Help with first time DEMA ????

[louxwe]

Hello, I just got my instructor rating this year and just do some instructing on the side, but plan to go to DEMA this year since it is not a very far drive for me from Phoenix. I have some questions for anyone who has gone in years past.

Is it necessary to go to all of the days, are there lots of different things happening on each day, or is it pretty much just the same booths to walk around and see each day?

Can I come in and walk around with my wife and baby (<1 yr)? Does she need to register too? She is not a dive professional but doesn't want to just sit alone waiting for me each day... plus she kind of just wants to walk around and see it. Do they care if spouses tag along?

I plan on getting into scuba as a career much later on, I just kind of wanted to go see what DEMA is like, who has booths, what new ideas are out there, what dive locations are available, what they typically sell for, general information that I can use in business planning. Is this show useful for that or is it just basically a bunch of gear distributors trying to sell gear?

Thanks for any advice.

Bill

 

[cdreamer]

You don't have to go all 3 days, but the show is so big it may take 3 days to see it all.
Are you associated with a shop? If so, they can add your wife as a "buyer". There are lots of things to do like seminars and workshops as well as tons of distributers.

 

[Trixxie]

No one under 16 is allowed.

You can get more info from their site too...

Not necessary to go all 4 days if all you want to do is look at what is on display at the show. There are different seminars on different days if you are interested in those.

(1000th post yippe)

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I would have liked to go to Orlando but my wife is in a wheelchair and we would have had to say she was a shop employee of some kind. Perhaps HSA liasion? Not worth the hassle. I'm going to try make it someyear but it is not on my list of priorities. I'd rather dive.

 

[Doc]

Not worth the hassle. I'm going to try make it someyear but it is not on my list of priorities. I'd rather dive.

At todays prices, it would cost the OP about $108 in gas (alone). Then there's the rest of it... registration fee, food and... the equivelant to a ten dive package in the ocean blue.

As Coors Beer was to us before it was available East of the Mississippi, as was the holy grail to Indiana Jones, as was the Daisy Red Rider BB Gun to Ralphie.... the DEMA Show really isn't "all that".

Like Predator ignored humans that were unarmed, the guys at the DEMA booths will look at you (as you self describe) and you will become invisible. They are looking for meat.

Looking for the new stuff? It's already in the magazines... at least the stuff that you'll be able to buy at retail any time soon. I saw the Amphibian Classic Fins inventor at DEMA- maybe was it 7 years ago in Miami with his prototypes? If you went there drooling, you were to be sadly disappointed.

Dive shop owners? Maybe the bigger ones. Instructors? No. Dive Travel Tour Operators? Yes. Seminar attendees? Yes. Dive shops are not exactly flush with cash these days, so the overall attendance is down. You still have serious people showing up to do business, though. Not every shop orders via Manufacturer's websites.

Stacks of rebreather cases, 20' tall (no joke) with no guts- there were only a few prototypes (back home at the shop). I seen it. (Orlando '93?)

Another disturbing DEMA trend- in the last fifteen years there has been an alarming decrease in the number of hot bikini babes that are gratuitously put on display along with the product. I mean, what the hell is that all about?

I go once every ten years or so and then I remember why I don't go more often. Stay home. Plan a dive trip.

 

[Trixxie]

At todays prices, it would cost the OP about $108 in gas (alone). Then there's the rest of it... registration fee, food and... the equivelant to a ten dive package in the ocean blue.

As Coors Beer was to us before it was available East of the Mississippi, as was the holy grail to Indiana Jones, as was the Daisy Red Rider BB Gun to Ralphie.... the DEMA Show really isn't "all that".

Like Predator ignored humans that were unarmed, the guys at the DEMA booths will look at you (as you self describe) and you will become invisible. They are looking for meat.

Looking for the new stuff? It's already in the magazines... at least the stuff that you'll be able to buy at retail any time soon. I saw the Amphibian Classic Fins inventor at DEMA- maybe was it 7 years ago in Miami with his prototypes? If you went there drooling, you were to be sadly disappointed.

Dive shop owners? Maybe the bigger ones. Instructors? No. Dive Travel Tour Operators? Yes. Seminar attendees? Yes. Dive shops are not exactly flush with cash these days, so the overall attendance is down. You still have serious people showing up to do business, though. Not every shop orders via Manufacturer's websites.

Stacks of rebreather cases, 20' tall (no joke) with no guts- there were only a few prototypes (back home at the shop). I seen it. (Orlando '93?)

Another disturbing DEMA trend- in the last fifteen years there has been an alarming decrease in the number of hot bikini babes that are gratuitously put on display along with the product. I mean, what the hell is that all about?

I go once every ten years or so and then I remember why I don't go more often. Stay home. Plan a dive trip.

You can eat reasonably well in Vegas for not a lot of $$. I have not been to Vegas in probably 20 years and just wanted to see all the new interesting things they have there. There is so much to do in Vegas besides DEMA. I joked with some folks from the shop that are also going, asking if we will have time to fit DEMA in with all there is to do and see out there. Another little perk is it's a write off on my taxes plus I can probably get a great deal on a dive vacation... they are probably giving trips away (yeah right). There are also some personal reasons why I am going this year but over all, I too will more than likely make it a every 5+ or so year event.

Oh and unless you wear a "BUYER" badge, you are useless to most manufacturer reps.