I’d rather be Beneath the Sea

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Sheryl Checkman and David Dunleavy at Beneath the Sea

Designer, Sheryl Checkman with artist David Dunleavy at his booth at Beneath the Sea

I would love to have been beneath the sea today but since that wasn’t possible I did the next best thing – I took a bus out to the Meadowlands Expo Center to “Beneath the Sea,” the annual Consumer Dive Show. I got to listen to some interesting seminar presentations, which succeeded in further wetting my appetite to get back into the water. I re-lived past dives during a presentation on the Turks & Caicos Islands by Michel Gilbert & Danielle Alary, discovered some new Photoshop tips from Larry & Denise Tackett and learned about photographing models underwater with photographer Jason Heller. Jason’s newsletter, Dive Photo Guide is a great resource for underwater photographers. In between seminars I got a chance to catch up with some friends from the two dive clubs that I belong to: OceanBlue Divers and NYUPS (New York Underwater Photographic Society).

And that was just the morning.

After the seminars I set off to walk the show, make some contacts and see who else I would run into. I stopped by my friend, David Dunleavy’s booth to see his latest work and catch up. David paints beautiful ocean life paintings and murals. I even bought one of his t-shirts. If you like the t-shirt that I have on in the photo above, it’s one of my “Life is Balance® Neutral Buoyancy Scuba designs.

I joined REEF to show my support for the ocean environment. The Reef Environmental Education Foundation is a grass-roots organization helps conserve marine ecosystems by educating, enlisting and enabling divers and other marine enthusiasts to become active ocean stewards and citizen scientists. I bought a beautiful DVD  called “Sensational Seas Two” which is a compilation of various top underwater photographers and videographers and is narrated by Stan Waterman and Annie Crawley. It’s a wonderful view into the undersea world and all proceeds benefit ocean charities. I can’t wait to show it to my friends who don’t dive and always ask me what it is that makes me so obsessed with the sport!

Beneath the Sea

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Happy April! Spring is definitely in the air and today it looks like it is going to show its’ face finally. I’m almost ready to put my skis away and start thinking about going under (water, that is). Beneath the Sea was very productive for me. I met a lot of people, made some good contacts and added a hooded vest to my dive gear!

Here are a couple of shirts that might get you in the mood to go diving. You can find them at the Dive Humor section of my shop Wear My Dive Art!