We attended the Blue Wild Ocean Adventure Expo this Saturday. It’s a yearly event held at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale and focuses on all kinds of water related activities. Free diving and spear fishing were most prominent but the show had a host of exhibitors with the latest gadgets, lionfish hunting, some wonderful marine focused art and more. It was a great place to meet fellow ocean lovers.
The show also included workshops and speakers with an interesting schedule of free diving, video photography subjects. Even celebrity Manny Puig, known to interact with sharks and gators was there giving a talk. We were happy to catch our friend and Emmy award winning filmmaker Frazier Nivens from Key Largo also. He gave an informative talk on using Adobe editing tools and showed a lot of great footage from his vast collection.
The show was well attended and most of the big names were present. From DAN, PADI, NAUI, and SSI to big brands like Aqualung, Scubapro, Suunto and others. Local dive shops including Dixie Divers and Divers Direct 
had booths offering discounted prices on gear. It was easy to find the latest innovations in water sports gear and the newest outfit styles. Tropical Seas was on site giving out free biodegrable Reef Safe mask defogger and cleaner, thanks Reef Safe.
Some interesting new toys we saw this year
A few items that stood out for us included a new GoPro mount that went on your regulator, the representative told us that with the reg in your mouth, you don’t have the same challenges with bubbles coming up on a head mount or mask mount, you also get a steadier picture. The unit resembled a large hose clamp with a rubber band to protect the reg, just don’t fasten it too tight! It sounds like an interesting concept. They even told us about someone else that had mounts for lights, which I guess go on your ears or head.
We also saw ACR electronics, a company that makes personal safety beacons which sounds like a great idea for divers. Seems that their technology is still only good for 5 meters and requires a case to go down to recreational diving depths however.
There was another interesting gadget called Voice in the Sea intended to help you talk underwater to add voice to your GoPro films also, but I hesitate to think we’d take out our regs at depth for that, likely more intended for snorkelers.
We also stopped in at OgreMaxxRaxx, which makes custom aluminum tank racks, which were unbelievably light an strong, perhaps something we’ll need ourselves one day.
Some New Environment Friends
We made some new friends with a common cause at the show too. Since starting our own Nat Against Trash Initiative (N.A.T.), we’ve sought out other environmental groups trying to make a difference for our beaches, corals, and oceans.
Aubree from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection was there to promote coral protection and community outreach. We talked at length about the battles they are fighting to protect our Florida reefs and the many challenges they face. We were happy to hear that there is a concrete plan to shut down the remaining 5 raw sewage dump pipes by 2025 and how this number was already way down from 25 just some years ago.
They are responsible for setting up numerous reef side buoys which boats can anchor to, so boaters don’t throw your anchors on the reef, not only does it cause damage, but it’s illegal! They also have a tip line, which I’d encourage anyone to use should you see anyone out there damaging our ocean backyard. See our write up on Florida Department of Environmental Protection in our N.A.T section.
Another beach cleanup group was Stoked On Salt; this local group takes on beach and pier cleanup initiatives in South Florida and is looking for volunteers. They had some beautiful custom designed t-shirts and even some art made with debris picked up from the ocean cleanup initiative. See our write up and links to Stoked On Salt in our N.A.T section.
Dive shops, charters, and locations
We left the show with a long list of ‘must do’ dives including going out with Deep Obsession Charters located in Jupiter. They have many great boat dives as well as some excellent shore dives like the famous Blue Heron Bridge. They were the ones that took Frazier on his shark film expedition where he told us the tiger shark was trying to bite down on his camera as he was filming its tonsils! That’s what you call close! The gulfstream comes closest to the main land of Florida up in Jupiter and it is definitely the place to see some of the largest creatures if that is what you are looking for. We also met Pura Vida Divers who go out to Singer Island and dive Blue Heron Bridge. They are also environmentalists as well and committed to conservation. They have been sponsoring this dive site since 2002, please pitch in and join them for a clean up!!
There were also many tempting exhibits from liveabords and dive resorts from all over the Caribbean. Suddenly our list of things to do just got way bigger!