Julie's Boggle

We went to our first dive show this year. We’ve never done any of the big London exhibitions before now so this was something new in more ways than one.

They have several dive shows every year (I’ve always maintained that it’s what divers do to keep themselves busy in winter), and the one we went to one London International Dive Show at the big ExCeL exhibition hall in Docklands.

There’s the potential to do quite a lot at the dive shows. Firstly there’s the dive equipment shopping which can be done from a massive range of stalls encompassing all the major suppliers. Secondly they often have other interesting things like “try-dives” which are carried out in giant porta-pools inside the exhibition halll. Thirdly they have every dive destination you could imagine trying to sell you their diving package. And lastly, they have speakers giving talks for the entire two days of the show.

We just went for the experience really – and to buy some kit that we needed. Just walking around, we found the dive computer we were getting for me (one that matches Tom’s) at a number of different stalls, with a price variation of £60! It was really crowded, so once we’d done our shopping and seen all the stalls, we made our escape.

I’m not sure I’d go again if we didn’t have any equipment to buy – unless we planned better and went to the talks – but it was worth seeing. And of course we did get some great bargains on our new kit.