Mr Ted Bear's 101st Post

lightlover

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Mr Ted Bear\'s 101st Post

Mr Ted Bear
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Sorry to bother you, but I noticed that you were now on your 100th post. Maybe for your 101st post ......

It's just that I've been wondering about -

SCUBA WORLD
Television Series

"Where lights are taken to the limits, and sometimes drown.."

what do the logo and the tag-line mean ?

There's nothing in your profile, and ummm, - what is it ? ......

LightLover
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Mr Ted Bear

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Re: Mr Ted Bear\'s 101st Post

OK, you asked for it!


First learn to scuba dive in late 60's; it was at the time my older brothers got their certification, and I would tag along. Got married in 1976, went to Hawaii for honeymoon, and found they would not let me dive without a "C" card, so I got certified.


Instead of football or soaps, I would watch programs that contained scuba diving content. National Geographic, Jacques Costeau that kind of thing plus I was a "fan" of Scuba World - The Televison Series. One day, I saw one of their shows, and something they reported about diving was incorrect, and I had to call them and voice my opinion. This became a weekly habit. Everytime a new show would air, I would be on the phone the mext morning with the producer discussing every aspect of the show; the diving, the locations, the dive resorts, the dive operators etc. The producer got tired of hearing my complaints and one day said to me, "since you have so many questions, why not come join us on our next shoot and see for yourself." Three weeks later, I was in the Cayman Islands... that was 1984.


Besides diving, I have had photography as a hobby for as long as I can remember (darkroom, both color and b/w) and was just getting into video. I was shooting stills of them shooting their show, both topside and underwater. Things worked out well.. three months later I was invited to Jamiaca; my only expense was r/t air Los Angeles to Miami. Next was Belize and so on, and so on. Before the show stopped shooting, I was doing all of their underwater footage and got to play with all kinds of the professional television equiptment as well.

----------------------------------------------------
It has been my experiance that people in the dive industry do not like to pay for anything, but they are always willing to trade. Example A dive resort or operator wants a professionally done video of their operation for promotional purposes. The operator talks to the airlines they need tickets for a film crew. The airline provides them in exchange for promotional consideration. Same thing with rental cars, room accodations, meals etc The manufatucres throw in their equiptment; nothing like being seen on naitonal televsion.

Flashaholic? I probablly have 40+ dive lights that haven't been out of the box, most of which are no longer even being manufactured today, plus many of the current offferings... none of which I have actually had to reach into my pocket and pay for. Yeah, I had to give up my time and talent, but for what? World class dive destinations, first class accomodations, fabulous people and places....

Now the tag line. Over the years, I have seen literally thousands of dollars of equiptment flooded underwater. Worst was a $160,000 35mm Panavison film camera being used on a sunken ship/recovery documentary. It is very very sad to see things like this. It is for this reason that when people talk about flashlights (or underwater camera housings or watches) being depth rated to 300ft, 500 ft or more, I view those claims in a different perspective. I have been there, done that, and have the photos and/or video to prove it.
 

Keithnielsen

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Mar 22, 2013
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Congratulations, At one time you facilitated a group buy for the Polarion Dual Abyss. Is it possible for that to happen again?
 
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