On Friday, 27 January, the traditional diving day at boot Düsseldorf, the trade fair, together with the well-known diving media VDSTsporttaucher, TAUCHEN, divemaster, taucher.net and WETNOTES, presented the first dive award live at the trade fair. While the award was announced online last year, the winners were now celebrated live on site at boot 2023 in Düsseldorf in Diving Hall 12 by an enthusiastic audience.
In each of the five categories "Personality", "Climate", "Product", "Destination", "Innovation" - all topics that have a great feedback in the diving community - three nominees had been up for election.
The tension was correspondingly high on Friday evening at the diving tower when boot Director Petros Michelidakis took to the stage together with the editors-in-chief of the participating media Dietmar Fuchs, Alexander Kassler, Armin Süss, Dr. Friedrich Naglschmid and Nina Zschiesche.
Nina Zschiesche from WETNOTES presented the award in the category "Innovation". She awarded O'Dive by Azoth and emphasised that the French company Azoth Systems had developed an innovation with O'Dive that for the first time enabled divers to personalise their diving practice. To do this, gas microbubbles that form in divers' venous systems after diving are taken into account. After each dive and the subsequent measurements, O'Dive calculates a dive quality index that ranges from 0 to 100 per cent. In this way, the diver can easily control his training himself.
Afterwards, Dr. Angela Stevenson received the award for the category "Climate" from diving veteran Dr. Friedrich Naglschmid - editor of divemaster. In his laudation for the Kiel researcher from the Geomar Helmholtz Centre, he emphasised the importance of this topic. All those who had been nominated in this category would work for the community because they would ensure that our earth and the oceans are protected and preserved.
With the "Kreidesee Hemmoor" diving centre (Hall 12/A31.19), the jury awarded a prize to a site in Hemmoor in northern Germany that is close to nature but also accessible to city dwellers. Editor-in-chief of TAUCHEN magazine Alexander Kassler is responsible for the "Destination" category and gave the laudatory speech for the winner. He described the area as the top diving lake in Germany with a diving centre - suitable for sport to tech diving, very good infrastructure and several entry points. In addition, it is easy to reach from the northern German metropolises.
In the "Product" category, an innovation driver in the industry was pleased to win. The US equipment giant Garmin (Hall 12/A31.2) received the award for its newly developed dive computer Descent Mk2i. Armin Süss, Editor-in-Chief of taucher.net, emphasised in his laudation that Garmin combines the range of diving and multi-sport functions as well as smart features in a high-quality design. The dive computer combines all the important functions that such a device can currently have. These range from different dive modes to detailed performance statistics, safety and tracking functions as well as an integrated music playback mode and contactless payment. It also has a very long battery life and pre-installed sports apps.
Dr. Florian Huber won the "Personality" category and received his award from the editor-in-chief of VDSTsporttaucher (Hall 12/B67), Dietmar Fuchs. In his laudation, he described the 47-year-old Huber as an enthusiastic wreck and history researcher: whether a Stone Age settlement, a medieval well or a modern shipwreck, underwater archaeologist Dr. Florian Huber is one of the best-known divers in Germany. His expeditions and excavations have taken him to over 100 countries. Huber is not only a scientist with heart and soul, but also an author and presenter. With his numerous appearances on television and radio as well as lectures to children and adults, he inspires the general public for diving time and again. He transports people into the mystical and fascinating underwater world.
After the presentation of the winners, the laudators and Petros Michelidakis met with the winners for the final photo. Each award winner receives a prize of € 3,000. For more information on the dive award and the nominees, visit www.boot.com.
