Rebreather Seminar & Demo Under Water Connections

[deep thought]

Free CCR Demo March 6th

Rebreather Seminar and Rebreather Pool Demonstrations available at Underwater Connections Delafield store on Saturday March 6th from 9 - 11, with pool demos from 12-1 and 1 -2 pm. There is a $40 registration fee to sign up, however each participant will receive a $40 Gift Certificate for UWC upon completion...so its essentially Free!

You will be able to sample Inspiration Classic, Inspiration Vision, Evolution, rEvo II Mini, rEvo III Mini, and Megalodon Copis.
 
Space is almost full, so don't delay.  Contact the Delafield store to sign up today.

Underwater Connection
2410 Milwaukee St.
Delafield, Wi. 53018
262-646-8283
1-888-311-DIVE (3483)
delafield@uwconnection.com

If you miss this opportunity, contact your local dive center to sponsor a Free CCR Demo as I will be traveling throughout WI, IL, and MI to provide more Rebreather Demos and Seminars.

Good Diving

Ron

[gfmayhew]

Ron, isn't this the same weekend as Ghost Ships??  ???

[Gary]

Yeah. Either a really dumb choice of dates or a conscious attempt draw people away from the festival for some reason that I can't imagine. There are plenty of other dates it could have been scheduled, so either it should be rescheduled or I'm really disappointed with you guys for doing this. I can only imagine that the festival organizers are even more disappointed about it!

[deep thought]

No need to worry, it's only an hour in the pool - starts early in morning.  Plenty of time to enjoy the show.

I teach CCR's full time, and I travel every week.  I even had the nerve to teach on Superbowl weekend :-o can't help it, always a show somewhere.

And I will be traveling all over WI providing Free CCR demos, so people can choose alternate dates.

More dates and locations to be posted soon

Ron 

[rcojr]

And I will be traveling all over WI providing Free CCR demos, so people can choose alternate dates.


If that is true then why don't you just swap the dates
Do Milwaukee on Feb. 27th and St. Paul on Mar. 6th.

Doooh..... then you can't screw with both shows.
You were invited to participate in both shows Discover Rebreather demos.
But you declined because you were not calling all the shots.
Bob

[Leadking]

poke..poke.

[gfmayhew]

I'm a little puzzled, too.

As someone who is not a CCR diver yet, and someone who is interested in purchasing one in the next year, demo classes are a great idea. It's a lot of money to put down on equipment, and demoing gives me a chance to try several different models. I test drive a lot of cars before I settle on one to buy....

But, Ron, you contradict yourself above by stating that participants will only be 'out' an hour of Ghost Ships. Your class schedule is 9-11 and your pool sessions 12-1 and 1-2. This means participants are at the shop all day. After clean up and travel back to the festival, the folks in your second pool wont get back to Ghost Ships until 3. And the festival is over at 4.

Now, I don't like to make waves. It's not my style. But I'm confused, and I need to work this out mentally and decide which event to attend now.

On one hand...

I need to demo some more CCRs. I think I have the model I want picked out, but it never hurts to try some more. So a demo is really good for me. I take umbrage at the 'free' part, since it's actually $40. A gift certificate for $40 will buy me half a mask at UWC. It's not really a big incentive.

And on the other hand...

Ghost Ships is perhaps the most important event of the year in support of our pursuit of shipwreck diving on Lake Michigan. It's the gateway to the new season, a chance to see old friends and swap stories, to meet new friends and evangelize newcomers to our activities. (I've bee involved in training new divers at UW Madison for six years...I've brought dozens of new divers to the festival to get them hooked on shipwreck diving.) The festival is also about meeting shop owners, getting some breaks on equipment, and connecting with charter captains and starting to flesh out our dive plans for the year. It's also great to see the discoveries of the past year and listen to talks from presenters new and old. This festival is crucial to the survival of our sport in this area. It's about DIVERS and our activities, not about shops and profits. Though the festival gives shops the chance to connect with potential customers, without the divers, the festival really has no purpose.

By scheduling an event to overlap with Ghost Ships, you have the potential to take away people who contribute to the economy and the community of diving in Wisconsin. People like me who are potential rebreather customers willing to put down cash to buy the equivalent of a small automobile for my back. Big numbers like that are very distracting and it's easy to forget the real purpose of Ghost Ships: community. We need those advanced divers to show newcomers we are a real community and we are about having a good time.

I'm sorry, and I do not mean to be insulting to someone who has been instrumental to the growth of our sport in Wisconsin and Minnesota.  I just hope you are still trying to support us in a way that continues to promote diving for the entire region.

I think I've made my choice on which event to attend... Sorry, I'm going to the festival.

It's only money. It comes, it goes. But the ships are still there. And we like to visit them with our friends and talk about them. I ask that you please consider changing your event, possibly to Sunday, to take advantage of the divers coming from out of state for Ghost Ships.

Thanks for your time,
George

[Gary]

Ron,
I enjoyed meeting and talking to you in Florida. You seemed like a nice guy and you certainly cook a mean barbeque. Maybe its none of my business and I sure don't want to start some kind of war but this whole thing bothers me. I heard you have also scheduled a discover CCR dive in direct competition to another show. If that's true I can't believe both of these incidents are coincidental. As someone with a long and close history with the regional dive community you had to have known these show dates and scheduled these events in direct competition. Initially I thought it was some kind of problem UW Connections had with Ghost Ships but if there is indeed another instance then it seems as if there's more to it.  I understand what you're saying about "only 2 hrs in the pool" but if you add the travel time, gearing time, pre-dive presentation time, etc this would probably be a most of the day event. It doesn't seem likely that many people are going to pay full attendance fees to spend probably little more than a couple of hours at the show. Maybe I'm wrong but this sure appears to be a conscious attempt to draw people away from the shows. THAT bothers me.  

[deep thought]

People I have an idea:  How about channeling all of your negative energy into something positive to say about the Ghost Ships?  Go out and do some good and spread the word about good things and avoid this petty childish name calling.  Donate, Contribute, walk out into the street and shout about the show, just do something valuable that people on this forum can appreciate.

Please see the post Ghost Ships Challenge and do something nice

Good Diving

Ron

[matt t.]

Gary, I've met you a few times and I've also met Ron a few times (talked to him this a.m. at OWU in fact). My interaction with both of you has always been positive. I think it would been appropriate for you to take this up with Ron via E-mail or P.M. rather than posting inflamatory comments on both here and TDS.