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| 2008 Long Beach Scuba Show Photos + Review |
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| 2008 Long Beach Scuba Show Photos + Review |
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Posted by Dave on June 23, 2008 at 21:34:46:
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The show was at the Long Beach Convention Center as usual which is always nice but it was moved to a different hall that was right across the walkway from their eatery.
Some fun stuff we saw was the chain mail suit noted elsewhere here but I told them they ought to label it a suit to wear next time you see a lawyer.
I spoke with Bill Ackerman of Manta Ray Bay Hotel and Yap Divers and they are now doing a shark dive where a huge block of rock hard frozen fish is sent down on a cable and the sharks and fish do the feeding thing while divers and underwater photogs/videogrpahers do their thing. The video I saw was interesting in that it looks like the huge block of frozen fish takes some time to thaw, so the experience is lengthy. We've been there and we're going back.
There was Loreto Baja based operator that has added a giant squid night dive experience from a cage to their interesting dive itinerary. If you've never dove in Loreto, it is like SoCal on steroids and a lot warmer with the expetion of last weeks weather here of course.
With the exception of the Gordo Banks, you couldn't pay me to dive in Cabo San Lucas, but Loreto rocks and you will not have street urchins labeling you as a bogey and jockeying to block your path every 30 seconds, asking you if you want to golf, go fishing, or die of hideous, tortuous death at a time share presentation.
The Philippines Department of Tourism Dive Travel Division is now stepping up to the plate and they had a large area with native dancers doing traditional dances. The indigenous music was amusing as one of the reasons I so much enjoy Phils dive travel is because the girls there know the lyrics to classic American rock songs better than we do. The most popular and well known songs in the Phils range from Alone by Heart, Winds of Change by the Scorpions to Nothing Else Matters by Metallica. They know how to rock out!
After having done some HD videography in the famed Lembeh Straits of Sulawesi, our last review of an Anilao Philippines based resort had us finding more odd critters albeit slightly different, in less time than what I experienced in the amazing Straits. Everything from bobtail squid, pygmy seahorses, wonderpus, hairy juvenile frogfish & cuttlefish eggs, ornate and robust ghost pipefish, skeleton shrimp with babies on a hydroid,to every shrimp imaginable from Periclimenes imperators, colemani, brevicarpalis, tenuipes, magnificus, zanzibaricus, philippinensis, etc., all succumbed to my new +3.5 achromatic Schneider Optics HD video diopter....the place is just a macro critter paradise.
VIP's above from Marco Vincent Dive Resort in Puerto Galera, Philippines on the beautiful Whites Beach was at the Phils booth.
Above is a photo of Richard and Phoebe Lim of the new ultra-luxurious Eskaya Beach Resort & Spa on Panglao Island in Bohol which we will be reviewing soon.
The well regarded Atlantis Hotel & Dive Resort, in Sabang which we've been to 3 times was there and they were quite well spoken of at one of the Philippines seminars. Their acclaimed European chef and new restaurant will rock your culinary world.
Shown above, Phils trip organzier JR of ActiVentures talks to two future Philippines Paradise Divers.
Ken Kurtis of ReefSeekers did a great job on his seminars from buying dive gear to looking for Mr. Small. Marty Snyderman was also there doing well attended shark, photography & diving with Mr. Big seminars. Dale Sheckler was in the thick of it too with a well liked SoCal Beach Diving seminar.
The Casino Night fundraiser benefiting Caifornia Ships to Reefs did a great job and there was enough premium dive gear prizes shown below to make any hardcore gear head drool to the point of dehydration.
One of the more interesting, unique offerings at the show was a new product called rescue tape. This product is made of thin silicone which if wrapped tightly, seems to self-fuse. The product is waterproof, solvent, and oil resistant and good up to 500F. Rescue Tape It looks like it would work wrapping a radiator hose or a rebreather loop hose in a pinch.
We also took what looks like the only multiple exgterior and interior photos to be found of the new Gates housing for the new Sony PMW-EX1 HD video housing and posted them up in our community in the video section.
Equinox showed off their Sony HC7 economical & really compact videocam housing that actually looked really nice which says a lot considering I shoot with the well regarded Amphibico Phenom housing.
It was nice seeing old friends and making new ones....
Dave -Publisher
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