Review: 2010 Our World Underwater Dive Show

This past weekend was the 2010 Our World Underwater scuba diving show in the Chicago area. This show and expo is the biggest in the mid-west. Normally I do not go to the show as it has become more of a social event rather than a trade show. But Ben McGeever of Dive Xtras was bringing the X-Scooter to the show, so I asked if he needed any help staffing the booth. So I volunteered a day to help him out.

Ben McGeever of Dive Xtras

I had never met Ben before this weekend’s show, so I didn’t know what to expect from a guy I was going to spend the day with. Ben is a heck of a nice guy. In between handing out free DVDs, Ben and I spent the day talking about scooters and diving. Ben is a highly trained and accomplished diver, so to say we hit it off would be accurate. He isn’t as rough around the edges as I am, but close.

There was quite a bit of traffic to the booth. Certainly everyone thought the X-Scooter was cool, but when the topic of price came out, the look on people’s faces was enough to know that they weren’t too serious about purchasing a X-Scooter. There were a few serious inquiries about the scooters and I passed them onto Ben.

The booth artwork was very nicely done. Not only did Ben bring an X-Scooter Cuda, but he brought some other products that Dive Xtras sells. I’ve been looking for an E/O connector to power electric undergarments. Dive Xtras sells one that connects up to a dry suit inflator mechanism. It uses the same hole as the inflator valve. The connector body has a hole in it where the dry suit inflator screws into it. So the inflation mechanism sits higher on the suit, but it eliminates the need to punch another hole in the suit to power electric undergarments. Now I know what I’m saving my pennies for. Ben also brought some other products for the X-Scooter, such as universal and deluxe video camera mountings.

The Show Itself

The very first time I went to the show, it was huge. Vendor exhibits covered almost the entire floor space of the convention center. Over the years, it has gotten smaller and smaller. This year, it seemed more crowded, but that was mostly due to the smaller space the show took up. Overall, I think it was a good turnout. Manufacturers on hand were Aqualung, DUI, Scubapro, White’s Dry Suit, and a few others. Many travel destinations were on had as well. This year it didn’t seem like many from Mexico were there.

I did get to eat lunch with Richie Kohler. The first time I met him was a few years ago during the height of Deep Sea Detectives. At that time, he and John Chatterton had an entourage with them all the time. This year it was just Richie and he was mostly by himself. When we had lunch, it was just he and I. I was able to chat with him about diving in the Dominican Republic and bend his ear about shipwreck diving.

I was also very impressed by the artwork that the students of the STARS program did with Rogest. The students took a day and a half and created some very good painted mosaics of underwater scenes. Rogest donated his time to help the kids create their paintings and even helped the kids auction off their paintings to help raise money for the program. I was going to bid on a very nice painting of a clownfish for my kids, but the bidding was already up over the $40 I had in my pocket. Wish I could have gotten it, my kids would have loved it.

The Real Treat

The biggest treat for me came as a complete surprise. While I was walking around the show, I saw a gentleman who looked very familiar. After seeing him a few times it hit me, it was Jarrod Jablonski of GUE and Halcyon. He was there just walking around the show, not promoting anything. I was able to chat with him for a few minutes. He mentioned that he was a fan of mine. We talked about the cold weather up here, what’s going on with the WKPP and where he and his fiancee Renee did their fun diving (when he isn’t working so much). Jarrod was very personable and seemed to enjoy talking about diving with me. His fiancee Renee was also very nice and talked about some of the diving she likes to do as well. I decided to not monopolize all of Jarrod’s time, I invited him to come up and dive the Great Lakes sometime and wished him a good flight back home.

OWU Summary

This year’s show was about what I expected. Still much of the same social and travel topics. There was nothing new in regard to products. I was able to see many of my friends that I hadn’t talked to in a while. I was also to meet some new people and prospective students. Overall I had a good time and I’d like to thank Ben for allowing me to help him out and for the lunch he bought me.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving