Yesterday, I made a post on this blog about the exciting efforts of Team Scuba for the upcoming NASCAR Bush East season.  In that post, I credited DEMA as being a supporter of this effort.  Several communications from people involved with Team Scuba have voiced the opposite.  Not only does DEMA not financially support the Team Scuba NASCAR effort, they are apparently hostile to the effort.

Ray Black Sr. is the owner of Commercial Diving Academy in Jacksonville, Florida.  He is also team owner of Team Scuba.  Jed Livingstone is Vice President of NAUI, one of the major sponsors of Team Scuba.  From reports I have been able to get today, and from comments from these involved individuals, it appears that DEMA was offered an opportunity to participate in this effort.  They refused.  In fact,  they demonstrated some level of hostility by CHARGING Team Scuba for the right to exhibit the race car at the recent DEMA show in Orlando, Florida.  I am simply forced to ask myself why. 

The scuba diving industry grew up in California.  Most of the major scuba manufacturing companies are located in California.  The largest scuba certification agency in the world, PADI, is headquartered in California.  Some Californians view NASCAR as simply a “southern” thing.  They fail to realize that this sport is the fastest growing spectator sport in the United States.  They don’t see that NASCAR fans are among the most brand loyal fans of any sport, that the typical NASCAR fan has a family income considerably larger than the average income in the United States, and that NASCAR fans recognize the drivers as being real athletes.  A quote from the James Madison University Center for Sports Sponsorship says it perfectly.

Maybe a simple lack of knowledge about the marketing power of NASCAR is the reason that DEMA would not offer support to Team Scuba.  Maybe DEMA is spending all of their available funds on the Be a Diver campaign.  Regardless of the reason, we hope it will change. 

I have no doubt that a successful season for Team Scuba will likely do nothing to impact the number of new scuba diver certifications in California; but there is scuba diving far east of California.  Those of us in the south eastern part of the United States would LOVE to have the NASCAR crowd in our scuba stores.  We know they love their sport, they believe their sponsors, and they support the brands and organizations that sponsor NASCAR.  Even a moderately successful season for Team Scuba will make a gigantic difference to scuba diving east of California.

I would like to suggest that DEMA change their attitude toward the NASCAR effort being advanced by Team Scuba.  This is a team with a good plan, a great young diver, and they are participating in a rapidly growing part of automobile racing, the NASCAR Bush East series.  Maybe DEMA could begin to shift their support by returning any money Team Scuba paid to DEMA for the rights to display at the show.   Let Team Scuba spend it putting this fast kid and his fast car in front of a brand new group of potential divers.   After all, what THEY are doing will actually improve the economic picture for the DEMA members.

I am sorry for mistakenly giving DEMA credit when credit was not deserved.  I hope that DEMA, and all of the other large potential industry sponsors, will realize that what we need in the scuba diving industry is more scuba divers…..even if they also happen to love NASCAR racing.

Phil Ellis

Note to Ray:  Bring your demonstration car to my store in Alabama and I will show you a crowd of people that love scuba diving and NASCAR.

You Can Race to Discount Scuba Gear at Dive Sports