, universities, or community groups. While they fight over crumbs, an entire generation of potential divers drifts away to try rock climbing or wakeboarding instead.

What It Costs Us

Every one of these moments pushes people away. And when they leave, they don’t just leave one instructor or one shop — they leave diving entirely. That’s a lost certification, lost gear sales, lost trips, and most importantly, lost advocates for the sport.

It’s hard enough competing with thrill sports like snowboarding, skydiving, or mountain biking, which already market themselves as welcoming, energetic communities. Why make it harder on ourselves by tearing each other down?

One of the qualities I have always admired about Brian Carney of SDI is his extraordinary willingness to work alongside other agencies without hesitation or bitterness. He has never taken issue with instructors he knows teaching for different certifying bodies, and instead of seeing them as rivals, he treats them as colleagues working toward the same goal. That kind of openness, charity, and compassion is exactly the example our industry needs more of. It shows that cooperation isn’t weakness—it’s strength, and it’s the path forward if we want diving to grow and thrive.

A Biblical Reminder

The Bible is full of wisdom about how communities thrive — and how they fall apart.

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (Proverbs 15:1) Imagine if our online debates about gear or training methods followed that advice.
"A soft tongue can break a bone." — Proverbs 25:15
“If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” (Galatians 5:15) Scroll through a few scuba forums, and you’ll see why this verse stings.
And of course, the Golden Rule in Matthew 7:12: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If we lived by that, every new diver would be greeted with encouragement, not criticism.

Business Sense: Why Cooperation Wins

From a strictly business standpoint, kindness is a growth strategy.

Referrals: When one shop is full, referring a student to another doesn’t weaken your business — it strengthens trust. That student will remember who helped them get in the water.
Joint Events: Co-hosted dive trips, beach cleanups, or training events create energy that no single operator can muster alone.
Shared Reputation: A region known for supportive dive pros becomes a destination. A region known for backbiting becomes a cautionary tale.

The bottom line? Nobody wins when we fight over crumbs. Everybody wins when we bake a bigger pie.

Lessons We have all seen

I’ve seen situations where divers were criticized online for decisions others weren’t there to witness. I’ve seen conversations that could have been resolved with a five-minute phone call explode into weeks of passive-aggressive sniping. In one case, an instructor tried to publicly undermine another because they felt threatened by their success.

Not one of these incidents resulted in more divers. Not one grew the sport. All they did was make us look childish and drive potential students into the arms of other hobbies.

A Little Humor (Because It’s Needed)

We like to tell students that scuba is about slowing down, relaxing, and letting the stress of the surface world float away. And yet, sometimes the only thing more turbulent than a surface chop is the gossip floating around the industry.

Honestly, if sharks aren’t biting us underwater, why are we biting each other topside?

The Call to Action

The dive industry cannot survive if we act like rivals fighting over scraps. The number of new divers is declining every year, and if we keep tearing each other down, we’ll only accelerate that decline.

What we need is cooperation:

Be kind.
Be generous.
Help other divers feel welcome.
Treat new divers like the future of the sport — because they are.

If we do this, we won’t just grow our own businesses — we’ll ensure that scuba itself thrives for generations. If we don’t, well… we might win a few petty arguments, but we’ll lose the only competition that really matters: keeping people in the water.