Is the Florida Dive Show no more?

[grouchyturtle]

I may be moving back to the Palm Beach area, so I was looking for info on this year's show? All I can find are pages about previous years, and the one url that appears to be the official site for the show is a broken link.

 

[deeper thoughts]

I think its no more

 

[Wookie]

Brad Nolan has been very ill on and off. If you need a FLL show, Sheri Daye has promised to downplay the spearing aspect of The Blue Wild, at the FLL convention center in February. I will be showing there.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Brad Nolan has been very ill on and off. If you need a FLL show, Sheri Daye has promised to downplay the spearing aspect of The Blue Wild, at the FLL convention center in February. I will be showing there.

I had not heard that. So Sheri is going to change the theme of that show?


http://www.thebluewild.com/

 

[Wookie]

I had not heard that. So Sheri is going to change the theme of that show?


The Blue Wild Ocean Adventure Expo

Sheri has been trying to attract more business for a while. I told her that I would show if there were a non-spearing pavilion, separated from the regular part of the show. She did that, putting us in a separate area. I wouldn't say that she is looking to get rid of the spearing aspect, I'd say that she is trying to attract new business. Whenever I walk the show, I get sneered at because we don't fish by any methods, although the fish I catch are by spear, but not from the Spree, for many reasons. I'm not going someplace to spend big bucks to be sneered at, so if you don't like folks who don't spear, don't go the that part of the show.

 

[Johnoly]

... I'm not going someplace to spend big bucks to be sneered at, so if you don't like folks who don't spear, don't go the that part of the show.

I've gone to all the Blue Wild shows and I'd guess that last year's show had almost half the booths that had nothing to do with spearing. Many were in the Raffle area and that section was always packed with divers dropping in tickets. I know myself I get blinders on and wiz past the rebreathers and drysuits of DEMA because it's just not for me, but that doesn't make those people bad.

Wookie I'm excited that you are going to exhibit at BW!. I think that when you see the demographics of the attendees, you'll find they have a healthy income and they don't spear all the time when they leave their home ports. Alot of them are interested in photography and video when on vacation. Just remember that when it comes to determining where and how for a vacation, the wife/GF makes the decision 90% of the time. If you and Mel talk to the wives at the BW, you will be very successful there.

 

[Chugwhump]

Other than "The Blue Wild" show proper, and the smaller version that Sheri Daye runs at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in very early November, there are no "Dive Shows" left in SoFla.
Pretty sad.
The Ocean Expo and the dive shows of yesteryear were always nice to attend.

Chug
Always attends the shows.

 

[sheeper]

TekDiveUSA was held in Miami back in May. Really good event (tech oriented of course). It is supposed to be a biennial show now so look for it in 2016

 

[deeper thoughts]

Other than "The Blue Wild" show proper, and the smaller version that Sheri Daye runs at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show in very early November, there are no "Dive Shows" left in SoFla.
Pretty sad.
The Ocean Expo and the dive shows of yesteryear were always nice to attend.

Chug
Always attends the shows.

Heard to understand with all the great diving here

 

[kelemvor]

Sheri has been trying to attract more business for a while. I told her that I would show if there were a non-spearing pavilion, separated from the regular part of the show. She did that, putting us in a separate area. I wouldn't say that she is looking to get rid of the spearing aspect, I'd say that she is trying to attract new business. Whenever I walk the show, I get sneered at because we don't fish by any methods, although the fish I catch are by spear, but not from the Spree, for many reasons. I'm not going someplace to spend big bucks to be sneered at, so if you don't like folks who don't spear, don't go the that part of the show.

I went this year and was a little disappointed that it was so tightly focused on spearfishing. I hadn't planned to go back, but if there's a non spearing section it might be worthwhile. While almost all the booths were directly fishing related, there were two or three that weren't. HOG had a booth, and so did suunto (I think it was suunto). There were a handful of presenters doing presentations on non fishing topics. The best I can think of was a talk someone did on dive photography. Of course, Pascal had a large booth for his paintings outside the main areas.

Thanks for getting her to set that up. Hopefully it will grow! I love diving and really like conventions. The only others I can think of are Tek and DEMA, the latter of which I am not welcome to attend.