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Whether you are planning a dive trip, your next dive gear purchase or consulting with scuba experts, there is no better place to do it than at THE Diving Event of the Year!™, SCUBA Show 2007. With its 20th year show expansion, the SCUBA Show is now the largest consumer dive expo in the western hemisphere.

EXHIBITS
Heart of the SCUBA Show is its massive 76,000 square foot exhibit hall. With a 35 percent increase in size from last year’s show, there is now much more to see, learn and experience than ever before. The exhibit hall is HUGE! Perhaps of most interest to underwater enthusiasts is the flurry of new gear that will be first introduced at the SCUBA Show. Come to check out revolutionary fins, innovative dive computers, camera designs and much more. You will see new styles of wetsuits, dry suits, innovative regulators and BCDs. You better allow for two days as it may take you that long to see it all.

Heavily represented at this year’s show is photography and video equipment. With this ever-changing market, it is important you become completely informed before making your purchasing decision. Most of these underwater photography exhibitors are the actual makers of the gear so you can get your answers directly from their perspective. And many are offering show specials giving you substantial savings.

There is no better place to plan dive travel than at the SCUBA Show. Dive destinations representatives from nearly every place imaginable around the world will be there. Scores of destinations and live-aboard dive boats are represented, most offering show specials and many presenting free drawings for special dive trips. Here you can talk to the destination experts directly and find out every detail of the resort or live-aboard of your interest. Pick up brochures, coupons and better yet book your next trip at the show itself for substantial savings. Bring your calendar and plan and save!

Rounding out the exhibits are a myriad of local dive centers and dive boats, clothing companies, and miscellaneous companies that any diver would be interested in seeing.

SPECIAL EXHIBITS
Three new special exhibits will definitely enhance your SCUBA Show experience.

The experts of the Aquarium of the Pacific will be bringing in an interactive marine life display showing off local undersea animals and educating the public on their life cycles, habitats and nomenclature.

The SCUBA Show now has a photo contest and results of the best entries will be displayed. “Under the Blue” International Underwater Photo and Video Competition (www.underwatercompetition.com) has four still photo categories and a video category. Deadline for entries is May 18th. There is over $20,000 in prizes offered for entrants.

Internationally famous marine artist Carlos Hiller will be displaying some of his best works and doing an exclusive painting during the show. As an artist dedicated to the painting of underwater scenes, he is an avid diver and snorkeler, and often goes to the ocean to find the marine life that populates his creations. “The ocean makes me feel happy, and I like my paintings to reflect it. My aim is to capture these emotions. I like to feel that I am painting with a fantastic material and at the same time so intensely real, that I dip my brushes in the waters of the ocean.” In his studio it is possible to find miniatures to big format paintings, and he has a fascination for painting murals. He also makes live performances, bringing his studio to public places and creating an entirely new artwork in a wonderful display of colors and energy. Spectators became part of the creation process. And this is what he will be displaying for you at the SCUBA Show.

Carlos Hiller paintings are being exhibited more frequently in the U.S. and Europe. The SCUBA show will be his first exhibition in California. Don’t miss out on a chance to see this great artist at work.

Returning special exhibits include superb photos from local chapters of the Underwater Photographic Society, as well as expanded displays from the California Wreck Divers and Nick Icorn’s Museum of Diving History.

CONTINUOUS FILM FESTIVAL
Using a mega-sized screen actually in the exhibit hall, the continuous underwater film festival is always a popular draw. Excellent and several premier video films from around the world will be screened. A different schedule of films will be screened each day. Highly recommended films include a look at Thailand diving in Andaman Sea Adventure by Bill Macdonald and local kelp diving stories shown in Munching in the Macrocystis by Dr. Bill Bushing. Just a couple of the films being premiered at SCUBA Show 2007 include C’Mon Girl by Jim Rakowski, a look at shark diving in the Bahamas including rare and unusual tiger shark footage and the video story Exploring Mayan Cenotes (Mexico cavern diving) by James Kurtz. Many more films will be shown each day, most more at least twice each day so that you can schedule your SCUBA Show experience to see films and the exhibit hall as well as take in some seminars.

SEMINARS
A big part of the SCUBA Show is its extensive seminar programs; 33 seminars will be presented throughout the weekend. Subject material is quite diverse, with seminars ranging from underwater video and photography to dive travel smarts to local diving to marine life.

