In the middle of November I hopped on a plane for Las Vegas and the 2012 DEMA show!

 

This event was my chance to reconnect within the industry and schedule plans for the second half of my scholarship year. DEMA was also the first chance since April to connect with my partners-in-crime– European Scholar Oscar Svensson and Australasian Scholar Yolly Bosiger.  Oh how I have missed them!

 

 

Both have been experiencing the most incredible year. It was surreal to hear how much is possible within only 6 months! If you haven’t read up on Yolly or Oscar I think you ought to!

 

DEMA is an enormous trade show with a huge gathering of dive manufacturers, retailers, destinations, distributors, and dive operations managers.  It’s dive-extravert’s paradise with tons of people to meet and lots of folks to introduce Yolly and Oscar to. This handsome fellow gave me a hard sell about scheduling a dive trip to Borneo!

 

I was thrilled to sit in on the private launch of Aqualung’s 2013 gear line mid-week. Expect teasers online soon but suffice to say I am REALLY excited to be diving with sneak peeks as part of the A-Team.

Always great to see the enthusiastic staff of Bonnie Publishing group who keep the world fascinated with great writing and beautiful images in Scuba Diving, Sport Diver, Undersea Journal & Alert Diver magazine. It has been really fun continuing to work together since my visit this summer.

 

 

Hollis/Oceanic launched their Explorer rebreather, a recreational unit, ready to throw open the doors of rebreather technology for divers around the world.  Nick Hollis has been incredibly supportive of my transition into sidemount and preparing me for technical diving. I’ll be crossing my fingers for a chance to train on the Explorer as the year continues, and you should be too!

The tradeshow floor is almost impossibly huge and after days of wandering I still kept coming to booths I had never seen before! Like kids in a candy store the scholars darted around after shiny promotions and new amazing products. We lost Yolly, but Oscar and I ran into one another at the Ocean Technology Systems booth and tried on the very cool Guardian full-face masks.  OTS is one of OW-USS’s newest sponsors and will be training the whole crew in underwater communications in the Dominican Republic.

Oscar….. I AM YOUR FATHER!!!!

 

 

Thanks also to the National Park Service for their support of OW-USS. Fun fact: the National Park Service currently employs more divers than the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration! That’s because there are water activities (including scuba diving) in almost all 61 of the US National Parks! Think you can name them all?

 

 

DEMA is also the industry’s chance to recognize the leaders who have contributed a lifetime to our underwater world.  The Academy of Underwater Arts and Science’s NOGIs and DEMA’s Reaching Out awards were wonderful chances to don our fanciest and celebrate those who made this path for others to follow.  Great supporter of the Scholarship and all-around-nicest-human-on-the-planet Dar Orr was honored with the Reaching Out award for lifetime service this year.  I was extremely proud to be one part of a huge DAN fan club.

 

We laughed and danced the night away with a Blues Brothers cover band straight out of the movie!

“We’re on a mission from GOD!”

 

DEMA is an exhausting few days on your feet, but it’s wonderful to march down aisles among sponsors and share my thanks for making a year like this possible. My sincerest gratitude to GoPro, Ultralight Control Systems, Olympus, Backscatter, Fourth Element, Light & Motion, DUI, Pelican, Ocean Technology Systems, DAN, and iDive for ensuring I have been ready to tackle every new chance to learn all year.  Thanks also to Pascal Lecocq for keeping the art in the ocea with your generous donation for each of us.  If you haven’t checked out the amazing color of blue Pascal paints with, see his quirky sense of humor and ocean expression here.

 

Thanks to all the scholarship society family who made it to DEMA this year.  It was awesome to get (almost) all of you in one shot!

 

And of course no trip to Vegas is complete without hitting up the slots!  Thankfully no one had to pawn any timepieces.