Attended DivCon in Avila Beach (Central California) on Saturday. Lots of interesting speakers. John McKenney (the late Jack McKenney's son) was there. Tom Southwith brought some of his vintage gear to display and I brought some regulators to display. Stuck my Kraken in the group and it drew many questions.
Sam Miller put me up for two nights at his house in Pismo Beach as its about a 4 hour drive for me. Sam had a presentation about the evolution of dive gear as seen through the early Sears, Montgomery Wards and Penny's catalogs - JC Higgins regs and all that... Very interesting stuff. Karl Huggins, Director of the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber, gave a great talk on thermoregulation of the body using wetsuits and drysuits. I did not know that "nitrogen narcosis attenuates shivering thermogenisis." I know that now and I'm positive that information will come in handy one day.
An opthamologist gave a great talk on underwater vision and occular barotrauma issues. We even had the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Dive Team give a slide show/powerpoint on each and every body recovery they made in 2017 - complete with footage taken during the actual recoveries on how to modify surface body bags for underwater use in the field with the body inside (involves cutting drainage holes if anyone was curious). More info than I really cared to know (or see).
Anyway, the day reminded me of the old NAUI ICUE (IQ) seminars back in the 70's if any of you remember those. Had fun. Mark