Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation of an article originally written in French. I apologise for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have resulted. If you read French, click on the French flag below to access the original, correct text:
Français
The 2013 Dive Show took place from January 11 to 13, Porte de Versailles, in Paris. The real pleasure is to meet a lot of diver friends we met on our travels!!!
the Diving SalonWe meet dolphins flying and humans breathing underwater. We swoon over the latest models of overalls and stabs with pink or mauve for the girls. We fill our ears with Japanese or Breton folklore. We take pictures of manta rays and hammerhead sharks made of cardboard.
I give you a few photos taken with my iPhone during my wanderings in the aisles of the show... 😉
But above all, what I loved at the dive show was to meet a lot of nice people, diving friends I met during my trip and that I hadn't had the opportunity to see since... A real pleasure. Facebook is, in this respect, a fantastic tool for keeping in touch with travel meetings.
So I spent the day chatting to the right and to the left, neglecting somewhat the stands and animations, I confess.
Dreams of Mozambique
First of all, I had the great pleasure to meet Sabrina, my super buddy, whom I hadn't seen since our dives in Sipadan in 2006 !!! She now lives in Vilanculos, Mozambique, where she holds the center Odyssea Dive, with his companion, Denis.
I've been promising to go and see them for years, but my vacation periods never really fall in line with the ideal season there... Anyway, Mozambique is more than ever on my "to-do list", after this beautiful evening we spent together, catching up on lost time, talking about travel and diving, sharks and manta rays...
Memories of Indonesia
I also met again Philippine and Arnaud, a young couple of divers with whom I had become friends in Alor, in July 2012. Arnaud had the misfortune to drown his SLR, a 7DI had a problem with the same device as me, because of a badly closed box. Fortunately, he was able to get a new device for the rest of their trip... They came to the show in search of new fins. The ones they had did not resist to the furious currents!
After exchanging messages via Facebook, another couple of divers, Nicolas and Mathilde, met in Lembeh, North Sulawesi, in 2010We exchange news, we tell each other about our last trips, we chat, we chat. We exchange news, we tell each other our last trips, we chat, we chat. Their next destination: Oman. More for the "terrestrial" side they tell me, but we can also dive a little there. They will tell me!
Just dive in Polynesia
Other reunions, which made me very happy, with Marco Delecluse of the center Y Aka Diving in Rangiroa, Polynesia. I was in Rangiroa in October 2012 (and I am very late in my story, I have so far only posted two articles about this trip). I am still very happy to have chosen this nice little center: very nice atmosphere, perfect organization of the dives, and special attention to the sub photographers, like me...
In short, seeing Marco's big smile again, I almost had the impression that I had left him for only a few days! Of course, I now want to go back there to dive with dolphins and sharks, and to enjoy again the sweetness of the Polynesian air, in the middle of the huge Pacific Ocean...
The inevitable
I also went to see the merry band of Forum of the photo-sub on the stand of Water seekers (where you can't find only water), just to say hello to Thierry Rolland and to drink a toast with those who came to have a drink. It's Thierry who runs the forum, on which I warmly recommend you to go and have a look, if you are looking for advice for underwater photography, it's a mine of information. He had organized the stay in the Red Sea, in Hamata, in November 2011I participated with a dozen of other passionate diver-photographers... I still have fond memories of our meeting with the dolphins of Sataya.
Finally, I managed to exchange a few words with Francis Le Guen, very busy with many appointments and book signings from his book narcosis. You don't realize it, but signing books non-stop at the Dive Show is very physical (more than diving, more than tennis): you come out of it washed out and your arm hurts! 😆 One thing is sure: new books are in preparation in the collection "Carnets de plongée" at Glénat. To be followed, then...
Diving and traveling
I'm very happy to have been able to put a face on names or pseudonyms, among those of you who leave me comments here, on the Petites Bulles d'Ailleurs. I would like to say hello again to Didier, who will recognize himself, and whom I am delighted to have met thanks to the show !
Finally, I salute all the others, who contacted me via Twitter or Facebookand that I missed - not there the same day, already gone, or not yet arrived. I hope you will have found inspiration for future diving trips at the show, that you already have desires, and maybe even plans to leave...
As for me, I'm preparing a new trip to Indonesia in March... I'll tell you more about it soon, while I finalize all this. And I'm not done telling you about my last trips, in Raja Ampat and in French Polynesia. New articles are coming soon !!!
🙄
