LAP-DANCING HAS TAKEN OVER FROM POLE-DANCING in the frenetic and somewhat steamy night-spots of the French Quarter's Bourbon Street since the last DEMA show in New Orleans, but wives and mothers of those British members of the diving trade who were in Louisiana in late January should have no need to worry.
It seems that, like some other things American, lap-dancing in Bourbon Street is full of promise and high in presentation values but lacks real content.
And so it was with the products on display at the Ernest N Morial Convention Centre, which hosted this year's most important international diving trade show. There was a lot of fantastic presentation from the Americans, but although New Orleans is a great place to hear live jazz, some of their trumpet-blowing at the show turned out to be little more than that.
It was left to the European exhibitors to demonstrate that they had products with real innovation. Most notable was a sophisticated Swiss prototype of a wrist-mounted computer, the EyeSea Buddy. This contains a permanent direction-finder linked by ultrasonics to a boat-hung transducer, thereby providing a direction arrow on its display without the diver having to scan around for a signal.
At the other end of the technical spectrum, a British exhibitor had forked out for a not-inexpensive booth to exhibit a mere prototype of a symmetrical twin-tube breathing device, the Tubo Sport self-supporting snorkel. Surprisingly, the second tube served only the purpose of aesthetics and proved to be simply glued in place. It was probably the most talked about product at DEMA!

THE ITALIANS ARRIVED IN FORCE. Mares had a stand, closed to general public view, that heaved with new high-tech ideas, improvements and innovations. These were shared to a greater or lesser degree by stablemate brand Dacor.
Included were a BC camband that could be tightened using pneumatic power supplied from the user's regulator (the Airlock); a new stud system for securing ditchable integrated BC weights; and a pneumatically operated power inflator/deflator (the Airtrim). This was first used on the all-integrated-scuba HUB and now supplied with the Dragonfly and all-new Diamante BCs.
The HUB itself is augmented by a new all-singing, all-dancing sibling called the HUB Avantgarde which has, among other features, Airlock plus the new Mares integrated-weight system.
Cressi-sub exhibited within its new product line-up a fold-up lightweight BC, the Aqualight, which is still a full-size jacket when in use, and its yet-further-improved BC the S109, with double dump system (upper and lower dumps function simultaneously) and improved integrated weight system.
The new Cressi-sub Minima mask is derived from swimming goggles but has the vision-perfect advantage of plane-parallel glass lenses. Also from Genoa in Italy, Ocean Reef exhibited even more improvements to its now well-known and well-developed full-face mask.
This year's Diver Innovation of the Year winner Seacsub had numerous new lines, including a children's size regulator with a highly flexible medium-pressure hose. There was also a very Italian-looking knife and Count Down, a unit with a little light that, when plugged into a regulator hp port, flashes red as soon as the pressure drops below 50 bar. This might prove useful to instructors if fitted to a trainee's equipment.

FINNISH SUUNTO CONTINUES ITS PRESENT DOMINATION of diving computer sales worldwide with yet another model to add to the already immensely strong range of Vyper, Stinger and Cobra. Its new Mosquito is a full-function air/nitrox/free-diving computer squeezed into the ultra-slim dimensions of a fashion watch in a composite case. It is so slim and lightweight, it really can be worn as an everyday watch by anyone. Fans of the Swiss brand Uwatec had to be content with the long-awaited Air Z Nitrox.
Split-blade fins, generally a development of the Nature's Wing design, seemed to be everywhere. Scubapro had yet another new split-blade design to add to the Twin Jet, the Twin Speed. Atomic, Oceanic and several other US brands also had split-blade fins on show.
Only Force Fins seemed to be bucking this American trend. The company's Bob Evans as usual caused a sensation. His latest prototype fins are the product of a "tortured mind" and he provided several different designs, from simple developments of the original Force Fin to simply outrageous new concepts.
The Europeans had their own ideas about fins. Cressi displayed its latest lightweight development of the Frog fin, the ProLite, and Dacor (now part of European HTM) demonstrated a certain amount of independence from the badge-engineering of dominant partner Mares with two new designs of its own, the Tiger and Panther, both of which still display some similarities with the Mares Volo.

A BRITISH DIVING MAGAZINE HAD AN EXHIBIT CALLED "THE BEST OF BRITISH" but, with so few products in evidence, it incorrectly suggested that our country had little to offer. On the other hand, US companies tended to proclaim cosmetic changes to existing products, but there were a few new items if one searched hard enough.
High-intensity discharge (HID) bulbs which give daylight colour temperatures, together with charge-at-any-time metal nickel hydride (MNH) battery packs, seem to be the latest trend in the lamp market. Underwater Kinetics displayed a new model, the Cannon 100, that looked unprepossessing until it was switched on and the bulb had warmed up.
DiveRite was there as ever with an umbilical light and battery pack with an extremely small HID lamphead and the announcement that "big lights are dead!" Scubapro too demonstrated its renewed interest in supplying torches for divers with a new and, it must be said, rather nice range of compact lanterns called ScubaLux.

