Another DEMA come and gone
Yes, I plan to do this once every two months LJing thing as a habit :-P.
If you read this in my MySpace blog, I just copied and pasted it.
Well, this year, we went with an extra person. A salesperson, an actual scuba diver, and a traveling pal named Jackie. She really helped during the scuba show because while my dad's a certified scuba diver that doesn't really dive and my mom and I don't know how to dive, Jackie is certified and actually dives all over the place and uses Mor-Fins, and she's able to tell everyone how cool they are diving. She's also said that we can go sailing together sometime and she can certify me next summer. So that'd be awesome, of course . During our stay at Orlando, we swam at another hotel's pool and relaxed in another hotel's hot tub other than the hotel we were staying at, and went to DEMA-related parties all claiming to have free alcohol. Yes, if there is anything that says "Free Alcoholic Drinks" or "Free Beer", Jackie will go. As well as a few other people on my friends list, I imagine. She was a blast to have around. She's a cool nomadic, traveling girl type. Nice travel buddy.
My parents and I were also able to see Al and Kate Burda, who are long time friends of the family. (Al and Dad have been friends since they were in grade school and they're both about the same age now.) Al and Kate "helped out" at the trade show. Well, really, they just looked around the show a lot and sat at the booth, but it was nice to see them. We had dinner at Perkins, where I had a waffle for dinner, yummy. It was cool to see them.
At the day before the show, at the reception that DEMA always has the day before the trade show starts, Jackie and I made friends with the guys at BodyBagz, which is a company that makes custom rash guards (layman's terms: it looks just like a shirt but you dive with it and it protects you from the sun and whatnot). They're from North Carolina, and they're really cool guys. I'd hang with em if I ever went down to North Carolina. I hope BodyBagz does well. They gave Jackie a free rash guard for demonstrating in the pool with it and advertising BodyBagz's name. We kept going back and forth to each other throughout the show. They entered our contest, and I'm sorry guys, I still don't know if you won, I'll let you guys know through the business e-mail.
Oh yeah, this year we had a drawing where we gave away one free pair of fins per day. Also, we were actually able to sell fins. Rather than say "they're not in production yet, but we'd like to know your interest", or "it's a bleak outlook about production, but we have a DEMA deal where you can try them out for only $40." We were able to say "They're finally in production now! You can buy them!" We sold a couple of pair, and gave some pair to a company called DAN that's involved in dive rescue, and gave some pair to the Scuba Tour that had the demo pool but has a tour that goes around the US. We ended up coming home with only about 2-3 pair of fins (rather than about 8-10 pair we brought to begin with plus fins that Jackie had brought). It is very exciting, folks. Yes, indeed.
Also, during the show, while I spent my money at the show, I also won some things. I bought some Waldies, some Scuba Tube Socks, some jewelry, a T-shirt, a hammerhead keychain for Rob, and a T-shirt for Rob. Then, I won another T-shirt at the place where I bought the T-shirts. Then, I won A WEEK VACATION'S BED&BREAKFAST STAY AT THE ISLAND OF DOMINICA (during June or September)! And also, Beetlejuice got me some free rum.
It was the week of Halloween that the DEMA convention had to go on, and don't think I wasn't ticked off that the first day was Halloween. But, I did get to dress up as a pirate last weekend with Rob at Rachel's Halloween potluck (where I met Ninja Mike !), and I saw some cool costumes on Wednesday. Jackie was our Mor-Fin sprite . I saw Beetlejuice. There were a couple of cool costumes at the Halloween party after the show. The best had to be hands-down the dead diver. That costume was rockin'. I wish I took a picture.
Hope everyone had a good week and a good Halloween. Stay well.
If you read this in my MySpace blog, I just copied and pasted it.
Well, this year, we went with an extra person. A salesperson, an actual scuba diver, and a traveling pal named Jackie. She really helped during the scuba show because while my dad's a certified scuba diver that doesn't really dive and my mom and I don't know how to dive, Jackie is certified and actually dives all over the place and uses Mor-Fins, and she's able to tell everyone how cool they are diving. She's also said that we can go sailing together sometime and she can certify me next summer. So that'd be awesome, of course . During our stay at Orlando, we swam at another hotel's pool and relaxed in another hotel's hot tub other than the hotel we were staying at, and went to DEMA-related parties all claiming to have free alcohol. Yes, if there is anything that says "Free Alcoholic Drinks" or "Free Beer", Jackie will go. As well as a few other people on my friends list, I imagine. She was a blast to have around. She's a cool nomadic, traveling girl type. Nice travel buddy.
My parents and I were also able to see Al and Kate Burda, who are long time friends of the family. (Al and Dad have been friends since they were in grade school and they're both about the same age now.) Al and Kate "helped out" at the trade show. Well, really, they just looked around the show a lot and sat at the booth, but it was nice to see them. We had dinner at Perkins, where I had a waffle for dinner, yummy. It was cool to see them.
At the day before the show, at the reception that DEMA always has the day before the trade show starts, Jackie and I made friends with the guys at BodyBagz, which is a company that makes custom rash guards (layman's terms: it looks just like a shirt but you dive with it and it protects you from the sun and whatnot). They're from North Carolina, and they're really cool guys. I'd hang with em if I ever went down to North Carolina. I hope BodyBagz does well. They gave Jackie a free rash guard for demonstrating in the pool with it and advertising BodyBagz's name. We kept going back and forth to each other throughout the show. They entered our contest, and I'm sorry guys, I still don't know if you won, I'll let you guys know through the business e-mail.
Oh yeah, this year we had a drawing where we gave away one free pair of fins per day. Also, we were actually able to sell fins. Rather than say "they're not in production yet, but we'd like to know your interest", or "it's a bleak outlook about production, but we have a DEMA deal where you can try them out for only $40." We were able to say "They're finally in production now! You can buy them!" We sold a couple of pair, and gave some pair to a company called DAN that's involved in dive rescue, and gave some pair to the Scuba Tour that had the demo pool but has a tour that goes around the US. We ended up coming home with only about 2-3 pair of fins (rather than about 8-10 pair we brought to begin with plus fins that Jackie had brought). It is very exciting, folks. Yes, indeed.
Also, during the show, while I spent my money at the show, I also won some things. I bought some Waldies, some Scuba Tube Socks, some jewelry, a T-shirt, a hammerhead keychain for Rob, and a T-shirt for Rob. Then, I won another T-shirt at the place where I bought the T-shirts. Then, I won A WEEK VACATION'S BED&BREAKFAST STAY AT THE ISLAND OF DOMINICA (during June or September)! And also, Beetlejuice got me some free rum.
It was the week of Halloween that the DEMA convention had to go on, and don't think I wasn't ticked off that the first day was Halloween. But, I did get to dress up as a pirate last weekend with Rob at Rachel's Halloween potluck (where I met Ninja Mike !), and I saw some cool costumes on Wednesday. Jackie was our Mor-Fin sprite . I saw Beetlejuice. There were a couple of cool costumes at the Halloween party after the show. The best had to be hands-down the dead diver. That costume was rockin'. I wish I took a picture.
Hope everyone had a good week and a good Halloween. Stay well.