The 2023 New Orleans DEMA Show

The Diving Equipment Manufacturer's Association (DEMA) annual show was held in early November in New Orleans, where many old hands reminisced about those halcyon days before Hurricane Katrina in 2004 when the show was held there biannually.

Alas, the city is not quite the same. Of course, endless restaurants serve fabulous food, but an air of insecurity hung over Bourbon Street, where a couple of DEMA attendees got mugged during their evening outings.

Despite that, PADI, Deeper Blue, and TDI/SDI managed riotous and over-subscribed parties at venues in the street. The TDI/SDI party was meant to be more of a wake for its recently departed founder, Bret Gilliam. (It could be said the event was not as dignified as Bret deserved, but our old, dear departed friend would have approved nevertheless.) Jonathon Edwards, a country and folk singer/songwriter (Sunshine, a 1971 hit) and Bret's long-time friend played in his honor, but few could appreciate Edward's unique performance over the raucous noise of others having a good time.

PADI organized a traditional New Orleans street parade complete with a marching band, managing to get the police to close off Canal Street for it. DAN also rocked with a great social. Unsurprisingly, there was no Wetpixel party.

The DEMA show itself, in the Convention Center, looked at first glance very much like a regular DEMA event from past years. Those attending had survived the cataclysmic years of COVID.

I was honored to be regularly congratulated for publishing the stories that other media had shied away from.

The New Product Showcases provided tacit evidence of few new products while the industry is in recovery. Manufacturers seemed to have picked up where they left off in 2019 with continuity rather than innovation. And some major businesses were notable for their absence: Huish Outdoors, distributors and manufacturers of Suunto, Atomic Aquatics, Bare, Oceanic, Hollis, Stahlsac, and Zeagle, was an example. Even the Aqualung booth seemed staffed by those rather reluctant to look to the future.

Otherwise, the big European manufacturers, such as Cressi, Ocean Reef, Sherwood, Beuchat, AP Valves, Seac, etc., showed up with familiar stuff.

The large dive tank erected for those giving wet demonstrations turned green and murky on day one. Despite efforts to clear it, it remained a disaster, its stagnant waters not a good omen.

Avelo Labs was among the few manufacturers with something new: its BC-free variable-buoyancy scuba tank. Smartphones have become so capable of taking excellent photographs that it was unsurprising that housings for iPhones and Androids were well displayed. The Kraken, available for both types of phones, has been improved with a vacuum sealing system and a built-in battery that will charge your phone while you are underwater. That's a welcome because the Achilles heel of smartphones has been their tendency to run out of power during a dive. Scubapro showed the Galileo G3 dive computer in a watch format to compete with Garmin's Descent range of watch-like computers. Both manufacturers threaten Suunto's domination of that market.

The DEMA show each year becomes more and more of a dive travel show, and most popular destinations were there vying for business. Dive travel is increasing, and booth representatives had a good response.

The show is also an opportunity for many characters who had not seen each other for some years to meet up, joyful to see those who had survived the slings and arrows of misfortune of the previous years and optimistically hoped for a full recovery of business post-COVID.

So, although the DEMA show seemed like "more of the same," I was relieved to see the dive industry getting back on its feet. Let's hope for even more improvements in 2024.

P.S. While Undercurrent has been a thorn in the side of many in the industry, I was honored to be regularly congratulated for publishing the stories that other media had shied away from.

- John Bantin