Yes, I was also very dissapointed in SP's DEMA presence. They could have done a lot better.
1) They do seem to be trying to get into tech "in a big way" but they have learned basically nothing since they tried it in the 1990s with the S-Tek and X-Tek options of that era. On the plus side, they are offerring what is clearly a rebranded Halcyon plate with a decent harness (it appears access to Halcyon's expertise on plates, harnesses, etc is what they got out of rebranding the G250V, Mk 25 an Mk 17 regulators as Halcyon regs.) They also have some decent horseshoe and donut wings in 40, 60 and (big sigh of dissapointment) 90 pound lift flavors, but (another sigh of dissapointment) they offer them in variety of models that include dual dump and bungeed models. Still, as long as they continue to offer normal single dump non bungeed 40 and 60 pound horseshoe and donut models it is not all bad.
2) As Marci noted, they are totally clueless about sidemount. When I asked, the sales rep who was repoted to be knowledgable about it directed me to their overly padded 2 non adjustable D-rings per shoulder QD equipped harness and pointed out 4 small d-rings sewn to the fabric of the harness and identified them as anchor points for the tanks. I confirmed that I was talking to an idiot/sidemount poser when he had no clue what a butt plate was or a towel bar. If he had at least been up front and said, "hey, sorry sidemount is not my thing" I'd have had at least some respect for him. As it is, with his lame effort to pass himself off as knowledgeable (and potentially set up some unsuspecting dealer with "sidemount" equipment, I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire. After a bit more discussion he said that they had decided that regardless of what they did to develop a side mount rig, someone would be unhappy, so this was all they were going to do. Wonderful. It's a challenge, so just run from it. I then made the mistake of turning away to look at the product for a few seconds and "poof" he was gone. Got a buyer with tough questions, I guess the answer is to run from that too. They clearly did not bring their A game to DEMA.
3) With regard to the trimix beta testing, they are looking for about 20 divers. Saying they were indifferent is not exactly accurate,but it's close. They were helpful and provided me with contacts at SP that I already have and I will follow through with applying, mostly because I want to ensure they get beta testers who will try it in a cave envrionment rather than strictly offshore where the planned ascent profile can be followed. I want to ensure it get tested in an environment where we can see how well and or efficiantly it handles deco at deeper than the optimum stop depths.
The good news here is that it is targeted at SOL and PMG upgraded LUNA computers, so no new computer with 4th button, etc.
4) They were in general not real attentive and it was like pulling teeth to get someone to talk to you about anything in the booth. The couple times we stopped by there were always staff standing around and some one them were helpful in terms of getting one of the reps to you, the repes were just exceptionally bad about actually following through. I got the impression they were only focusing on people they knew personally.
