Don’t Shop… Dive!

Black Friday, the shopping insanity on the day following Thanksgiving, has been celebrated in the U.S. since the 1950s. Today, crowds in over 120 countries worldwide, including New Zealand and Australia, maul stores in search of deeply discounted goods.

But hang onto your shopping bags. Now in its fifth year, “Blue Friday” is gaining more traction than ever as a healthy alternative to Black Friday, with the slogan “Don’t Shop. Dive.”

                                                    In fact, this year, dive operators in dozens of countries
                                                         on four continents will be participating this year.

The First Blue Friday: A New Holiday Tradition
Since 2021, the Marin Scuba Club and the Dive Club of Silicon Valley, both in Northern California, have been embracing Blue Friday, which was the brainchild of Kenneth Carter of Mill Valley, CA.

He said, “I was inspired by REI closing its stores the day after Thanksgiving. That’s why the members of both of these clubs are avoiding the malls to go diving at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve in Carmel-by-the-Sea, within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.”

“It started as an excuse to take my son, who had just gotten his Open Water certification, diving in California waters throughout the year,” added Ken. “I woke up one morning and booked all of the reservations at Point Lobos in 2021. Because we had such a great time with excellent visibility and virtually no other divers the first year, we decided to launch a second annual trip the next year, and have tried to dive every year since.”

Here's my Blue Friday Dive Pacific story from 2023.

Who’s Getting Wet This Year?
Organisations will include PADI, NAUI Worldwide, GreenFins.net, Reef-World.org, CORAL.org, Dive Queensland and DivePlanit Dive Travel in Australia, plus Dive Pacific in New Zealand.

Dive shops and dive boats taking giant strides will consist of NECO Marine and the Black Pearl in Palau; Jack’s Diving Locker on the Big Island of Hawai’i; Marin Diving Center in San Rafael, CA; Amigos del Mar in Mahahual, Mexico; and Sun Divers Roatan in Honduras.

Participating dive clubs will be Marin Scuba Club and Dive Club of Silicon Valley of Northern California; High Plains Scuba Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, will dive in a nearby lake; and a bunch of the 216-member Chicago Underseas Explorers Society in Chicago, Illinois, will get wet at a high school swimming pool.

Instagram #UnderwaterPaparazzi, Jami Leslie Feldman, plans to dive in San Diego, author Jeffrey Bozanic will do it in either Southern California or Florida, author Carlos Lander will dive at Chichiriviche de la Costa in Venezuela, and Service Manager Sameer Chettri will join in the United Arab Emirates’ warm wate

Announcing a New Blue Friday Global Alliance
Through some networking and a bit of luck, I’m now proud to also announce a new alliance that will further extend Blue Friday’s “finprint” across our oceans.

Green Fins, a global initiative that protects coral reefs through sustainable tourism, The Reef-World Foundation, a coral reef conservation charity working to keep reefs alive and thriving, Sun Divers Roatan, a PADI Adopt The Blue site, and Marin Scuba Club will be reaching out to 1,500 marine tourism operators to participate this year by providing a Blue Friday marketing tool kit for social media and blogs.

Sun Divers Roatan will host its third Annual Blue Friday Dive Against Debris at its PADI Adopt The Blue dive site, followed by a community beach and bay clean-up with the Roatan Marine Park.

Organise Your Own Blue Friday 5.0 Event
It’s this easy:

• Plan your dive on 28 November, or any time during the last week of the month.
  
  
• Post your photos, videos, and stories on Facebook and Instagram using #BlueFridayDive, #DontShopDive, and #BlueFriday2025.
  
  
• Share your activities on Marin Scuba Club Facebook, and I’ll recap all Blue Friday activities in a follow-up blog.
  
  
• And support your local dive shop––every purchase helps sustain our community throughout the year.

Wherever you are, warm or cold water, great viz or not, start planning your Blue Friday 5.0 dive now for the last weekend of November. Ask your dive group, shop, and buddies to join you, but if you can't get wet, take an environmental diving e-course or at least visit and support your local shop during its holiday sale. With your expanding global participation, Blue Friday can continue to expand annually as an evergreen holiday event.

For more information, please visit MarinScubaClub.org/blogs.