Diving fair "Underwater Adventure" - report

After a two-day stay in Warsaw, we are back in our editorial office. Last weekend turned out to be very fruitful, for all those who had the opportunity to appear at the diving fair in the Palace of Culture and Science. Visitors had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the offer of nearly 100 brands, spread over nearly 60 stands! In addition, the attractiveness of the stay, took care of the next speakers, who came to lead the lectures within the Nurgers.

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Photo gallery of the “Underwater Adventure” fair

When we arrived at the venue on Saturday morning, nothing foretold the siege that the exhibition hall in the Palace of Culture and Science would be under for the next two days. Most of the stands were ready to welcome the first guests and the teams working on them were putting the final touches to the decor. From the very first moments, a great atmosphere could be sensed in the air, which was getting better and better with time.

For more than 9 hours, the visitors to the trade fair shuttled between the exhibitions and the lecture hall. It was a great opportunity to get acquainted with the equipment offered by almost every brand that counts in the diving world, as well as the programmes and training plans of every major diving organisation. To be more precise, everything was there! From ABC kits, through computers, lighting, accessories, clothing and wetsuits, to cylinders, electronics, crossbows, books and the offer of travel agencies and foreign diving bases. There was plenty to choose from, and what’s more, we could get first-hand information about the products we were interested in.

It is also no secret that this type of fair is a great opportunity to buy the things we are interested in at slightly lower prices than the shop ones. There was no shortage of those willing to buy, and at some stands, in order to get the items we wanted, we had to wait a while. The sidemount system turned out to be a hit, and the stands with this type of harness experienced the biggest storm.

There was also a place where our portal had its exposition. Our stand, which was definitely more modest than the one at Baltictech, still attracted a lot of visitors. We are glad that we could meet and talk with you. We are very grateful for your comments and support. We would also like to invite everyone to visit our stand on 25 February in Lodz, at the Wreck Festival.

Of course, man does not live by consumption alone, so the organisers took care to feed minds hungry for knowledge. For two days, everyone who came to the “Underwater Adventure” could participate in lectures, speeches and presentations, which had a very wide range of topics.

On the first day, the speeches of the invited guests, dealt in the lion’s share with medicine and safety, i.e. elementary issues in diving. The first to appear in front of the microphone was Piotr Kędzia, PADI Course Director, who discussed the topic of safety in diving. He focused mainly on the aspects of decisions. What they result from, what effects they may have, but also how as a diver we can influence them and what we should do to maximize our safety.

He was followed by Dr Zdzisław Sićko, whose presentation concerned bone necrosis, and another PADI Course Director – Michał Kosut. His lecture ‘What’s in your ears’ undoubtedly provided a lot of interesting information, because for every active diver, ENT problems are one of the most common problems. Maciek Curzydło, another PADI Course Director, spoke about the importance of developing skills, gaining experience and improving safety.

At 16:00 it was time for the first lady of this year’s Nurgres, and that was Katarzyna Zawadzka, SSI Instructor Trainer, who came with a very interesting presentation about diving in cold polar waters. After this lecture, nearly 2h long panel discussion began – we don’t talk, we dive! In its first part, the audience had the opportunity to listen to Krzysztof Hrynczyszyn – TDI/SDI Instructor Trainer and Andrzej Kruczkowski – IANTD Instructor Trainer, but it was the last presentation that caused the biggest stir.

An inconspicuous-looking diver from Mexico, Juan Corillo, appeared before the assembled audience. As it turned out, he is an experienced diver, Trainer Instructor TDI/SDI, IANTD, Full Cave Instructor/SM NSS-CDS and M3*CMAS/FMAS, who set off from his home country of Mexico on a mission to save the beautiful diving caves there – the Cenotes. Juan travels and tries to draw the attention of the whole world to the problem, which, as a consequence, will lead to the loss of the wonderful natural heritage, belonging to the whole world, which are the Mexican caves. After the lecture, we invited him to our stand where he learned about our activities, after which we jointly decided to take action to the best of our abilities. More information on this will soon appear in our pages.

The first day of the fair was slowly coming to an end. The scheduled screening of diving films was preceded by an introduction by Dawid Jóźwiak, then until 22:00 there were screenings of photos and films from underwater. As usual, Piotr Kardasz and Wojciech Zgoła, who discussed the film “To swim across the Atlantic”, boasted beautiful materials.

On Sunday, we had a copy of the situation from the previous day. The crowds were pouring in through the proverbial “doors and windows”. The stands were overrun with visitors, including ours, which meant that we did not even have a moment’s rest. However, this was not a problem for us, because conversations with both representatives of the diving industry, as well as readers, gave us a lot of fun and went on endlessly.

The Nurgres lectures started with a presentation by our two acclaimed freedivers – Agata Bogusz and Aleksandra Sulkiewicz. History and diving enthusiasts definitely enjoyed the next lecture, when well-known traveller, photographer and history enthusiast – Marcin Jamkowski took the floor. He presented to the gathered audience the results of the project “Vistula 1655-1906-2009”, in the framework of which it was possible to fish out of the current of the largest Polish river, architectural monuments resting there for over 350 years.

Sidemount, which lived its 5min, also lived to see its presence in the lecture hall. Leading Polish cave diver – Krzysztof Starnawski, introduced the audience to this configuration and told how to start using it. The next hour and a half was spent in the colours of blue, specifically the Big Blue. Representatives of this magazine presented the “Blue Laurel” award and a material entitled “How to take good underwater photos”. When they finished, Krzysztof Starnawski returned to the stage, but it was not an encore about a sidemount, but a long-awaited story about the world record he set in closed circuit diving. The 283m he achieved was voted the event of the year 2011 by our readers, so no wonder the room was bursting at the seams!

What is very pleasing, representatives of education were also present at the fair, namely a group of archaeologists from the University of Warsaw, engaged in underwater archaeology. During their presentation, they talked about their studies preparing for work as underwater archaeologists, as well as settled a photographic competition, the winner of which received an index on the said faculty! Apart from the lectures, the staff involved in training and conducting research in the field encouraged at their stand to get acquainted with the university’s offer to those who want to discover the history hidden underwater in the future.

This year’s Nurgres was closed by one of the organizers – Kamil “Jakuza” Jaczyński, also known for his activity in the Group Exploring Podwarszawskie Dive Sites. It was the exploration within GEPN that was the subject of his speech. As it turns out, being a diver from the capital, you don’t have to travel far to experience the pleasure of diving. When he finished his lecture, the long awaited prize draw took place. The fun was great, the mood was good and it was probably the best summary of the atmosphere in the capital of our country this weekend. Well… at least in that part of it, which was dominated by divers.

The positive overall picture was not diminished by minor organisational problems, delays and delicate castling, and with a bit of goodwill on all sides, everything went very smoothly.

We left Warsaw very satisfied, with lots of positive impressions and energy. We managed to make new, interesting friends and learn many interesting things. We would like to thank everyone, who made our stay in the Palace of Culture and Science something to remember for a long time. See you next year at the biggest Polish diving fair!

Source: Divers24