How to save/grow/maintain/popularize our hobby!!!!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Watch this video and think submarine when you see airplane.

https://youtu.be/Dvg-T6S2vdQ

David
Old, Insufferable A-hole

[tifosi12]

Some good points. As a R/C pilot I see exactly the same thing happening in this hobby as well: Most fliers are old farts like me. Yes, there are some younger guys (no kids though) but they are mostly more into the helos for acrobatics.

The video disses the Apprentice. :( Darn. I have that plane and love to fly it. It's very forgiving, which is important to this less than stellar pilot.

[Subculture]

This hobby as we know it now, will end with the boomer generation.

[trout]

Maybe we can do a video of subs crashing into kids?

[redboat219]

Unless your venue allows you to watch what your boat is doing underwater like here https://youtu.be/C_YM3mZqKPM running
an RC sub is it's not visually stimulating as an RC aircraft car/truck or boat.

[Subculture]

I don't see a younger crowd engaging in other areas of the hobby either. The one exception seems to be drone racing, which is largely plug-and-play.


Hobbies will continue into the future, but they'll be different to how they were practiced before, smaller numbers especially at the sharp end. Many clubs and societies will fold or have to reform themselves to the point of being open and free to join portals if they're primarily information based. Those with infrastructure may struggle to recruit members with sufficient skills to maintain it to an acceptable standard.

This is already clear to see today. The shift won't necessarily be linear.

[roedj]

Personally, sadly, I have to agree that the hobby, as we know it, will die with the older generation like me. I find videos of subs whizzing about in swimming pools as about as visually stimulating as watching paint dry - but that's just MHO. Many moons ago there was a gentleman who ran subs at his cottage in the St. Lawrence Seaway and who took videos of them running over real live river bottoms. I always thought that were very nice.

May I share the video that had a lot to do with me getting into this RC sub hobby...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAHwN7-Lo2Q

The sub, BTW, is an OTW Oberon and with a camera attached running in relatively clear water rings my bell.

Captain Concerned

[Subculture]

Swimming pools are IMO by far and away the best venues for operating model submarines, having clear water, good depth and a sheer drop from the side allowing that depth to be utilised when close to the edge, but also allowing a model to be easily recovered if the unthinkable happens.

Sadly they usually tend to come at a cost, and most sub modellers I've encountered have in the words of one sub vendor I know- 'short arms and deep pockets'. A few years ago I asked how many would be interested in paying say £80 (about $100) a year to fund regular pool based events to take place in and around London and the South East. I figured if I could get ten to fifteen people signed up, then we could almost have one a month.

I think two or three said they would but as many more said not a chance. Most never responded at all. I think these sort of things are important as it's connection that builds and maintains interest in a hobby at group level.

[Das Boot]

Look guys, even the rc plane hobby is going downhill. RC doesn’t interest this new generation. They don’t have the money or the time to invest in it. Just face it. After us, it’s over.

[Fishb0y]

Just vomiting some thoughts here...

I watched this video last week which got me thinking of how I'm trying to get into this hobby.

Flite Test has rejuvenated RC flying through their videos and simple foam board kits. Every year they have the largest RC flying event filled with kids building/flying/crashing into each other.

Drawing parallels with RC flying, Bob' videos are what got me excited about building my first sub with 3D printing. Social media/accessible models is what will get younger people into the hobby.

[redboat219]

Submarine races using 3D printed hulls, purely dynamic diver.

[neitosub]

No, RC will not be dying with the boomer generation. You guys have clearly never played with modern hobby grade RC cars.

To say RC is a dying hobby is highly inaccurate. Whereas the RC submarine hobby is stagnating and on the decline, land-based RC has been thriving for years. I devote my time between RC subs and RC scale trucks almost equally and for the latter, the amount of innovation that has been coming out over the last few years is amazing.

Of course, it’s much easier to get kids into RC via something like RC monster trucks/bashers because of the inherent nature of these vehicles: land based RC is generally safer and less risky than RC airplanes, you can run them almost anywhere, entry-level RTRs are relatively affordable, and you don’t really need to be part of a club to get training and to enjoy them.

I think the biggest barrier for getting the younger generation into RC subs is simply the fact that most people do not know RC subs even exist… I think if we give the proper exposure to our hobby to the younger generation, those who will be interested will come.

[Fishb0y]

No, RC will not be dying with the boomer generation. You guys have clearly never played with modern hobby grade RC cars.

To say RC is a dying hobby is highly inaccurate. Whereas the RC submarine hobby is stagnating and on the decline, land-based RC has been thriving for years. I devote my time between RC subs and RC scale trucks almost equally and for the latter, the amount of innovation that has been coming out over the last few years is amazing.

Of course, it’s much easier to get kids into RC via something like RC monster trucks/bashers because of the inherent nature of these vehicles: land based RC is generally safer and less risky than RC airplanes, you can run them almost anywhere, entry-level RTRs are relatively affordable, and you don’t really need to be part of a club to get training and to enjoy them.

I think the biggest barrier for getting the younger generation into RC subs is simply the fact that most people do not know RC subs even exist… I think if we give the proper exposure to our hobby to the younger generation, those who will be interested will come.

I totally agree! A little bit of the "dying" RC Hobby...

https://youtu.be/KhbOwATbdMM

[Subculture]

I think you’ve misinterpreted what I wrote.

I said this hobby-e.g. RC subs will end as we know it with the boomer generation.

How many people do you see actively engaged in this hobby under 50? How many under 60 for that matter. Wind back twenty years how many was it then?

Sure you’ll get some still practicing it, but it’ll look a lot different to how it is now. Will it be enough to run events, supply kits/wtc’s/electronics, publish magazines, contribute meaningful content on forums etc.

This is just my opinion, so you can disagree, it’s healthy to see some debate on this so long as it remains civil. You’re young enough to see how it’ll pan out.

Be interested in hearing about what you believe would draw in more interest.

[Subculture]

Social media/accessible models is what will get younger people into the hobby.

These have both been around for several years now, and there is a lot of pages out there on facebook and Youtube related to the hobby. Social media has some advantages in that it reaches a larger audience than say forums or specialist websites. However it can be a bit ephemeral (e.g. difficult to archive) and shallow (ooo look pretty pictures, cool- next) plus there is the issue of are you actually educating or entertaining. Perhaps a bit of both, but if it skews more to the latter, when you're hoping for the former, then it might not achieve the results hoped for.

There are quite a few comparatively inexpensive (e.g. related to say RC cars and ARTR aeroplanes) and easy to build models on the market, especially in the last few years. Short of RTR, you couldn't get much more prefabricated. I can list some here, but not sure how Bob feels about the promotion of third-party company products.