Florida Dive Show: lots of friends, some neat booths, but no diving

Last weekend, I was in Miami for a series of meetings and found myself with a little extra free time.  (Actually, I made a little extra free time by taking my clients and colleagues out very late on Saturday night for drinks, leaving them feeling pretty the next morning while I, Mr. StopDrinkingAtMidnight and hydrate like a motherfucker, was feeling rested and refreshed.  I thought about hitting the water up north of Lauderdale for a bit of shorediving, but there was a little chill in the air, so I knew that I wouldn't run into any of my local WarmWaterWuss buddies. And without my fellow Conchs, diving just isn't nearly as much fun.

Then I remembered that I had picked up some discount coupons for the Florida Dive Show in West Palm Beach.  Pulling north on I-95 from Lauderdale By The Sea, I burned up the road in anticipation of hanging out, snorting Neoprene fumes, and sharing good company. 

After a little unplanned tour of WPB (I didn't take time to check the location before going into town and learned later that I had driven right past the place as I exited the freeway.), I found myself in that big, empty convention center, wandering around looking for the exhibit hall.  Then I turned a corner and found my little piece of Mecca...

By convention standards, it wasn't a huge show, but for the first time out, I was pretty impressed.  My only other dive show to date has been Ocean Fest, and I think that this one was a little larger.  I started down the first aisle, and immediately stumbled into Pascal Lecocq's booth.  For those of you who don't know Pascal, he's the guy who paints those wonderful, clever shark paintings for Uzzi swimwear (the Matador, the Nighthawks cafe scene, the shark with the dive flag shirt).   

   (I didn't have my camera with me at first, so this one is from Pascal's website.  be sure to check out the large painting in the center of the Don Quixote diver and the big prop...)  Anyway, Pascal was his usual charming self, and proceeded to point out lots of the allusions to famous photos and paintings that make his work so interesting.   I could have stayed there all day, but I was on a mission - to find the Scubaboard booth and see who might be hanging out there.

As I wandered around the booths, I saw other friendly faces (I know that they're a megastore, but I love World Watersports - they're onto something with their retailing model), learned about a treasure ship excavation that's currently underway just off of Jupiter, saw some hardhat gear and rebreathers, saw a very out-of-place looking group of financial advisors and lots of camera and travel vendors, and finally stumbled on the gang from SB.  Pete (NetDoc) was there in his usual glory, proudly showing off this new model of diver media that he's nurtured into something pretty amazing.  Accompanying him were Marvel (Marvel) and Krista (KBeck), who always add excitement to any gathering.  (Even with Krista feeling a little under the weather from a date with vanilla vodka the night before!)

We had lots of time to sit and talk and I was able to catch up on lots of news that I've missed since I moved into the frozen north of Charlotte.  The time brought back lots of good memories of the past two years, when I spent most of my free time diving the beaches between Hollywood and West Palm with some amazing good friends who just happened to be great divers.  In the process of sitting there, I saw Mike from Coastal Marine Supply in Dania, and we had a chance to catch up a bit also.  (I always use him for fills when I'm diving in the Hollywood area, and he's one of the few people that I'll trust to work on my regs.  He has a great shop just down the road from Dania Pier.)

Finally, I decided to cruise through the rest of the show, bumping into Susan from ScubaDoRags (who also is a member of my local club, the Charlotte Hammerheads) and Todd, the guy who invented ScubaHides, those great little tank wrappers that are starting to make their way out of the dive mags and onto divers' backs.  Clever stuff he's got there. 

I finished the show by dropping by the Florida Archeological booth and learned about the sites that they manage and about their diver education program.  Pete's spoken with them about doing a special course on Wreck Preservation for SB instructors, and I immediately asked to be put on the list. 

By the time I left, I was carrying twenty-five pounds of extra goodies. (Had to get a WetPleasures t-shirt and some new REEF fish id slates, as well as samples from some of the vendors, including some Diversitea - herb tea for scuba divers!)  A little overwhelmed and happy, I drove back down toward Miami, detouring for a few moments to sit by the sea, sip a cold beer, and reflect that life is richer because of diving, both when I'm underwater and when I'm in the company of dive buddies.  And the company doesn't get much better than what you find in South Florida.

07:34 - 12/8/2005 - post comment

Thanks

Thanks for that great Miami Show report.

Sussan - 00:51 - 12/9/2005

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