Photos by Don Jergler
The annual SCUBA Show 2010, which ran Saturday and Sunday at the Long Beach Convention Center, was the best attended in the show’s 23-year history, the event organizer said Tuesday.
“We (just) got the official attendance: 11,216,” said Christopher Sheckler, marketing director for show sponsor California Diving News. Shekler said the record attendance was pushed by a large crowd on Saturday. “This was our best Saturday ever.”
The show offered thousands of divers literally tons of new and innovative underwater gear and travel deals from around the planet. In fact, the annual show in Long Beach, which entailed 76,000 square feet of diving-related exhibits filled with dive gear and travel and diving experts, offered up a little more. Marine life artist Wyland, the guy who painted the famed mural on the Long Beach Arena, interacted with attendees while painting a new piece of art on a giant canvas inside the show. On Sunday he painted with children and talked to them about conservation as they enthusiastically added to what came out to be one of Wyland’s more…complex…pieces.
Wyland’s booth was continually swamped with onlookers ask he painted his mural. Instead of playing the typical temperamental artist, Wyland summed up enthusiasm for even some of the most obnoxious attendees. “Hey, Wayland,” shouted one onlooker, who cluelessly slaughtered the artist’s name without even a hint of apology or embarrassment. “It’s Wyland. Wayland’s a place,” Wyland answered politely. The man continued after some more awkward exchange: “It needs some islands with palm trees.” Wyland, as almost anyone who has ever seen his art knows, sticks to life in the ocean as his sole subject. He continued painting, and politely told the man, “No, that’s not what it needs.”
The show also served as a great place for folks to get started in scuba, with outfitters like Sports Chalet in Long Beach, offering discounts on lessons and gear. A history of Scuba display allowed participants to get an up-close look at some of the earliest underwater breathing equipment, much of it pioneered by underwater explorer Jacques Coustea.
According to event organizer Torrance-based Saint Brendan Corp., the parent company of show sponsor of California Diving News, it was the biggest show in the history of the event in terms of exhibit space. There were 324 exhibitors at this year’s show, according to California Diving News publisher Dale Sheckler.
The show also featured dive outfitters from exotic destinations like Fiji, Malaysia, Indonesia, Maldives and Sulawesi will be on hand, as well as representatives from popular US locales like Florida and Catalina Island, and an underwater film festival ran continuously on a three-story high screen featuring films from around the world by underwater imaging experts.
