EC&O Venues Earls Court And Olympia

London will be awash with underwater superstars from 19-21 February, during the Big Scuba Show at Olympia.  The show has unveiled its line up of speakers, which includes some of the biggest names in diving and ocean adventure.

Leading the line up, and hosting the main stage speakers, will be former Royal Marine and now writer and broadcaster Monty Halls.  He will be joined at the show by a long list of leading figures from the diving community, including Andy Torbet, Trevor Norton, Kevin Oliver, and Paul Olding and Sarah Connor from the BBC’s new series, Britain’s Secret Seas.  Monty will host a full programme of multimedia presentations, diving themed lectures and a Question Time type debate, offering visitors the chance to quiz the main stage speakers.

Andy Torbet - the scuba ‘daredevil’ - will be involved in the debate and will give a talk on extreme diving.  As both a professional diver in the Army, including commanding the Underwater Bomb Disposal Unit, and then a commercial diver, he has seen some unusual, interesting, and occasionally unpleasant, dive sites.

Andy now uses his experience as a cave and technical diver, along with his mountaineering qualifications, expedition experience and degree in zoology, to search for new adventures, new dives and new places to explore.  In ‘The Wildside: An alternative guide to extreme diving in the UK’, Andy will be looking at the more extreme end of the alternative British sites.

Trevor Norton, often referred to as ‘Bill Bryson Underwater’, will be providing a quirky account of the extraordinary antics of some of the eccentric pioneers of diving.  Most of Trevor’s stories are very hard to believe, but are nevertheless true. His shows have been described as ‘dangerously interesting' and his style of storytelling is 'as if told by an old salt holding a pint of grog in a tavern’.

Also appearing on the main stage will be Kevin Oliver, the ‘Arctic Mariner’.  Kevin is a serving Royal Marine who has led more than 10 mountaineering and sailing expeditions to remote parts of the globe, including Patagonia, the Ruwenzori, and a Peruvian river on a self-constructed balsa wood raft. Also a diver for over 20 years, he has visited Scapa Flow, the Yongala wreck in Australia and the Blue Hole in Belize.

Kevin will talk about the Arctic Mariner Expedition. Over the summers of 2009 and 2010, he and Major Tony Lancashire navigated the notorious Northwest Passage in a 17 foot open rowing and sailing boat.  When asked why, they replied that it was primarily because they couldn't afford a bigger boat.  Kevin will recount tales of narrow escapes from disaster, brushes with polar bears and many other antics during their extraordinary trip.

Last but by no means least, Paul Olding and Sarah Connor will talk about their new BBC series, Britain's Secret Seas. Paul, an award winning film maker for the BBC Science Department, who has produced and directed on the Britain's Secret Seas project, will give an insight into the creation of this groundbreaking programme.

The series will reveal the secret world that lies beneath Britain's seas, uncovering our island's magical marine life, mysterious wrecks and examining our ever changing relationship with the sea. It will also introduce viewers to the people that work in and on our waters; from the marine scientists who are trying to discover if dolphins have 'names', to the Royal Navy underwater bomb disposal unit and the marine archaeologists attempting to preserve the spectacular underwater history that surrounds us all.

Show star Sarah Connor is a deep technical diver on open and closed circuit apparatus, an enthusiastic cave diver, scuba diver and passionate ice diver; it was the final pursuit that gave her the first taste of the TV world.  Sarah left the laboratory to work in science documentaries, currently with the BBC, allowing her to work as a diver when on location as part of her job as a researcher.

All led by Monty Halls, this outstanding array of star speakers is the centrepiece of the Big Scuba Show, offering an insight into the fascinating underwater world of diving and divers.  For more information or to book tickets to the Big Scuba Show go to www.thebigscubashow.com or call the box office on 01635 588 488.

Ends

Notes to editors

Also speaking at the event will be:

Michael Aw – the leading international photographer will be in attendance inviting visitors to bring along their underwater images for discussion. Michael is one of the biggest movers in underwater photography and his saturated colour images have earned him more than fifty international awards; his work has been featured in BBC Wildlife, National Geographic, the Smithsonian, GEO, Ocean GEOGRAPHIC, Asian Geographic, Action Asia, and Nature Focus, among others. In 2010, Michael AW is the recipient of the WYLAND ICON award for marine conservation.

And in the show’s Knowledge Chamber, a range of experts will be available to talk about a variety of topics including learning to dive, plastic waste in our oceans, sidemount diving, conservation diving, polar diving and whale watching. Those speaking include: underwater Wildlife Producer Jo Ruxton, military diver David Jones, conservationist Jan-Willem van Bochove and polar diving expert Jamie Watts.

Interviews and further images are available on request, contacts below:

Media contacts at Press Ahead:

Matt Hipgrave on 07949 044 380 / 0191 516 6235 or mh@pressahead.info

Chris Lines on 07971 868329/0191 516 6235 or cl@pressahead.info.