LIDS 2012 – Speaker Presentations
A truly impressive line-up of top diving speakers is set to gather at the London International Dive Show. Get the experts’ views on hot diving topics including underwater photography, wreck diving, solo diving, exploring British Isles seas – and the Titanic!
Alex Mustard
11.15
HOW TO WIN PHOTO CONTESTS
Alex Mustard, a well-known name in underwater photography, has developed his own distinctive and creative style. At the last NEC Dive Show he won the BSoUP/divErPrint Competition, adding to a long record of contest successes, including the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year and World Festival of Underwater Photography competitions. These days he judges more competitions than he enters, so has a unique insight into the images that win acclaim – a code all photographers long to crack. At LIDS he shares the secrets of how to wow a jury in “Become the Champ – How to Win Underwater Photography Contests”.
Rory Golden
12.30
100 YEARS ON: THE TITANIC
The White Star liner Titanic sank on 15 April, 1912, and just two weeks before the centenary, LIDS is delighted to present Irish diver Rory Golden, who has visited the world’s most famous shipwreck twice (by submersible, of course – it is 2.4 miles down at the bottom of the Atlantic). Rory’s incredible Titanic Wreck Tour appears in the April issue of DIVER to tie in with his presentation. Rory started his career as a commercial diver and instructor in 1976, the same year his close friend the late Ralph White kicked off the search for the Titanic. Rory was on the last manned trip in 2005, and his graphic description will have you spellbound.
Paul Rose
1.45
DEFINED BY DIVING
2012 is a big year for BBC presenter, explorer and pro-diver Paul Rose with its spate of historic Antarctic anniversaries, starting with Captain Scott’s attempt to reach the South Pole. A long-serving former Rothera base-station commander, Paul continues to visit and dive in the south Polar regions regularly as part of his ongoing climate-change projects. Paul has been an active diver for no fewer than 43 years, and in his latest enthusiastic, informed and fun-filled presentation “Defined By Diving”, he takes us on his life’s diving journey. It promises to be an exciting hour!
Monty Halls
3.00
GREAT BARRIER REEF
Enjoyable as his many TV documentaries have been, we reckon Monty Halls moved up a further notch with Great Barrier Reef, the spectacular series made with the BBC Natural History Unit that aired early this year. Memorable underwater scenes mounted up, including a cone shell’s gob-smacking fish-kill, the human-seeking minke whales and the green turtles running a tiger-shark gauntlet. Even after his years of scuba globetrotting adventures, Monty admits that he wasn’t prepared for the extraordinary nature of much of what he saw. He’ll share the full background story at LIDS – find out about his new UK-based projects, too.
Mark Powell
11.30
SOLO DIVING: OUT OF THE CLOSET
Just how many UK incidents are known to have been caused by solo-diving? Mark Powell, always a popular Show speaker, reveals the surprising answer to this and many other questions about the practice. Why do people do it, how widespread is it – and is it actually safer than buddy-diving? PADI’s new Self-Reliant Diver course has brought the subject into sharp focus recently, so if you didn’t catch Mark’s talk at Birmingham, don’t miss his perceptive take on the subject. Mark, who has been diving since 1987, has been an instructor for the past 17 years, teaching technical diving up to Advanced Trimix.
Ingrid Kvale & Mike Pitts
12.45 (Saturday only)
DIVING WITH CROCODILES
The TV team behind Ben Fogle’s recent extraordinary dives with Nile crocodiles in Botswana, Ingrid Kvale and Mike Pitts will be telling the inside story at LIDS. If one of the crocodiles turned nasty, how reassuring was the advice of last resort to push a hand down its throat? How close did seasoned cameraman Mike Pitts come to serious injury when one of the animals tried to bite him under water?
Fred Buyle
12.45 (Sunday only)
ABSOLUTELY FREE
Former world record-holder Fred Buyle swapped competition freediving for freediving with a purpose – or rather, freediving with a great white or tiger shark, or on deep wrecks, you name it. He has a uniquely stripped-down style of natural-light underwater photography, as revealed in his new book <apnea>. And his video footage is something else – don’t miss it.
Rico Oldfield
2.00
PIRATES AND ADVENTURERS
Deeptrek is an international group of divers whose recent exploits include searching for the remains of Ben Franklin’s Black Fleet off Wales and Sir Francis Drake’s warships off Panama are among their recent exploits, and one of their number, Rico Oldfield, is at LIDS to tell the tale. Saturday visitors will see a presentation including National Geographic’s film about the Black Fleet search, while on Sunday Rico presents “The Gribble and the Shipworm” – the tale of two sailors, the mess they left in Panama and the team sent out to clear it up!
Mark Dixon & Jeff Cornish
3.15
DARK STAR & THE EMPRESS
Diving is all about teamwork, and this year’s LIDS features not only Deeptrek but the Dark Star technical team. Mark Dixon & Jeff Cornish discuss their amazing dives on deep wrecks around the UK and Ireland, spotlighting the liner RMS Empress of Britain, which they dived last year. This iconic wreck, lying in more than 160m of Atlantic water, was described as “one of the last big challenges”. Over 12 years, Dark Star has pushed the frontiers on big liners such as the Transylvania, Carpathia, Tuscania and Andania. But things don’t always go to plan – just ask these guys!
Each speaker presentation lasts for an hour, including question time
