A VERY BIG DEAL...
- To tell the truth, I am kind of disappointed at the lack of forum participation and comments about Sea Hunt Forever in the vintage equipment diving community. I had not even gotten home yet and the enthusiasm and discussion over the first postings of pictures and video had already begun to cool off. I just wonder if forum readers realize:
1. What truly BIG A DEAL the Sea Hunt Forever show is for our diving community.
2. How much time and effort goes into producing videos and photos to post on forums that only a few people bother to contribute anything to... Comments, questions, personal experience, etc... Much less share and disseminate outside the forum for the good of the sport.
Why Its a Big Deal...
- Sea Hunt Forever showed off in broad daylight (and with over 5,800 witnesses) over 160 vintage equipment dives without a single failure of the vintage scuba diving equipment.
- Sea Hunt Forever showed the vintage style of diving with no BCD, no Octo, no gauges, no computers... over 160 dives with no incidents from running out of air, no buoyancy problems,... No problems at all.
- Sea Hunt Forever showed off a definite "cool factor" of scuba diving that influenced more than a few of the visitors to want to take up scuba diving. We over heard this often as guests came off the boats.
- The Sea Hunt Forever CAST made a terrific contribution to the diving public and to the prosperity of the Silver Springs Park and surrounding community by putting on this demonstration. Everyone paid all of their own expenses and donated as much as a week of time for not only the show but the travel to haul all of the equipment down there. And almost all of the divers stepped outside of their comfort zones to walk around in their equipment, visit with the guests, answer questions, let people take their pictures, etc.
- The organizers of Sea Hunt Forever contributed even more... Allan Klauda set and enforced the true-to-Sea Hunt equipment requirements and helped the cast coordinate assembling everything they needed. Allan made and brought the props... Anaconda, rubber knives, fake spearguns, etc. Bryan Pennington put in 12 months of negotiating and organizing and meetings with park officials and others, handled legal issues, waivers, assembled the cast, arranged the lodging and meals, arranged the power for the generators, etc. etc. Roger Van Frank brought along a beautiful, enclosed trailer based 8 CFM compressor system with huge cascade tanks and kept everybody's tanks filled. Bryan and Ron also brought compressors.
- Alex Pierce hauled his entire Sea Hunt collection from Canada. It took 7 hours to set up and was enjoyed by the over 5,800 guests who visited Silver Springs that weekend.
The depth and potential influence of the Sea Hunt Forever event is definitely significant. I am very proud to have been part of it and I think the Vintage Diving Community can take great pride in it as well.