I had the pleasure of spending my weekend at ODEX, The Australian International Scuba and Underwater Sports Expo at Sydney Olympic Park and Aquatic Centre.
The whole weekend flew by with meeting wonderful people in the industry talking about their businesses relating to underwater everything and when I mean everything I do mean everything!
I met Mermaids who raise awareness around water safety for children and work with the “Make A Wish Foundation” making dreams come true for critically ill children. I met passionate Freedivers, competing in the World Series Freedivng Championships and spoke with a myriad of resort owners from around the world about their dive resorts, facilities, services and packages. I caught up with the latest technologies both in diving and underwater photography. I swapped recent travel stories with fellow divers and photographers and had fun catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.
Some of the highlights of the weekend were the nonstop, informative, inspiring and fun talks provided by industry professionals and photography masters over the course of the weekend.
Day one we were treated to varied talks from Surf Photography by Mark Tipple, The Art of Underwater Portraiture, “From Waterbabies to Whales” by Sarah Alice“ to “Freediving Skills” by Alana Caskey Wells and finished the day with an informative talk on Underwater Optics by Pawel Achtel, just to name a few.
Day two was just as exciting starting with a talk from Klaus Stiefel “Taking Pictures while Technical Diving, followed by a great talk by Cal Mero called “Water, Light and Beauty” – The Art of Underwater Fashion. We also heard from the passionate Ken Thongpila about Underwater Macro Photography – sharing, learning and inspiring, and of course our very own Michael Aw with “Essential Underwater Photography with the Masters” featuring work from David
Doubilet, Ernie Brooks, Alex Mustard, Jane Morgan, Steve Jones, Mathieu Meur and Michael Aw.
Michael also showed us his must see slide show from the Ocean Geographic Cuba trip, coming up next January/February; check dates and availability on the “Expeditions” page of the website for this breathtaking trip through Havana, Mangroves Forests and Fidel Castro’s marine park legacy, untouched by Fisheries since the 1970’s.
You can checkout what else ODEX has to offer if your interested in coming along next year at: http://www.odex.com.au/australian-open-fin-swimming-championships.html#
A great weekend had by all and definitely worth a visit next year friends!
As you would also be aware it was election weekend for all our Australian diving buddies with a proceeding change in government. Our new Prime Minister in the coming months has said he will be looking at rolling back our newly appointed marine parks. If you feeling strongly about keeping what would be the largest marine park sanctuary in the world, please voice your opinion by joining “The Big Blue Army” at: http://www.saveourmarinelife.org.au/
Talk Soon
Pamela Martin