Alive and kicking: the benefits of scuba diving leisure for older Australian women

ABSTRACT

As the number of older people in the developed world continues to rise, attention has turned to the contribution of leisure activities to quality of life. Leisure behaviour has been studied in numerous activities, including outdoor leisure. Scuba diving research has revealed the typical diver profile to be young and male. Yet with an active and ageing population, these stereotypes are being challenged. One notable group is the over 40s female diver. To understand more about leisure and older women, a qualitative study investigated the benefits scuba diving brings to a group of mature aged Australian women. Utilizing empirical research conducted in a beachside community, this research revealed the benefits older women gained from participation in diving activities and how diving activities contributed to their well-being. Findings contribute to the knowledge of serious leisure and continuation theory for adventurous older Australian women, an unexplored segment of the growing scuba diving community.

KEYWORDS:

• Leisure benefits
• older women
• continuity theory and scuba diving

Acknowledgements

Tragically, one of the participants in this research died recently, I was hoping to tribute her Bubbly Annie Owen 1966–2018.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Sally F. Gregory http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3237-8932

Kay Dimmock http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9098-014X

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sally F. Gregory

Sally F. Gregory is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Business and Tourism, at Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Australia. She holds Masters Degrees in Business Administration and International Tourism and Hotel Management and has extensive industry experience in dive instruction, sales, marketing and adventure tour leading in the Australian scuba diving industry. Her research interests include leisure constraints in scuba diving, marketing of diving destinations, scuba diving tourism in the Asia Pacific region and active aging in adventure sport for baby boomer and older women.

Kay Dimmock

Kay Dimmock PhD (SCU), M.Ed (USQ), B.Bus Tourism (Hons) (SCU). Kay has extensive experience teaching and research within the School of Business and Tourism across 24 units at Postgraduate and Undergraduate levels ranging from business management and strategy to leisure experiences and marine tourism. She has published in various peer-reviewed journals individually and collaboratively written book chapters and contributed to industry-based technical reports – in areas including management competencies in tourism education, managing tourism operations, international tourism trends and risk management in outdoor adventure. She works collaboratively with marine tourism stakeholders at regional and local levels. Kay supervises postgraduate research students including in marine tourism, scuba diving tourism, teaching and education in tourism and adventure leisure.