There is a place where you can find everything you ever wanted to know about scuba diving in one place, at one time. It's a place where you can talk to top experts, touch it all, feel it all, try it on, even actually dive it. That place is at SCUBA Show 2000. Now in its 13th year, this huge annual expo has become known as is THE Diving Event of the Year!™

The show attracts on average of over 10,000 underwater enthusiasts each year. It is the largest consumer dive expo in the Western U.S. and this year it's even bigger.

The SCUBA Show is expanding, moving to the massive Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center. The thoroughly modern convention center offers all the amenities you would expect from a world class expo facility, including plenty of parking, easy access, helpful staff and more. The center is home to the world's largest mural, a very special Wyland wall depicting the underwater world of Southern California Pacific. (The renown artist Wyland will be a special guest of the SCUBA Show on Sunday and you can meet him personally.) Furthermore, the Convention Center is within a block of several dive-charter boats, pleasure boat harbor and magnificent Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific.

The SCUBA Show exhibit hall will offer over 57,000 square feet of diving- related exhibits, including in-water demos and trials, the latest in underwater exploration equipment, travel displays, and more. The Exhibit Hall, including the new in-water demo and trial tank, will be covered in detail in part 2 of this article appearing in the June issue of California Diving News.

SEMINARS

One of the most popular segments of the SCUBA Show is the extensive seminar program. The full gamut of underwater subjects is covered in this seminar program. Underwater photography, videography, marine life, and local California diving receive special emphasis. There will also be talks on dive gear, underwater hunting, travel, dive-accident protection and more.

The seminar speakers read like a who's who in diving authorities. Participants in the seminar program will meet famed underwater photographers Jim Church and Chris Newbert. California diving experts Bruce Watkins and Dale Sheckler will be giving several talks. Kathy de Wet, authority on the Channel Islands, will be giving several talks. If you like wrecks, be sure to catch Pat Smith's seminars. And these are just to name a few.

Complete seminar schedule, along with advanced registration information, is available on the insert in this issue of California Diving News or on the web at www.saintbrendan.com. A total of 31 seminars, 16 on Saturday and 15 on Sunday, are presented. All day seminar passes are available that will gain you admission to as many seminars on the day you wish. Advanced registration is suggested for substantial savings.

EXHIBITOR PRESENTATIONS

In addition to the Seminars, a number of entertaining and educational Exhibitor Presentations are available to attend. These talks are sponsored by SCUBA Show exhibitors and free to attendees. No advanced registration is required.

Most of the Exhibitor Presentations consist of dazzling slide shows of far-flung and exotic dive destinations from around the world. This is the place to learn about your next live-aboard dive vacation. Fiji, Truk, Malaysia, Tahiti, Cuba, Bay Islands and more&emdash;all are covered for you to plan your next several dive vacations. Other topics include Free-diving, Equipment maintenance, and an Intro to Scuba.

As with the Seminars, a schedule Exhibitor Presentations, including descriptions, is on the insert inside this issue. For updates on the schedule, visit www.saintbrendan.com on the web.

CONTINUOUS U/W FILM FESTIVAL

A film festival featuring underwater video films from around the world will run continuously all day Saturday and Sunday. Many of this films are premiere videos, shown for the first time at SCUBA Show 2000. Included is spectacular footage of kelp forests, right whales, wrecks and huge manta rays. This year's film festival seems to have a particular emphasis on marine life, especially the somewhat strange and unusual.

The popular team of Bill Macdonald and Susan Ritman has returned yet again this year with the film Bizarre Denizens of Lembeh. Some of the most unusual sea creatures in the world exist in the Lembeh Straights of Indonesia. There are fish with fingers that walk on the sea floor, sea dragons, octopus that mimic fish, and more. This fascinating short film is a triumph of underwater video work in showing the strange and unusual. The dramatic footage is accented by an excellent musical score by CyberDen of San Rafel, CA.

Another unusual look at marine life from a different but nearby ocean is provided by Sea Creatures of Myanmar (Burma) by Mary Lynn Price. This premiere film bring strange lion fish, sea snakes and odd sharks to the screen.

If you're interested in local diving, be sure not to miss California Kelp Dreams by Schyler Johnson, Wreck of the Ruby E by Bob Gladden, Project Yukon, and My Backyard by Walter Marti. In My Backyard, you witness nudibranchs mating!

If nudibranchs are not enough for you, check out the film short Innerspace Romance by Roger Roth. The strange and unusual mating behavior of fish is exposed in video. Roger Roth also brings us the premiere film Red Sea Adventure that features divers exploring crystal clear desert waters filled with turtles, colorful fish, and wrecks.

More tropical coral reef footage is provided by Steve Douglass with his premiere film Fiji - Islands in the Sun. Beware! You'll be booking your trip to Fiji after this film short.

Perhaps you'll book your trip with Nai'a Fiji. This promotional video displays breathtaking video of right whales that is not to be missed.

For the spiritual, don't miss poetic Impressions of a Veiled World by Rusty Colby. Excellent editing combines underwater and ocean images from around the world into a piece that will uplift your ocean borne spirit.

Spiritual? Why not angels? Angels of the Deep by Bob Gladden shows you where they meet&emdash;off the Kona Coast, Hawaii at night to be exact. Huge manta rays buzz the camera illuminated by brilliant lights.

PART 2 of this Preview Article will appear in the June issue of California Diving News available late May.