The banners have been taken down, the bunting has been put away and the small army of volunteers have gone back to their families and their real jobs. Underwater Canada, the nation's largest scuba show, is over for another year.
And while after 29 years it seems a bit routine, this year things were a little different. "It was definitely a make or break it year," said show manager Nancy Parton. "I am happy to report that we made it! Attendance was strong and our exhibitors are happy!"
A shrinking of the scuba equipment industry in Canada, coupled with the rising cost of running an all-volunteer exhibition, has been taking its toll on the venerable event. However, a move to a different Toronto location, a change in the programming and an adjustment to the pricing schedule was effective in winning back audiences and cutting cost. Underwater Canada 2000 was a success and the Ontario Underwater Council (the owners of the show) have announced that they are going to hold Underwater Canada once again in 2001.
The success of Underwater Canada 2000 probably lay in the variety of what was offered to show goers. Its exhibition area was used to put the spotlight on new equipment.
The three day March show had a rotating symposium schedule that brought some of the world's underwater experts to Toronto to talk to divers about their sport. It was standing room only for many of the speakers' lectures held at the Toronto Congress Centre.
For the first time in decades, Underwater Canada 2000 did not feature an evening film festival. Attendance at previous film festivals has been dropping off, so, this year the dive show held an evening dinner at a nearby hotel instead.
The Dine With The Speakers Saturday evening program included a cocktail party, a sit-down dinner and several never-before seen presentations focusing on the Canadian Arctic and its unexplored underwater environment! Guest speakers included underwater engineer Stephen Blasco and inventor Phil Nuytten.
During the evening program the Rolex Watch company presented a Rolex watch to Marion Peirce, the past chairman of Underwater Canada. She was named the volunteer of the year.
"We had initially thought that we would get 60 or 70 people out to the dinner, however, this thing really took off," continued Parton. "We had over 250 and if the hotel hadn't put a 24 hour cut-off on the tickets, we could have had even more!"
Next year Underwater Canada is going to expand the Saturday night dinner program. Of course the big question is when and where Underwater Canada 2001 is going to be. At press deadline organizers were still reviewing available sites along Toronto's airport strip; the actual date and location will be announced in the next issue of Diver Magazine.
The Ontario Underwater Council will be posting show information about Underwater Canada 2001 on their web site. The OUC address is www.ontariounderwatercouncil.com.
Photo Award Winners
Nepean, Ontario's Monique and Michael Bellefeuille have a picture perfect marriage. Monique writes about diving (in both English and French) and husband Michael takes underwater pictures. Michael is also a stone carver and often uses the undersea world as his inspiration.
In addition to their editorial work, for the past few years the couple has both sponsored and run the Canadian Festival of Underwater Visual Images. And both Monique and Michael have each added their own touches to the photo contest. Monique has rounded up the sponsorship (Bonica Cameras is the principal benefactor) and contributors, while Michael has hand carved sculpture awards for some of the winners.
The Year 2000 photo contest wrapped up in January and the winners were announced at Underwater Canada. Taking top honours were: Rudy Whitworth (Best Overall), Dixie Greenwood (Best upcoming talent), Karl Leclerc (Most Creative Award), Ja sivitz (Best Fun and Humour Award), Charles Stearns (Michael Bellefeuille Artist Award), Kevin Roland (Aqualog Award), Michael Kusek (Bonica Choice Award), Anne Marie McDonald (Y2K Photo Bug Award) and Karl Leclerc (People's Choice Award).
Reward For Munson Plate
An historic artifact from one of Canada's most popular freshwater wrecks has been stolen, and, the dive community in Kingston, Ontario is doing its best to recover it.
Over the Labour Day weekend last fall a diver removed the patent platea metal plate with the name and date of the
manufactureroff the boiler of the wreck of the
Munson. The plate identifies the generator as being made by the Ball Electric
Light Company in 1881.
The Preserve Our Wrecks society has posted a $1,000 reward for the return, arrest and conviction of the person who stole the item. The POW has printed a reward sheet and has posted it in area dive shops.
"POW is taking a firm stand against wreck stripping and will prosecute anyone caught removing artifacts," explained POW president Ken Mullings. "We would encourage the person, or, persons responsible for the removal of the Munson plate, to return this artifact with no questions asked."
The Munson was a large, square dredge that was used in the late 1800s to dig out harbours in the Kingston region. In 1890, while undertow, the Munson foundered and sank. She now sits upright, her crane and bucket in place, in 110 feet of water.
New Cayman Connections
Dive tourists in Ontario now have a new way to get to the Cayman Islands. Continental Airlines announced last month a new nonstop service between Newark New Jersey and Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands, beginning December 14, 2000. Continental's proposed four times weekly flight (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) will be the only nonstop between the New York City area and Grand Cayman.
Continental's New York flight will depart from Newark International Airport at 10 a.m. and arrive in Grand Cayman at 2 p.m. The return flight departs at 2:55 p.m. and arrives in New York at 6:35 p.m.
The new route should prove to be popular for Ontario divers. Currently most travellers must connect through Miami to reach Grand Cayman. Due to frequent delays clearing customs in Florida, travelling divers have to leave themselves several hours in between arriving and departing Miami. New Jersey has far less traffic to the Caribbean and custom delays are not common. Newark is easily reached from both Ottawa and Toronto by Continental and Air Ontario.
TAM is now on the Web
As Diver Magazine was set to go to press, the TAM Dive web site was under construction. However, the dive operation promises to have the construction sign taken down and the site open for business before the summer arrives.
TAM Dive has a shop in Peterborough, Ontario and downtown Toronto. Their new website is located at: www.tamdive. com.