Hey, it's a big world and all are entitled to their opinion.
I guess I will take them on one at a time.
A huge money making industry???
The SCUBA industry is dyeing on the vine folks. Every year fewer and fewer people are getting certified. The avg. diver keeps diving for less then 5 years.
There are 1700 dive shops in america. If you add up all the money that is generated by the stores, travel, certifications and anything else you can dream up - it all totals to around 25% of what REI did with only 77 stores in america. SCUBA $245 million, REI $885 million. So I would make the case that SCUBA is FAR from a huge money making industry.
Did you know that to wetsuit designers/manufactures SCUBA is considered secondary to their main market of surfing?? Sad I think.
I am a PADI Master SCUBA diver trainer that taught in the trenches from '99 till a couple years ago when I started working on this project. I have more then 3000 dives teaching, more then 350 certifications from open water to divemaster, thousands of DSD's - and never in all my days would I ever describe SCUBA as demanding and difficult.
I would say that SCUBA is the great equalizer, that even a huge person on land can be weightless and graceful in the water.
Does that mean that any out of shape person should go diving? No, but thats why everyone is required to fill out a medical questionnaire and be properly trained.
So I guess all us SCUBA instructor are money grubbing liars, misleading people about the dangers of diving?? I don't know who you're hanging out with, but I can say for a fact that again, in all my years I have never met a SCUBA instructor or any one in the dive industry that thinks like that.
Did you know that the incident rate in SCUBA diving is the same as bowling?? .08%
Expensive??
Golf is expensive, skiing is expensive. You buy clubs and you still have to pay big $$ for green fees. Buy ski gear, you still have to spend big $$ on lift tickets. Buy SCUBA gear, dive locally like you do in the great lakes and all you have is air fills. $5 - $6 expensive? So McDonalds or Air to go diving. I would say that is an inexpensive activity.
Packing fragile reef systems with poorly trained, inexperienced divers is not "going Green".
This one is my favorite. I take great pride as an instructor on properly training my divers. I've seen boat companies drop anchors and destroy more coral with one drop then thousands of divers visiting the same sight. The more people learn about something the more they appreciate it. So to assume on your part that some how they are bad and don't get it - sounds a lot to me like the people that are Americans that don't want to let anyone else in. To imply somehow that all us others are not "real adventurers" I would say is offensive at best.
One of my favorite quotes that is very familiar to people who care about the environment is -
"In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will only understand what we are taught" Baba Dioum, Senegalese Conservationist.
A big part of the overall TANK'D program is working with schools that are looking for ways to make math and science exciting. We also then have community outreach programs to get the kids out of the classrooms and into their communities making a difference.
Our goal is to create awareness about the plight of the oceans, get more people in the water, learning about that other 70% of the planet, and therefore more people caring about the oceans.
So i would say that's about as a good as an example as you can find as something "green"
TANK'D was designed from the beginning with one thing in mind. It was not going to be a PADI, Scubapro show. No offense to either - I'm a Scubapro wearing PADI instructor.
But the point is that is was always going to promote the lifestyle and the industry as a whole.
Part of the reason it is a travel show, is that format helps offset some of our production costs. The hotel, resort etc that we stay at are featured in the show. But it is not presented as an ad, it is the travel guide part of the show.
You will see gear, we will feature new innovations in the industry, but PBS does have strict rules on what we are and are not allowed to do. So you won't see any extreme close-up of logos or any of that. Will there be things in the shot that you may recognize? sure.
There are things in television that are easy - girls in skimpy clothes, tension and drama.
Those are easy, but not necessary to have a successful show. When the show comes out, you can let me know if you think there is fake hype.
Part of the concept for the show is that it's real - we are in each location for 2 weeks. We hope to see this and that, but we may not. We are not camping out waiting for the perfect shot. So it has a reality to it that way. The camera is following the hosts, reacting to real events, not acting - so pretty real that way too.
As far as being on PBS.
PBS is the perfect place for TANK'D. It is a fun show with a green message. Discovery channel is in a bit over 67 million homes in the US. PBS is in over 105 million homes in the US. Everyone can see it. You don't have to have cable, you don't have to have some fancy package that costs more. PBS has a history of working with kids in classrooms. PBS has the type of integrity that we value and will help add to our overall message.
You may mean it as an insult saying that it looks like it IS a discovery channel show - but I wear that like a badge of honor.
PBS has the young kids - sesame street - and they have the old crowd - Antiques roadshow, but they have totally given up the middle to channels like discovery.
So we want it to be like a discovery channel show (all the good parts) only on PBS.
We want to help PBS get some of that middle back and get people away from all the Discovery channel noise.
Wrapping up, we run into people from time to time that don't believe and it's OK.
It has been so long since SCUBA has had any buzz about it, that some people think "it'll never work" But on the whole everyone is very supportive and very excited about seeing the show and having something on TV that excites them.
We will never come close to making everyone happy, but very much believe in what we have designed will be successful for us and for the SCUBA industry and the environment.
Even if not everyone likes it.
Chris Malone
Executive Producer
Seven Seas Productions
Last edited by Tank'd Producer; 08-21-2008 at 01:10 AM.
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