After last year’s inaugural outing, was The Great Northern Dive Show 2017 a success?

When is a dive show not a dive show… but still a dive show? Stay with me here…

The Great Northern Dive Show is the brainchild of Ruth Mort, who owns and runs H2O Divers in Wigan in the UK with her husband Duncan. From the very beginning, Ruth wanted to do something different – and she’s certainly achieved that. There aren’t many dive shows that can claim to have Darth Vader wandering the aisles with a legion of Imperial Stormtroopers in tow; or a dinosaur walking (that’s right, walking) the show floor.

Yes, I hear you all say, Star Wars is indeed awesome (and if you’re not saying that, you’re wrong) – but what has it got to do with Scuba Diving?

Well the short answer is, nothing. And if I’m being totally honest, when I was speaking to Ruth on the phone months ago and she was saying things like “we’re going to have a dinosaur at the show”, and “we’ve got stormtroopers from Star Wars”, I found myself asking her the same question, and wondering if perhaps she had lost sight of what it was she was actually trying to achieve – putting on a dive show. But it turns out Ruth knew what she was doing all along.

Because despite sounding like she’d gone completely mad, Ruth has made her dive show accessible to families. Divers were able to take their kids knowing that they would be entertained. And big kids like myself enjoyed it too. It kind of works.

And it’s the only dive show (to my knowledge, at least) that has an opening ceremony (with a singer, which admittedly I missed) and closing ceremony (with fire dancers).

But what about the diving?

Like last year, this year’s show also featured the Aqua Theatre, which is the largest portable open windowed tank in the world. Freedivers from Apneists UK did stints in the tank dressed as mermaids, which was a definite crowd-pleaser and yet another big hit with the kids. Tech divers demonstrated skill sets, and Mark Powell from SDI/TDI even did a rebreather demo, so there was always something going on in the tank to keep visitors enthralled.

There were lots of great talks on the main stage given by well-known names from the UK dive scene. Highlights included James Rogers from RAID UK & Malta speaking about the training agency’s exciting and exclusive partnership with Blue Abyss; Scubaverse.com’s very own Nick and Caroline Robertson-Brown, who had only returned from a liveaboard trip to Socorro the previous day, speaking about their most recent diving adventure; and Mark Powell shared his experiences of diving the wreck of the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic. Other speakers included Sidemount guru Garry Dallas, Diver Medic Founder Chantelle Taylor-Newman, GUE Instructor Trainer John Kendall, and Dave Thompson from the Warrington Disability Partnership.

Once again, The Northern Underwater Photography Group (NUPG) held their annual print competition at the show. There were some stunning images on display, with the winning shots of the majority of the categories being chosen by the show’s visitors, and the overall UK and Overseas category winners being chosen by each category’s sponsor, Fleet Dive (UK category sponsor) and Safari Diving Lanzarote (Overseas category sponsor). Scubaverse’s UWP editor and NUPG member Caroline Robertson-Brown did well, winning both the British and Irish Wide Angle Category and the Overall Overseas category. Nick and Caroline’s full report on the NUPG print competition will be appearing on Scubaverse tomorrow.

The majority of the companies that exhibited last year were back for 2017’s show, and a few new exhibitors had taken the plunge and given the show a chance too. Visitor numbers weren’t as high as some were expecting, but were still respectable; the show just so happened to take place on the warmest weekend of the year so far, which may well have put some off spending their weekend inside. There were also some companies that were noticeable by their absence who hopefully will give the show a chance next year.

In its first year, the majority of those who attended The Great Northern Dive Show agreed that although the show was small and footfall wasn’t amazingly high, there was a great vibe and that the idea had legs. There was still an enormous amount of positivity this year, but there was also disappointment from some that more divers didn’t come through the doors. This will need to be addressed by Ruth and her team should the show go ahead for a third year.

I can’t emphasise enough though how refreshing The Great Northern Dive Show is. It has a lot going for it, and is a great opportunity for divers North of the border to come together and celebrate this great sport of ours. Now if only the rest of the industry would get behind it….

www.thegreatnortherndiveshow.com