Well, we're back from a good time at the Dive and Travel Expo.
It was held this past weekend with the treasure hunt dive at Owen Beach on Friday and the expo and seminars on Saturday and Sunday.
We arrived a bit late to Owen Beach as the divers were just coming out from the treasure hunt. They threw into the water one golf ball for each registered diver into the water. Divers would retrieve a ball and then their number gets entered into the draw for prizes. I think they overcame the issues they had last year.
The expo itself was quite good. There was a lot of travel-related companies offering diving trips and tourist info from literally all over the world. Dive-related companies ran the gamut from manufacturers, to distributors to local dive shops. In fact, there were several dive shops from Hawaii represented at the show.
It also looked like the attendance was quite good, as well. A very enthusiastic crowd of divers from all walks of life, including many families (which was good to see).
They offered a free program for middle-school kids aged 12-18 called Deep Ambitions.
"During this free 4-hour teen career fair, students will learn about diving from people who are thriving in the industry, and discover hundreds of potential careers in the marine field.". While my 13 y/o son, for the most part, enjoyed the program, it was somewhat disappointing because it fell short in a few areas including organization and content. For example, the program information stated,
"This session features 5-minute presentations by 10 exciting and entertaining speakers from various marine related careers. This will feature a contest where the speakers are competing against each other for who has the ÅÄoolest job. The students will vote and decide the winner.". This sounded like a lot of fun and yet, they only heard from four people; a travel journalist, a videographer, a woman who's done a lot of things in her career, including being a police diver and the fourth apparently wasn't memorable because she only spoke to a minute and he can't remembers what she did. And in the end, they didn't vote on who had the "coolest" job.
The free seminars were fantastic. They ranged from photo and video tips and tricks, to technical diving and rebreather information to information on the Annapolis and more (see the complete list here:
Northwest Dive and Travel Expo - Seminars & Speakers)
For me, the best part of the show was that I got to see and or meet so many different people from within the dive industry from professional divers, to marine biologists and scientists, to "celebrities" like John Chatterton, Capt Gary Mace (Treasure Divers) and others. Andy Lamb was entertaining during his seminar on "critters" and was a great guy to chat with during the show while he was manning his booth for Cedar Beach Ocean Lodge (
Cedar Beach - Your home for diving adventures). I met Donnie Reid, Project Manager of the Pavilion Lake project (
Pavilion Lake Research Project). With any luck, I'll convince Donnie to give a presentation to my son's grade 7 class here in Abbotsford.
As we were leaving the hotel Sunday morning, we met Rick Stratton (publisher of Northwest Dive News and the event's organizer). We told Rick that we had a great time and that Hunter attended the Deep Ambitions program. Rick asked Hunter if he enjoyed Deep Ambitions and Hunter politely answered to the affirmative. Rick admits there were some issues with the program and pledged to do better next year. On a personal note, my hat goes off to Rick because he took the time to talk to Hunter, knowing that he has an interest in a dive-related career (the kid's 13, so that could change pdq) and not only gave Hunter some great advise, but made him an offer he couldn't refuse (details to remain private
). One recurring theme I kept hearing, which Rick enforced by taking the time to talk to Hunter, was that our kids are the future of the hobby/business/industry so many of us enjoy. Conservation being key and the fact that the youth of today who are just learning to dive will be the Jacques Cousteaus, the Dr. Sylvia Earles, the John Chatterons, the <your name here> of the future and it's up to us as adults, educators and parents, to guide them initially, but it's ultimately up to them to make the right decisions to positively their world tomorrow.
I encourage all of you reading this to check out the show next year and support diving in the Pacific Northwest. Even if you can't get away for the weekend, it's a great place to just hang out for the day and take in the experience.
