Our focus will be on reconnecting Malaysian dive businesses with our local dive community, stimulating the interest of fellow underwater enthusiasts to visit the many local dive destinations around Malaysia, writes Ness Puvaness, the show's organiser.
As such, the theme this year will be ‘Let’s Meet & Dive Locally’.
Joann passed quietly on October 25th, 2021 after an untimely illness.
JoAnn had a love for the fashion industry where she had her first work experience. While working in the fashion industry, JoAnn met and married Armand “Zig” Zigahn. Zig was the founder of Beneath the Sea. Soon JoAnn realized she had married both Zig and Beneath the Sea. It was a marriage and a love affair that lasted for the next thirty-eight years.
DURHAM, NC – October 26, 2021 – For more than 40 years DAN has played a crucial role in the dive industry, championing diver safety, risk management, and emergency preparedness.
After last year’s virtual DEMA Show, we at DAN are looking forward to meeting with dive professionals from around the world in person once again.
If the name Peter Sotis rings a bell, it is no coincidence. He was Rob Stewart's dive buddy when the filmmaker tragically lost his life on a deep rebreather dive in 2017, after which he was ostracised by the dive community as well as sued by Stewart’s family for his role in Stewart's death. Both the incident and the lawsuit have been covered in the magazine.
It felt a bit surreal heading to the airport again for the first time in almost two years. I used to frequently attend various dive shows, events and conferences and go through the airport as a matter of routine. But that was before the pandemic shut everything down some 21 months ago.
Short video sample of a presentation; Immi Wallin talks about her ongoing
What also made this event extra pleasant was the great food, and that the temperature outdoors was very comfortable and balmy. When compared to so many other conferences, which are often held during late fall or winter in colder and darker regions, being able to sit outside and dine in pleasant temperatures and still be able to walk around in shorts and short sleeves was a real bonus.
The DEMA Board of Directors has activated DEMA’s Disaster Assistance Program and Manufacturers’ Fund to help DEMA Member exhibitors and buyers struggling as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. “We understand that many companies are experiencing difficult times as a result of the pandemic,” indicated Tom Ingram, DEMA President and CEO. “The DEMA Board wants to help as much as possible so these professionals can gain education, learn about products and services and take advantage of Show-only specials that will help them make it through to better days ahead.”
The event featured world-leading speakers speaking on how applying human factors can improve diving safety, incident reporting and team performance.
The first-ever event of its kind, the conference provided a unique opportunity to share the knowledge and skills to make diving safer, more effective, and more enjoyable, by allowing divers and instructors to take more informed risks and reduce uncertainty.
Earlier this month, a group of diving specialists met to draft the ISO Scientific Diving Standards.
A three-part standard is being written that will define training requirements for three levels of Scientific Diver. These will eventually be published as ISO 8804.
In an e-mail to participants of the upcoming event, the team of organisers write that they "have come across businesses that cannot even afford the very low prices that we are charging and that are choosing instead (rightly) to focus on supporting their staff through this difficult time.
"We also believe that this will pass and that most places will be much more open to diving in 2022, and they will need to focus on marketing their products be that equipment, travel or training."
Dan Burton was known to the international dive community as a true pioneer who, among many other endeavours, explored using technical diving in combination with underwater photography. At least that is what he was up to when we first met in the 1990s.
Sacha Dench was attempting a 3,000-mile journey in a motorised paraglider ahead of November's COP26 UN climate change conference with Dan Burton working in support as her cameraman.
