This weekend for all of you in California is the Bay Area Dive Show.
I wish we could make it out to California. The Bay Area Dive Show is run by the same folks who run the Texas Dive Show. It should be a great weekend. We saw some fantastic vendors in Dallas. The Bay Area Dive Show is in Santa Clara, and should be awesome. My favourite artist, Pascal Lecocq is going to to be there with his art work. My other San Antonio local friends and fellow expats, About Australia Diving will also be there. Make sure you stop by and say G’day for me.
The Bay Area Dive Show is a great way to go out and meet some other dive industry professionals face to face, learn about some dive resorts that you might want to visit, and check out some of the new scuba equipment on the market.
If you’re near Santa Clara this weekend, head on over and check out the Bay Area Dive Show. It should be a blast.
April 30 & May 1, 2010
Santa Clara Convention Center
Exhibit Hours: Friday from 5 PM til 8 PM Saturday from 9 AM til 5 PM
It’s Earth Day today! While it’s rainy in San Antonio, I wish I could be out enjoying Earth Day by doing some diving somewhere pretty, enjoying all that Mother Nature has to offer us.
Make sure you think about the Earth today. Go recylce something, pick up some trash, or educate a friend about the largest part of Earth, the Oceans. If we mess them up, we mess up the whole planet.
Don’t forget to use the forums and discuss what you’re doing today for Earth Day.
One of the interesting people we met at the Texas Dive Show was UnderwaterAdvisor.com They are an online Scuba Directory where you can go to find out all about different dive shops, resorts, equipment and almost anything you can think of Scuba related.
While there are sites out there like Travelocity which give reviews on resorts, they don’t go into the specific Scuba detail that Underwater Advisor does. They’ll let you know what kind of air they provide, what size tanks, if breakfast is served early enough to eat before heading out to the boat and if there’s a deco chamber nearby.
People can post reviews on their local dive shop, letting you know if the staff is smart and helpful or just trying to get a bigger commission. They also list local instructors, manufacturers and the list is going.
I think it’s a great idea and a useful tool. I know I’ll be using them from now on!
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.
Well, it’s already 2010 in my homeland. I logged on to see how it went in Sydney, and it’s funny
that a Scuba article was right there on the front page. A story about diving with Sharks.
I’ll take it as a sign that I’m going to get a lot of diving done this year! I sure hope so. I had meant to get a bunch of diving in last year, but taking a job at a SEO company and teaching acting on weekends ate up all my time, and I ended up not getting my feet wet at all. This year, I’m not going to let anything get in my way!
In February I’ll be headed up to the Texas Dive Show. The one in Houston 2 years ago is where I met so many fabulous people who helped get Going Down started. I hope to meet some new wonderful people this year. Double bonus that it’s also on Valentine’s weekend so Matt and I get to go somewhere out of town together!
We’re working on some new ways to get Going Down funded so we can go out and just get filming. As all you divers know, Scuba isn’t exactly cheap. It’s even more expensive when you’ve got a crew to feed! While the idea of Going Down is Scuba Diving locally on a budget, we’re not local to every location, so we’ve got more expenses that the average diver. So instead of looking for a financial sponsor for the entire series, we’re now thinking about partnering with people for individual episodes. This makes it much easier for companies to get their name out there. It also helps localized companies. It should be a win-win for everyone invloved. We can get out there and film each episode and the budget allows, and you don’t have to wait for us to have enough money for 13 episodes before we get out there!
Well, Happy New Year Everyone! May 2010 bring you many adventures, both in Diving and on land. Be Safe, Be Happy and Have Fun!
I had a request for an RSS feed on Going Down, so I think I now have one set up properly… Better go test it out and let me know if it’s working properly. Then you can keep up with the new Scuba happenings on Going Down automatically.
We’re re-doing the Going Down website. We’ve changed direction; we’re now focusing on becoming a web series. Hopefully, you’ll be able to sit at work dreaming of Scuba Diving, and now you can just hop on over to Going Down Online and see a new scuba destination. We’ve got a bunch of footage in the can, ready to be edited. I need to make an image map, so you can click on a scuba flag and it will take you to that Scuba Diving destination.
I’m looking into some new places to go visit. Currently I’m in San Antonio, so if you’ve got a great local diving destination near San Antonio, I’d love to hear about it. Then we can come film the diving action and let everyone else see it too! We’re interested in what you do for the whole weekend. So dive bars, dive hotels, dive restaurants, dive clubs, the whole enchilada.
So stay tuned for some new dive destinations on Going Down Online.
