The GO Diving Show, the brand new trade and consumer festival for all things diving is happening this month at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England on 22 & 24 February 2019.
As well as having six stages hosting nearly 60 speakers, and more than 80 stands from manufacturers, retailers, tour operators, training agencies, charities, etc, the GO Diving Show also boasts several interactive and immersive elements for visitors to get involved in!
The Cave
What is it like to scramble around in the pitch-black, your way forward through winding passageways lit only by the light on your protective helmet? Welcome to the world of caving – and you can try it first-hand in our interactive caving experience!
You will don kneepads and a helmet with bright LED light and then venture into the daunting cave system. Through a clever and convoluted design that takes you up and down as well as left and right, you will traverse some 30 meters of dark, narrow cave passageways before emerging back into daylight. Along the way, you will have to make your way through constrictions, around tight corners, over obstacles and even scramble through a deep ball pool in the middle of the route!
Suitable for children (aged 4+) and adults alike, this interactive experience is sure to be popular – and with four cameras inside the cave system linked into a TV mounted outside, your friends and family can see how you fair on your journey into the darkness.
The cave experience does give you a real flavor for what genuine caving feels like, but fear not, if the tight spaces and cloying darkness get too much for you, there are several emergency exits the team can open to get you quickly out.
Cave Diving Group members Mike and Robert Thomas will be on-hand to offer some advice for those brave enough to take up the challenge and explain how you can take this exciting experience into the real world and get into dry caving and cave diving.
Virtual Shark Dive With Discovery Channel
The GO Diving show has teamed up with the Discovery Channel to allow you to venture on an exciting virtual shark dive. Whether you are already an avid diver or looking to take the plunge into this exciting sport, you cannot miss the opportunity to don a VR headset and find yourself in the midst of the action on an adrenaline-fuelled Discovery Channel Shark Week dive!
Sharks, widely misunderstood by the general public and vilified in the mainstream media, are one of nature’s most graceful and impressive predators, and being in the water with any of the multitudes of species is simply mind-blowing. In these virtual reality films, you will be able to see exactly how amazing these creatures are, as they surround the divers and approach from every angle.
Want to try it out for yourself? Get down to the GO Diving show and make your way to the Discovery Channel VR booth. Whatever your age, you too can get up close and personal with some of the ocean’s greatest apex predators.
As well as the Discovery Channel VR booth, several of the exhibitors at GO Diving are bringing their virtual reality experiences to the show, including a dive with seals in the waters off Ireland, a cage dive with great white sharks off Guadalupe, a unique 360-degree dive inside a cave in France, and many more.
Try Dive Pools
GO Diving features two 100 sqm pools for entry-level try-dives, sidemount try-dives and CCR try-dives (Poseidon Se7en and ReVo), and there are dry sessions teaching freediving breath-hold techniques, so this is the perfect time to take the plunge for the first time or try your hand at a new discipline. You can register online here. Don’t worry, all you need to bring for the pool sessions are your swim-wear, towel and a rash vest/T-shirt – the pools will be heated to 22-23 degrees C.
Masterclasses
There are Masterclasses in various underwater photography techniques over the weekend, where you can be part of a small group getting personalized tuition and advice from acknowledged experts and Scuba Diver columnists Mario Vitalini and Martyn Guess. These will be strictly space-limited! Email Mario at Scuba Travel for more information and to register.
Interactive Challenges
Reckon your navigation skills are up to scratch? Think your shutdown-drill is the fastest around? Got your trim bang on? Then come and showcase your talents at our interactive zones! The GUE team will be showing you how to get that perfect horizontal trim on their ‘trim machine’, while the navigation trail will test your abilities to accurately read a compass. The shutdown-drill challenge will let you take on a buddy in a timed showdown – and the fastest times will go on our Wall of Fame. Will you be able to beat the times set by the pros?
The Next Generation
All those keen kids and talented teens out there who have already got into diving or are wanting to have not been forgotten. Our dedicated Next Generation section will be manned by several inspirational youngsters and teenagers who have racked up an impressive array of certifications between them, and they will be on hand to chat with other young people and hang out with like-minded child and teen divers. There will be a graffiti wall to pledge in the fight against plastic pollution, Project AWARE will be talking about conservation and clean-up campaigns, and there will be a mini-cinema. Plus, throughout the day there will be presentations and talks with Beyond Bionic’s Andy Torbet and the Mermaid Minute’s Linden Wolbert, as well as the teams from Ocean Reef full-face masks and Skegness Aquarium.
Ready To GO Diving?
Book your standard-rate admission tickets for £20 now and avoid the queues on the day!
