Now in their fourth year, the Diver Awards are indisputably the performance barometer for the sport diving industry.

And, just as actors openly value film awards voted on by the public, so diving companies and individuals now covet the chance to step up and receive one of the Diver Awards' handsome bronze statuettes.

The awards are valued because they are determined by you. Make no mistake about the power of your vote.
In August, Regal Holidays was sold for £3.2m to Holidaybreak. Taking nothing away from the company's undoubted performance, the accolade of winning Diver's Travel Operator of the Year Award three years running can only have enhanced Regal's appeal!

So, once again, this is your chance to influence recognition of who has done what best over the past year. And you can be sure that the diving industry has its antennae tuned, waiting to learn what you think.

As last year, there are seven categories in which to place your nominations, and in each of which winners will be announced along with two runners-up. We hope to receive even more entries for 2000 than we did in 1999.
It won't cost you anything but a few moments' thought. Just send in, by Freepost, your Diver Awards 2000 Entry Form, printed overleaf (please note, we cannot accept faxes or photocopies). Please try to enter a nomination in all seven categories.

If you're stuck for ideas, just look back through the year's Divers - or you'll find it all on www.divernet.com, our Divernet website.

We look forward to adding your suggestions to the Awards melting pot, the lid of which must be placed firmly in position on 31 December 2000. The winners will be announced in the New Year and the awards presented at a special winners' dinner in London.

When all the nomination forms are in, we will also draw at random a winner of our fantastic diving holiday in Malaysia and the 30 runner-up T-shirt winners (see panel). So send in your forms now!



how to choose your award nominees
Innovation of the Year. We're looking for the item of gear you regard as the most novel in overall concept, or at least in detail design. A new production technique giving, say, improved reliability, might qualify. The product (or manufacturing process) must have been introduced during 2000. Past winners include the Scubapro-Uwatec Neverlost ultrasonic location device, AP Valves Buddy Inspiration rebreather and Mares Ruby regulator.

Brand of the Year. Brand loyalty is the name of the game here, and we're looking for your favourite designer label. When you're buying dive gear, is there a particular name which you feel guarantees quality, reliability and value for money, a brand on which you feel you can depend? Mares has swept the board as winner in the past two years and was runner-up in 1997, when Buddy took top spot. What will your verdict be this year?

Dive Centre of the Year. We define a centre as a commercial organisation set up in one particular geographical location to cater for divers. You might admire a centre for its courses, its general facilities, efficient customer service, friendliness, quality of diving or anything else that places it apart from its competitors. It can be of any size, and located anywhere in the world. Last year's winner was a relatively new arrival that had clearly made an impact, Deep Blue Dive Centre of Tynemouth, and that was preceded by two popular contenders, Turkey's European Dive Centre and Stoney Cove in Leicestershire. Emperor Divers of Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt is a three-times runner-up.

Travel Operator of the Year. Have you dealt with an agent which has provided you with a memorable diving holiday, at home or abroad? It could be that the venue was unusual and special in itself; that you received a superb administrative service; or that the holiday was simply very good value for money. Regal - which still operates but under a new umbrella - has swept the board for the past three years, runners-up including Hayes and Jarvis, Goldenjoy Leisure and Oonasdivers.

Retailer of the Year. We're talking dive shops, and you might feel you want to support your local supplier or tip your vote towards one at a diving destination which has provided you with exemplary service. Perhaps your nominee offered particularly sound advice, a speedy response, a great choice of goods, or just a damned good price! Tynemouth's Deep Blue Dive Centre won last time, preceded by Bristol Scuba Centre and SDS Watersports. Where do you do your shopping?

Publication of the Year. Open to both the printed page and the moving image, here you can vote for your favourite diving book, video or CD-Rom published in the year 2000. Please note, you cannot vote for Diver or its associated dive guides or training videos, or for any other magazines. The past two winners have been CD-Roms - PADI's Encyclopaedia of Recreational Diving and the BSAC's Go Diving! New Holland's book Top Dive Sites of the World won in 1997.

Wooden Weightbelt of the Year. It's your chance to put egg all over the face of the individual, product or organisation that has irritated, frustrated or otherwise miffed you most in 2000. A lot of fun (for our readers, if not the diving industry), this dubious accolade was included for the first time last year when, to mark an appalling period in its history, the BSAC scooped the prize by popular demand. But who will buckle on the belt of shame for 2000? It's your choice.