January 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 1   What's this?

This Year’s Batch of Dive Gizmos

my picks and pans of the annual DEMA show

from the January, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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The Dive Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) held its annual trade show in Orlando. As has become the rule, it was open only to businesses that have something to sell, and dive stores and instructors who want to buy. I suppose it's a good thing it's not open to run-of-the mill divers, because every afternoon between 3 and 4 p.m.. a few exhibitors started passing out free beer or rum punch and the lines grew long quickly. You wouldn't want a bunch of non-buying, thirsty sport divers clogging the queues.

At times, the lines were even longer at Go Pro, where people were buying up the HD Hero2, a 1,080 video and 11-megapixel photo camera (10 shots per second) for $299, with a 170-degree, wide-angle lens and a depth rating of 60 meters. The size of a Marlboro pack, it can be mounted on hood or helmet, or strapped to one's forehead. While perhaps more applicable to surfers or bikers, the remarkable hi-def footage display enticed hundreds of divers to pull out their credit cards to get one just for themselves....