Going Down

The Texas Dive Show is only a couple of weeks away now. This year they’re having the event up in Dallas.

So far over 600 divers have already registered to attend. There’s a bunch of interesting people exhibiting this year. Everything from my friends and fellow expats at About Australia who will be showcasing all the great Scuba Diving  in Australia to Cochran Computers and Single Divers. There should be everything from Individual Dive Shops, Scuba Gear and Scuba Resorts represented.

I can’t wait to go up to the Texas Dive Show. It’s on Valentine’s weekend, so it’s a good excuse to get out of town. If you’re anywhere within a few hours drive, come on over. We’ll be driving up from San Antonio.  Maybe I’ll see you there!

The Texas Dive Show is being held at the

Embassy Suites Dallas – Frisco
February Friday the 12th & Saturday the 13th
Show Hours Friday 5 PM til 8 PM
Saturday from 9 AM til 5 PM

Since I’m headed to Australia soon, I was thinking about the differences in Diving between the US and Australia. The biggest difference, is probably in the Flags used by divers. I always thought most people recognized the Red and White Diver Down flag. However, after doing a shore dive off Magnetic Island on one of my trips home, where some British Backpackers tried to kill me with their jetski by doing doughnuts around our dive flag, I worked out that perhaps it wasn’t as universal as I thought.

Signal Flag Alpha

Diver Down Flag

Turns out in countries like Australia, the Signal Flag Alpha is the more recognized flag. At least out in the open water. It’s a Universal Maritime flag that means that a vessel has limited maneuverability due to a diver in the water.  Of course, this probably doesn’t help a couple of British backpackers who have rented a jetski for the day. They probably wouldn’t have recognized either flag, since all one needs to rent a jetski is a land drivers license. Maybe when operators rent Jetskis, they  should be required to inform renters of Dive flags, to avoid potential accidents. Next time you go diving, check out which flags are being used locally. Even in Australia, it seems Dive Operators that cater to International Tourists use the Diver Down flag. It’s on their shop window, on their T-shirts, painted on their boats. But they may still fly the Signal Flag Alpha while out diving. In the US, most people only use the Diver Down flag.

There’s nothing that says you can’t use both. So next time you’re out diving, feel free to use both flags. Then, whether you’re dealing with locals or tourists, hopefully they’ll recognize one of them, and steer clear of you.

Ever heard of the Streamy Awards? It’s like the Oscars or Emmy’s but for web series. Sounds cool right? Well, if you’ve enjoyed the couple of video’s we have up so far, and would like to see us get even bigger and better, please nominate us. A nomination for Going Down could mean we get picked up by someone who can fund us to do some major filming. Then we can come to your town and go down with you.
Most of the categories are for scripted series, so Going Down would probably be in the Hosted Series category.
Thanks Heaps!