Well, pics in my prev post seemed to be too huge, so I reduced the size. Sorry about that
I didn't attend the seminars or screenings on day 1, nothing was of interest. The only
interesting (and cancelled) seminar was by Oceanic about proper exquipment handling and
maintenance. The guy at their desk (is this the right word?) said it was cancelled due to lack
of interest. Funny thing is nobody knew one had to register for it! He still wrote down my
name and number and said he's gonna contact me for another event coming up in a few weeks.
Day 2:
A representative from DAN Turkey explained what DAN is, how it works, how one can be a
member, the research done by DAN, the health education given by the Diving Safety
Laboratory, details about insurance and so on. Heck, I didn't even know DAN Turkey existed.
Err, frankly until then I didn't know what DAN was either...
The next seminar was about SSI. SSI's back to business in Turkey. Once they tried to enter
the turkish market but they failed, now they're giving it another shot. The speaker told the
main reasons why the SSI was founded, what they aim, differences between SSI and the others,
the levels, the certification system, how to become an instructor and so on.
The third one was -oh man- about Gates housings. I must say that I envied the speaker
(Bengis Özdereli) a lot. He had a collosal housing (it even can be bombproof!) he used for a
Sony Z1 and the macro films he showed were unbelievable. I was really shocked when he said
the lion fish that filled the entire projection screen was smaller than a cm! The ambient
lighting he used was also flawless, it looked like a nice sunny day even though he made
those shots at night! Anyway he gave lots of informations about lighting, the cams he used
and types of housings, the ports and lenses etc. He mentioned a guy having a housing worth a
million dollars, at which moment I felt a spasm on my chest.
Georg Fraunhofer from Seemann gave information about Seemann/Aeris regulators, first and
second stages. Very friendly and helpful guy (patient too!), disassembled the regulators to the
least screw and showed how they functioned and how to finetune the devices after the seminar.
Day 3:
Promar (the turkish authorised dealer of Sea&Sea) made a nice seminar about the main
problems arising in housings, their service and how to use them and how to handle the
batteries, o-rings properly, how to use flash, macro lenses, wide angle lenses etc.
Seemann again. This time Georg showed their new BCs, gave lots of info about their diving
computers and the Compumask! (you know, Oceanic also has the same mask with a different
name, Datamask). I was really excited about that product and I had the opportunity to try it
on hehe. Interesting stuff, though one needs to get used to it I guess.
Then came the academic presentations which were quite interesting actually. Professor
Mustafa Sahin from Uludag University, Bursa explained the Southern Marmara Cultural
Inventory Project which is one of the Underwater Archeology Research Projects in Uludag
University. He showed the prehistorical remains of a port in Mugla, Gümüslük, at a place
known to be Myndos. Lots of pieces from walls, plates and vases which were once parts of a
city but now are underwater.
Hakan Öniz from Eastern Mediterranean University's Underwated Imaging and Research Center
told about their research they do with the participation of the International University of
Cyprus and University of Mersin.
Prof. Ahmet Tirpan from Selçuk University explained the goals and research of their new
department, Departmend of Underwater Research. The photos from their project was pretty
cool, the buildings and even palm trees in a village floodded by the water because of a dam
nearby (you cannot see them here, taking a decent picture of a presentation in a dark room isn't quite possible). They were asked to make a plan of the village (with sonars and imaging devices) so architects can build a wall to recover an old mosque and a few more buildings.
Last, cute Dr. Çigdem Özkan Aygün from Istanbul Technical University talked about their
project in Lake Hazar, Elazig. Ancient and almost complete buildings were floodded by creeks
but they were still intact because of the sodium carbonate (bicarbonate?) in the water. That
made a layer on the bricks of the buildings which protected it from abrasion. Quite surprising photos...
Then came a guy from Poseidon and explained the differences in their first and second stages from ordinary regulators. He disassembled them and showed the parts in detail.
Day 4:
PADI's representation was cancelled because the speaker went to an expo Germany!!! How can that happen? Unbeliavable...
Anyway... STH (meaning: Undewater Cleaning Movement) showed their work on pulling all the tires from the seabed. I didn't know this was such a big problem but apparently it is. Some of the tires weigh more than a tonne and they're decomposed in 450 years if you leave them there. During this periode of course they release all kinds of toxic materials. The speaker told what they did, how they alarmed the govt, how moronic the govt reacted and the tire makers' positive approach after they've been warned by STH. Good work done by volunteers!
The next seminar was one by AYDER (Association of Alternative Live) about Disabled and Diving. Ercan Tutal -founder of AYDER- told their achievements and the huge positive reaction they received from the disabled people who had the opportunity to dive (IIRC some even made canoing, rafting and climbing too). He also modified a diving boat (and the toilet aboard too) so it can easily be accessed by wheelchair users. The whole plan is a better entegration of disabled ppl in the society. The videos and photos were amazing... A heavily spastic kid who could -after having dived- even serve their friends cups of tea on a plate, this was the most amazing one to me.
The last one presentation was done by Clement Lee from Borneo Divers. He told how the island of Sipadan was discovered(!), how the crew of Captain Cousteau and later Cousteau himself were noticed about the the island and the strange nature of Sipadan, the UW life there and so on...
I know lots of photos are just a guy sitting at a table and a white projection screen. Well, this shows the degree of my journalism skills I guess...
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