A year ago, I would have told you the life blood of dive shops was tourism. Then a funny thing happened, tourism died! March 2020 led dive shops and those that work in the industry searching for answers. A new pandemic cut us in the worst possible way, our wallets! States restricted who could work, who couldn’t. What types of businesses could operate and to what extent.
As Professional Dive Instructors and Shop Owners it was back to the drawing board. We had to look at operating at a loss, how to get our shops open and what that would look like with COVID restrictions, and for many of the Instructors that teach on their own, what would our new model look like.
When the tier systems allowed, we opened as fast as we safely could. To my surprise waiting there eagerly was the dive club. Over the next year we saw all of your faces week after week, dive after dive, course after course. I don’t know if we can ever say thank you enough, but you the dive club carried us through. So to all those that swear up and down that we are in the tourism business, I will fight you to the ends of the earth that we are a Family company, and the Dive club is truly our Family. I’m currently out of the water for a few weeks and miss you all. I can’t wait to see all of your faces in the shop, on the boat and best of all, At Depth Joseph Diaz PADI IDC Staff Instructor Aaron’s Dive Shop Pacific Dive Academy