ON THE REGULATOR FRONT, SCUBAPRO WAS AGAIN THERE with its own super-expensive all-titanium version of the S600. Oceanic had made cosmetic improvements to its Gamma 2, and Aqua-Lung had a new version of an existing model in the Titan LX. Oceanic also showed a useful swivelling octopus second stage that could be used either way up and at any angle.
Dacor now has the Viper Metal, with metal inserts in the second stage as a heat-sink for coldwater diving and a convenient swivel port for the mp hose on its all-new first stage.
US companies IDI and Atomic both had new regulators but have yet to be fully represented in the UK market.
The Taiwanese company IST exhibited an interesting pair of diving secateurs - not for pruning seaweed, but for cutting your way out of trouble. The company also showed its new range of Teutonic-style diving lanterns, which will no doubt be sold at Taiwanese prices.
ACR Electronics exhibited an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) called the DiveRes-Q Mini B300 (an alternative to the well known Sea Marshall PLB7) which was fully submersible to 60m without need for any outer box.
This could be used in conjunction with a hand-held Vector2 direction-finder with a range of five to 10 miles at sea-level depending on weather conditions - ideal for use by dive-boat skippers.

WITH THE LOWERING OF THE MINIMUM AGE FOR SCUBA TRAINING TO 10, children are now the obvious focus for the marketing efforts of many of the companies present. Scubapro showed the SASY range while Aqua-Lung and Oceanic both had complete ranges of full scuba equipment in mini sizes, with appropriately bright colour schemes.
This included the Oceanic Explorer range, which was displayed in both Oceanic and SSI Scuba Ranger team colours.
DUI proudly demonstrated its lightweight E-Liner undersuit with the resurrected XCM electrical heating system. Diver readers might remember that we reviewed this when it was launched some years ago by the later-defunct Aquion company. DUI also showed a novel hood with a mounting designed to prevent loss of a mask because of a broken strap.
Apart from DUI's, there were plenty of other American-made drysuits in evidence, but only a few of the brands familiar to Brits, such as Otter, Northern Diver, Oceanic and Gates, and few surprises. In wetsuits, Scubapro showed a rather beautifully constructed semi-dry called the S-TEK.

ON THE BAG FRONT, STAHLSAC WAS AS PROMINENT AS EVER, with three bags that clipped together to make one huge unit to comply with American airlines' two-piece baggage allowance. The company also showed a new mesh bag, a product we are more likely to see eventually on this side of the Atlantic.
Dräger revealed its all-black, technical-style Dolphin rebreather, but apart from the girl wearing it nothing seemed too new. We all had a close look anyway!
Miller masks used a similar technique to Dräger to demonstrate that its products do not steam up, and the girl demonstrating the tan-through swimwear was as popular an ingredient of the show as ever!

DIGITAL STILL CAMERAS ARE NOW BEING ACCOMMODATED by underwater housing manufacturers and Ikelite revealed prototypes of two new flashguns, its DS50 and DS120, with the electronics required for this upcoming technology.
Seacam showed a fabulous new viewing system, a swivelling 45¡ sportsfinder, for use with all its latest housings, including ones for older, wet-film Nikon cameras, which certainly made me green with envy.
Sea & Sea, the Japanese company, demonstrated its ability to house video cameras from the smallest amateur digital camcorder to the mighty serious amateur/professional VX2000 unit.
Aquavit exhibited its X-tra pony system, which is manifolded into the main regulator first stage, and its SWEM (Shallow Water Exploration Model) system for minimalist scuba, with nothing more than a regulator fed from a small tank of air slung across the midriff.
However, the British-made Mini Breather (Mini B) was probably the star of the show and won a DEMA award for innovation.
It too is a minimalist-style scuba unit for shallow-water diving, but is slightly more sophisticated in that it comes in a compact rucksack form with buoyancy-control and in-built weight system. It's for those who want to scuba properly but at the simplest level. It seems ideal for the leisure boating market, and the American audience took to it like ducks to water.

NATURALLY, ALONGSIDE THE EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS WERE the booths of hundreds of diving destinations, tropical, temperate and even highly frigid. All the major international diving magazines were exhibiting too, and it was pleasant to hear so many compliments about Diver from those who worked elsewhere in the world.
It seems clear from their comments that if you are part of a major publishing group with shareholders to please, you do not get the freedom of expression enjoyed by those of us who write for a privately owned publication.
For me, the best product was discovered only on the fourth and last day - Hydropedes glycerine-filled insoles for shoes. If I had bought a pair on day one I would not have been crippled by walking so many miles on DEMA's thick carpet!
It was as big a show as usual, but there will not be another one now for more than 18 months.