Cattle Boat people are in reality fair weather divers as Ron notes; "Primarily found in warm waters." These people tend to dive a lot initially in their first or second year and then become divers of opportunity at places like Aruba, the Caymans, Florida or Southern Europe. They all get a "refresher dive" if they haven't dove in a while and all pile in large tour boats, known as "Cattle boats". They tend to be Open water or maybe Advanced open water divers, but they might have at best 20 -30 "safe and secure" chaperoned dives under their weight belts. We see this all the time in Egypt, though not here on the eastern bank of the Red Sea YET! That said, they make a surprising amount of the annual diving population and though most peter out after a year or two, there are many in-bound newbies that take their place. They have become a locus for the industry and unfortunately the industry does not broaden its fiscal horizons much beyond this group. Cattle Boat types WILL spend a whole bunch of dough on the latest gear and are IMO taken advantage of by the majority of LDSs and the industry as a whole.
Great points in this discussion also point to the DIR types. The DIR is the obverse of the coin in that they tend to be Technical oriented and super dedicated to all aspects of diving and DOING IT RIGHT! DIRs tend to know it all and broker no arguments. And one DIR group might think THEY have all the answers as opposed to another DIR group. They tend to not be very much fun to dive with IMO.The problem here is where are THEY getting their platform to dictate what the color of right is? Experience and over confidence can lead to just as many stupid accidents as the most drunken Russian Cattle Boat diver in Egypt who just got his basic certification. The Vintage type is oriented to DIY and DIR just by the fact that we tend to be tinkerers and self-actualized thinkers that know, through our own experiences, that when you dive it's just you, so get it right or die. But we don't slam the newbie and we encourage all divers to enjoy the sport and OMG themselves to boot. as well as gain valuable knowledge and a sense of history.
That said, I have seen on this forum people who really LOVE the sport as a whole and really LOVE vintage diving. This puts vintage people in a class unto themselves. We don't know it all, as the pure DIR divers thinks he does and we are willing to admit mistakes and gain knowledge in the doing. That is the mark of a self-actualized person. We stand alone and in the middle of both groups who generally tip their hats to us ( in awe as both Cattle Boat and DIR types know "Them Damn Things Will Kill Yah)"and enjoy what we do. By taking back the personal risk, rebuilding our regs and diving what we re-build we take back (from the Scuba Nazis, nabobs and potentates on either side of the coin) the JOY and FUN of diving and make it our own again.This is what makes diving the sport that it should be IMO. If only this mindset could be inculcated into the industry again, there might not be as many LDSs going down the tubes, internet sales withstanding as well. JMO