Further developments in technology have reduced the cost of training and diving. Scuba-diving has become a popular leisure activity, and many diving locations have some form of dive shop presence that can offer air fills, equipment and training. In tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world, there is a large market in holiday divers; people who train and dive while on holiday, but rarely dive close to home. Technical diving and use of re-breathers are increasing, particularly in areas of the world where deeper wreck diving is the main underwater attraction. Generally, recreational diving depths are limited to a maximum of between thirty and forty meters, beyond which a variety of safety issues make it unsafe to dive using recreation diving equipment and practices, and specialized training and equipment for technical diving are needed.

Some divers see a split beginning to emerge in recreational diving between regular recreational divers, who often dive in their home communities, and leisure divers, characterized as those who dive occasionally, normally when abroad on holiday. It is sometimes observed that there is a tension between the two, and that leisure divers are often inexperienced, either under-trained or over-qualified, and sustain only a minimal empathy with the underwater world. The call is usually not that these divers be restrained from diving, but that they are being encouraged to dive more regularly in their home communities so as to gain experience and support their local diving scene. However, as recreational diving has a very low accident and death rate; it is a commonly held view that current training requirements are adequate.