Featured speakers for this year’s show include photography experts Jack and Sue Drafahl, who will tell you how to get the most out of your underwater photography. Video pro Josh Kaye-Carr, local diving authority, Dale Sheckler, and diving celebrity Ken Kurtis are consistently a hit among attendees, so make sure to get a seat early as their rooms will fill up quickly. Speaker Ken Knezick is an expert on dive travel and will be giving you some of his latest secret spots. The SCUBA Show is happy to welcome Jim and Pat Stayer, renowned videographers, who will be sharing some of their exciting finds throughout the world and inside the United States. Bruce Watkins, contributing writer/photographer to California Diving News and other dive journals will be giving several talks. One low price covers admission to all the seminars for that day. See the insert in this issue for specific schedule, subject material and advanced registration information. Advanced registration is highly recommended for time and money savings.

DOOR PRIZES
Paid general admission attendees to the SCUBA Show will be eligible for multiple door prize drawings. Saturday’s prizes include the new Mares Nemo Wide Dive Computer and Akona’s Progression Roller Dive Bag. Grand Prize, to be drawn at the close of on Sunday afternoon, is a spectacular live-aboard dive trip for one on the luxury vessel Palau Aggressor II with airfare provided by Continental Airlines.

CASINO PARTY BENEFIT
Social highlight of the SCUBA Show is the Casino Night benefit party. This year the party will benefit the California Ships to Reefs (www.cs2r.org) program seeking to enhance the California underwater environment with the placement of surplus ships on the ocean floor as artificial reefs up and down the California coast.

Participants will “gamble” the night away playing Black Jack, Roulette and Craps. A very popular event is the Texas Hold-up tournament (arrive early for a spot!). At the end of the evening participants will “cash out” their chips for raffle tickets for a drawing for thousands of dollars in prizes. Also during the evening is a Silent Auction for thousands of dollars in dive gear and more. Come to pick up some bargains! Sponsors of the event and prize contributors include Deep Outdoors, Zeagle, Scubapro, Divers Alert Network (DAN), Trident, Ikelite, Sherwood, Mares, DUI, Pacific Wilderness, Apollo, Santa Catalina Island Co., Inside Afghanistan, Sport Chalet, and Chammyz. Prizes and silent auction items include dive computers, underwater cameras, regulators, dive clothing, BCDs and more.

CA SCUBA SERVICE AWARD
Culmination of the evening will be the presentation of the California Scuba Service Award. This prestigious award was instituted by Saint Brendan Corporation (parent company of California Diving News and the SCUBA Show) to recognize those who have made positive long-term contribution to the California diving community. This year’s recipient is marine conservation activist Steve Benavides. Steve is a native Californian. He has 40 years of scuba diving and coastal piloting experience in southern California and Northern Baja. His initial diving certification was in 1967 and he now has somewhere near 3,500 hours under water.

Benavides is past president and board member of the Catalina Conservancy Divers, as well as a past board member of the Greater Los Angeles Council of Divers (GLACD). In those positions he made great strides in marine habitat conservation, particularly with regards to Catalina Island.
In 1997 he coordinated a statewide effort by recreational divers to initiate a conservation and protection plan for Southern California abalone resource. Steve was a sponsor of Senate Bill 463 that provided a moratorium on the commercial and recreational harvest of abalone in California waters south of the San Francisco. In recognition of his efforts securing the passage of SB 463, he was appointed the Southern California Recreational Diving Representative to the State’s Recreational Abalone Advisory Committee. The fight to protect abalone continues to this day, with efforts largely lead by Steve Benavides.

His passion is underwater photography that he merges with his recreational diving and research activities. An avid photographer and photojournalist, Steve has won acclaim in many national and international photographic contests and is a serious competitor in the California shootouts. He has written dozens of feature articles on a number of dive related topics and been published in a host of local and national publications.

REGISTRATION, HOTEL, PARKING
To save time and money, register in advance online at www.scubashow.com or see the insert in this issue. Deadline is May 18th. Make a mini-vacation of your show visit. Nearby is the Aquarium of the Pacific, the new Pike entertainment and shopping complex, and dive-charter boats. The Hyatt Regency is next door to the Long Beach Convention Center and is offering a special rate for SCUBA Show attendees. Call 1-800-233-1234 and mention the SCUBA Show for the convention rate.

To reach the Long Beach Convention Center, Hall C, take the Long Beach Freeway South and follow the signs. You will be directed to abundant parking.
For complete details on the SCUBA Show, including advanced registration information, visit www.scubashow.com.


© Copyright 2007, all rights reserve, by Saint Brendan Corporation, P.O. Box 11231, Torrance CA 90510, mail@cadivingnews.com. No part of this may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system/website, or transmitted in any form by any means without prior written permission of the publisher.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
The contents of this publication/website are opinions of the individual writers. The publishers of California Diving News and its contributors assume no responsibility for any mishap claimed to be a result of use of this material. Diving is an adventure sport and with it comes inherent risks. Improper use of diving equipment or improper diving techniques may result in serious injury or, in extreme circumstances, death. Readers are admonished to use their own best judgement in each individual situation.