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From Mark "Slice" Muenzen . . .
Just a quick blurb about Beneath the Sea this past weekend at the Meadowlands in NJ. I know Jim Brown, Darth, and Palmer will all probably add their two cents, so I'll keep it short.
Beneath the Sea is an event I have been hearing about for three years. This past weekend I was able to drive back to NJ for Friday night to see what all the hub-bub is about. Overall, it is a great expo. Most of the booths were for various travel locations, and let me tell you, if you're looking for travel ideas, BTS is a great place to get those creative juices flowing. You think of a place on earth with water and there was a booth selling a trip for that location (and usually for a pretty good price). In terms of equipment, I was a bit surprised to see only about 1/3 of the booths dealing with gear (the other 2/3 trips). What the booths lacked in quantity, however, they made up for with quality. Backplates, lights, drysuits, cameras/housings wetsuits, and several rebreather demos were the main products on display. Very interesting to see all the themes and variations on all the pieces of gear.
Overall, I would definitely be willing to say that it was well worth the $15 entrance fee ($5 discount for padi diving society members). Unfortunately, I was unable to stick around for any classes/seminars/lectures that were offered that weekend. Check in with Jim Brown, Vern, and Palmer to see what they thought of their BTS experience.
From Uptown Jim Brown . . .
A completely dry UW experience punctuated this weekend's diving activities. My first trip to Beneath the Sea in Secaucus, NJ began with 185 miles travel from York; an easy drive on 30/222/78/NJ turnpike. I arrived Friday to complete the EFR Care for Children (child/infant) training to complement my EFR instructor rating. The absolute value of this material in the scuba world is yet to be determined BUT, if you are interested to integrate this material into EFR or take the course separately, contact Cindy at the shop to express your interest. If you want more details, contact me. We'll post an updated class description on the Class web page soon.Sherwood and Genesis regulator training with Keith Ives took most of Saturday but was well worth the time invested. The equipment and travel exhibits were plentiful and the Saturday night film festival was exceptional! The Friday and Saturday evening parties were not worth the time/expense. It was fun to see familiar faces cruising about the isles: JZ, Tom Pritchard, Gerhard Maree, Dan Crowell/Jenn, Jim Weakland, Rob Parker (of Tin Turtle fame, S&R UW, Seneca Lake, NY), Palm, Darth, Bill O'Malley, Brian Miller, Wabank Jim Brubaker, The good doctor Deco, Barry Beaven/Sue Stough.
I will go again next year to attend seminars and workshops. Seminars are included with the exhibit admission price but the workshops are normally for preregistration and at an additional cost. John Gross attended a video/digital workshop and Barry attended three
digital workshops, all with very positive feedback. Its a great place to rap with equipment suppliers and see cool stuff (read, scuba toys). The travel reps were far too many to mention but also good chat and info. I always enjoy Lynn & John at Sea Saba who represented their little island destination well (see pic).Palm already broadcast for interested divers at BSC for this Sunday. Stay tuned for other diving plans this weekend.
From Bryan Palmer . . .
I know there are going to be lots of reports this week so I am going to keep this short and sweet. I headed off from Camp Hill at 4:30 AM to Secaucus, NJ Friday morning. For those of you that don't know Beneath the Sea is the largest Consumer dive show in the United states and makes a strong running for in the world with over 600 vendors coming in from all over the world. After a brief encounter with the NJ/NY Port Authority (they don't take well to cars in bus lanes) I showed up at the Meadow land expo center the home of Beneath the Sea. Arriving at 8 am. I was going through a Technician class 9-6 Friday & Saturday. Class was with a bunch of goofs from other dive shops around the northeast area so I fit in just perfectly.
After class Friday I headed to the convention center where I ran into Terry & Linda Martzall (Seeker Crew members and Thursday night Irregulars at Willow). I met up with Jim brown and his pleasant following for a little bit. We walked around a together for a little till I went off on my own. I ran in to Mark Muenzen and his little gang. I also ran in to several other locals including Jim Weakland, Chris Rosing and several others. Vern and I Met up after I was at Pascal-Lecocq booth buying a few prints we went to the dive party after the expo closed and kicked it with Jim his following and his Dr. friend, sorry I can't remember his name. after a day in class Saturday I headed home
This is a little side note-During my class we discussed a lot about online sales I am not going to make a big stink about it in this, but would be happy to discuss it with anyone out there in more depth. Basically the thing I learned is that all these pieces of equipment you are getting from online shops and seeing "great prices" mean $h*t. sorry for that, but no manufacture will back these companies because most of all the equipment you see there is not made from the manufacture. When you get to the guts of it, what we depend on to breathe on underwater it is knock offs and second hand things so they can not and will not back it. So what does this mean are you willing to put your life on the line for a piece of equipment that you saved some money? People have been getting fired by the manufactures due to some of these things aka recognizing warrantee equipment from these places when they are knock offs. What does this mean, someone is making equipment with the intention of passing it off as someone elses with out going through the CORRECT Testing. So I want you to know WE are YOUR LOCAL DIVE SHOP and we are here to service & help you. All you need to do is come in or give us a call, but remember we are also the ones diving with you to.
From Darth Vern . . .
Well Friday I attended Beneath The Sea as well [if you have been reading you already know this] so I will let that be! BUt if you have never been to BTS, you do not know what you are missing, it is a great event to attend and next year I will make the Film Festival!!!
I got a call from Frank last week and I had the opportunity to dive Wabank on Sunday. Needless to say the week could not go fast enuff for me. I met Frank and Jim "Big Jim Wabank" Burbaker around noon on Sunday [which is good Darth-Time] Since no one had dove Wabank since November we were not sure what we were going to see. So we devised a dive plan before we got in. Which was essentially down the line to Peaches, me and Big Jim were going to see how the hole looked and while Frank followed from above. Then we would meet up and head up to clean the fish-nets and around to see if we could see the fish in the grass beds and out.
Well needless to say, once we got in it was a different story. Daphnia were everywhere, a real thick layer from 3 feet down to about 12 feet. Past that there was a layer of silt that was pretty think. I was around 35-40 feet heading down the line and I could not even see the wall to my left. I turned to find everyone gone behind me, then Big Jim appeared and motioned Frank was having ear problems and headed back. Well I think that is what he motioned, his hands were about a foot away from my mask. Viz was near 3 feet down to about 60 feet. It opened up to about 10-12 feet, but was black as night, even with my Dive Rite 10 watt HID [shameless plug]. Big Jim and I headed down into the hole, pitch black down there, I think we should rename it the "black hole" for next year! Around to our right we lost each other in a few minutes and at 140ft not really a whole lot of time to goof around. I turned off my light and managed to find Big JIm in a few kicks and were headed up to the 100ft plateau. Once there we got our bearings and headed out to find the Loafer and up the fish pens. Well with the viz that plan went to hell in a handbasket! We got lost and it took a
few minutes to find the wall. Well anyway sparing you the struggles of my terrible navigation in textual form, I think i should get a handicap sign for my my truck to park in the front of the quarries for my navigation skills [or lack thereof]!!!! I ended up with a dive of 67 minutes, with my deco on 60% and a max depth of 141ft. Click the image here to see how my good friend Sharon makes fun of my "nav skills"
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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