Ghost Ships Festival '09

[matt t.]

Anybody have any thoughts or comments? Personally I was glad to see the nice turnout even with the bad economy. Re-breathers were everywhere, definitely a sign of things to come. We had a mostly  nice time and saw alot of friends from other areas around the Great Lakes, and even met some new friends  .

[Vtach]

I had a great time at the show.  The only thing that I really don't like about the show is the simulataneous presentations.  I know they have a limited amount of funds and time but it still sucks when presentations that I want to see are at the same time.  That is about the only thing that I don't like.  It was great to see all the rebreathers and rebreather friendly vendors.  I really enjoyed the Pringle and Bradley presentations.  Two wrecks that I have on my "to dive" list.

[captkathy]

I was very happy w/ the Festival.  As an exhibitor I was also very glad that so many people were still able to come, even though things are tight.  I only talked to one person that was unemployed!  Thank God for that.  Lots of activity at my booth, so it looks like these divers will still keep diving in their budgets.

[codecruncher]

Good times, good friends, good presentations, good info, great food, not enough sleep Friday night.

I really wanted to catch Paul Ehorn's presentation, but wanted the Bradley Bell project one slightly more.

[oldtimer]

Tired of duplicate presentations?  Come up with your own.  It's not like the presenters are being paid a lot of wampum .  They are not.  Contact Brad Friend with your ideas.  He'll set you up. 
      Rebreathers are interesting, but to much cash for the average working Joe.  Just not economically feasible.  A lot can be done with OC for a heck of a lot less.  For what you would invest in a Meg + training you could buy a darn nice dive boat with state of the art electronics.
      It was nice to meet kapn' Kathy and there were some great presentations.  My boat is almost ready and I'm good to go.  I think it's going to be a great year.

[Chris H]

I don't think anyone mentioned duplicate presentations?  Todd was having a difficult time deciding which presentations to see, but his synapses were a bit altered by the Sparks.

Indeed Brad, Kimm and the others do a great job putting this event together.

There is no doubt that OC isn't dead, but it is nice to have choices and some of us have chosen rebreathers.  Let's face it, nothing in this sport is inexpensive.

[matt t.]

No camplaints as to the content of the presentations. As Chris said, Todds only complaint was that he wasn't able to see more of the presentations as they were running at the same time. Maybe in the future they could do some of the presentations expected to be more popular on Friday night and Saturday. Just a thought.

[dab]

It was my first time to Ghost Ships and I had a great time. Like Todd, I really enjoyed the Pringle and Bradley presentations, as well as all the great conversation, meeting some new friends and just being able to talk about diving after such a long winter.

[Vtach]

Reread my post...  I think that every presentation there sounded excellent and I wanted to see every single one.  The problem is that the folks who run Ghost Ships don't have the money or time to organize an event that allows everyone to see each and every presentation.  They do a great job but that is just the way it is and I understand that.  If I come up with any ideas on how to better run the show, you can bet I will be calling Brad.

If you want to debate on rebreathers open a new thread and I'm sure that many of us average joes who are diving them would be happy to give you proper information.  This one is about Ghost Ships and I was merely commenting on how nice it was to see more support for those who are diving them.

[schultz]

I've missed the previous two years due to scheduling conflicts, but this year was pretty darn fun hooking up with some friends I haven't seen in a while.

I'll have to agree with Todd that I would have liked to get to some of the presentations but couldn't due to classes or other presentations I was attending. Perhaps that will change next year when the festival goes to a three-day format.

One of the classes I took was the Discover Rebreather class. That was a HUGE mistake since now I want one. I'll have to do the math on how to afford one in the next year or two.

The Pringle presentation was great, despite the technical glitches, and I've added it to my list of dives to hopefully do this summer.

Not sure if any of you stopped by a certain booth at the show, but the refreshment provided there was pretty tasty. I suspect there will be more there next year too.