Dive Show 2016!

"After parking in the Excel London car park, we started walking up towards the ticket sales and found that we were at the wrong side of the building! So we carried on walking to the other side & bought our tickets. We happened to over-hear a very annoyed man telling somebody that he'd pre-booked tickets but left them at home! So he ended up paying an extra £20. Couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy but it was quite amusing.

Entering the Dive show, we went to see Emma, Matt and Terry at the PADI stand! We always like to catch up with PADI and ask a few questions. Shortly afterwards, we took a look around what must've been about 20 stalls at most. One of which was The Manta Trust. They do a fantastic amount of work and have now helped put a law into place in Peru to save our beloved Mantas! It's lovely knowing that one of our Dive Masters, Kanina, contributed to the project! We're very proud. We then went to see Scuba Travel, Lee is a star and took a bit of time helping us plan a few last bits for the Egypt trip this April. Next, we turned around a saw a giant inflatable whale! Without a question, myself an Gary darted towards it! Inside the land stall, we found about 20 more inflatable whales and a few mermaids! This was the Whale Fest! Unfortunately, they won't be hosting an event this year but hopefully with the help of new volunteers, there will be one next year! After this, there wasn't really much that we took an interest in. There was a few travel companies, a couple of dive centre's but the rest was mainly for the outdoor show. To be completely honest, most of the divers that attended the show probably spent more money in the outdoor department.

We did however, meet Luke from Basking Shark Scotland. We're looking into having a trip there this August so keep your eye's out! We have a lot of trips on the cards so it's going to be a fantastic year.

Overall, it was great to network with a few people and even see a few old friends but the Dive Show seems to be getting even more disappointing! My advice would be to focus on the Bristol Dive Show. It seems to have a lot more coverage and a lot more merchants attending.