GO Diving Roadshow

The National Diving and Activity Centre played host to the inaugural GO Diving Roadshow in mid-September, and exhibitors and visitors made the most of the glorious weather, as Mark Evans explains

Photographs by Jason Brown / www.bardocreative.com

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NDAC isn’t just for divers! There are plenty of family friendly activities to keep the whole clan entertained during a visit - choose from paddleboarding and kayaking to ziplines, a giant swing and the inflatable Aqua Park.

The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the

The National Diving and Activity Centre (NDAC) near Chepstow was selected as a home for the Roadshow for numerous reasons, the two most-important being location – it is quite centrally located, so ideal to get to from the southwest, London, the east and the northwest – and the vast range of activities on offer, which means it has plenty to keep divers and non-divers, young and old, occupied.

The GO Diving Roadshow – sponsored by Tobago Beyond - was essentially a truncated version of the main event, with exhibitors, workshops and speakers, with the added bonus that at NDAC, attendees could actually go for a dive in the quarry as well! Alongside the diving, there was also the chance to go on the ziplines, try out a paddleboard, or go on the inflatable Aqua Park.

We were extremely lucky with the weather – the forecast said chance of showers and overcast, and we ended up with glorious sunshine, blue skies and warm temperatures. The perfect backdrop for a weekend at NDAC!

Of course, the central draw of any show are the exhibitors, and in the marquee and the surrounding area, we had a selection of manufacturers, tourist boards, training agencies and resorts, including O’Three, Fourth Element, Nammu Tech, Shearwater Research, Divers Alert Network Europe, Midlands Diving Chamber, Roots Red Sea, British Virgin Islands, NAUI, Tobago Beyond, PADI, Kent Tooling and the Philippines Tourist Board.

DAN Europe were doing diver health checks, with Chantelle Newman.

Dates for your diary!

The GO Diving Show returns in 2022 from 4-6 March – we have moved to a bigger venue, the NAEC Stoneleigh, which is even-more centrally located in the middle of the country, so getting there wherever you live is easy, and with more than 11,000 FREE car parking spaces, you don’t have to worry about not being able to find a spot. You can expect the usual smorgasbord of keynote speakers – once again headed up by the ever-popular Steve Backshall – workshops, trydive pools, interactive displays and, of course, hundreds of exhibitors. www.godivingshow.com

The stage was located in a fenced-in corner of the car park alongside the marquee, and we had TV presenter and author Miranda Krestovnikoff, who waxed lyrical about what diving and waterborne exploits she had been up to during lockdown, and Thai cave rescue hero Chris Jewell, who took us on a whistlestop tour of a few cave adventures he had been on in the past 12 months.

Also taking to the stage over the weekend were deep diver and explorer Phil Short, who regaled the audience with his emotive story about aircraft archaeology and closure for veterans, cave diver John Kendall, who explained the challenges of using photogrammetry techniques in cave systems, underwater photographer Ellen Cuylaerts, who spoke about combining photography with conversation efforts, and Clare Dutton, who showcased the innovative Scuba Escape concept.

TV presenter, adventurer and stuntman Andy Torbet was due to grace the stage with his presence, but alas he was called away at short notice for filming work with a certain Mr Spielberg…

As we mentioned before, the fantastic thing about being located at a dive site was the fact that attendees could actually go diving! Over the course of the weekend, divers of all ages and levels of certification ventured into the NDAC waters, which are well stocked with a veritable treasure trove of underwater attractions, including armoured vehicles, boats, cars, recompression chambers, diving bells, buses, helicopters, airplanes and much more.

The great thing about NDAC is that as well as the awesome diving on offer in the quarry, there are numerous other activities to be enjoyed too. Over the course of the weekend, we had people out on the water on paddleboards, inside a Zorb roller, flying high on a hoverboard, taking to the skies on the ziplines, and scrambling over the inflatable obstacles of the Aqua Park.

After so long dealing with COVID-19 and all of its associated restrictions, both exhibitors and attendees relished being able to meet up in actual person and talk all things diving. The Friday and Saturday evenings saw the main bar area of The View being the focal point for socializing. n

There were both wet and dry workshops at the Roadshow. Tech guru Mark Powell was running skill development sessions on the Friday in the quarry waters, while on land, underwater photography duo Anne and Phil Medcalf delivered a series of photo seminars on the stage throughout the Friday and the Saturday.

Photography topics included Pimp or switch? (Is it time to upgrade your camera or will accessories give you what you want?), Cracking composition! (How to improve your underwater images without spending money), Don’t let your camera be the boss. (Using manual settings to get better pictures underwater), and Where the light comes in. (Using flash and available light in creative ways).

Having the quarry waters right on our doorstep, it made sense to make use of them, so attendees could sign up for a trydive on a RedBare CCR or a sidemount set-up.

Tim Clements was kept busy over the weekend taking people off for a bubble-free experience courtesy of Nammu Tech, while RAID’s Scott Gillham took care of those sampling sidemount for the first time.