July 12-13, 2008 - Pensacola, Florida

September 6-7, 2008 - Pensacola, Florida

Brad Ellis

About two weeks ago, Michelle Greer from Volusion contacted us about being the subject of a profile feature for the Volusion blog. This blog is followed by many people in the e-commerce business, because of the insightful information about selling online. We provided Michelle with answers to a number of questions about our business. Yesterday, she published the feature profile of Dive Sports on the Volusion blog. For those interested, you can read the profile by using the link below.

Dive Sports Profile on Volusion Blog

I would like to thank Michelle and Volusion for this focus on Dive Sports. I hope all of the readers of the divesportsblog enjoy it. Thank you again.

Phil Ellis

Save on Discount Scuba Gear at DiveSports.com

 

FOR CONSPICUOUS GALLANTRY AND INTREPIDITY AT THE RISK OF HIS LIFE ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY AS AUTOMATIC WEAPONS GUNNER FOR NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE TASK GROUP ARABIAN PENINSULA, IN SUPPORT OF OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM ON 29 SEPTEMBER 2006. AS A MEMBER OF A COMBINED SEAL AND IRAQI ARMY SNIPER OVERWATCH ELEMENT, TASKED WITH PROVIDING EARLY WARNING AND STAND-OFF PROTECTION FROM A ROOFTOP IN AN INSURGENT HELD SECTOR OF AR RAMADI, IRAQ, PETTY OFFICER MONSOOR DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF BY HIS EXCEPTIONAL BRAVERY IN THE FACE OF GRAVE DANGER. IN THE EARLY MORNING, INSURGENTS PREPARED TO EXECUTE A COORDINATED ATTACK BY RECONNOITERING THE AREA AROUND THE ELEMENT’S POSITION. ELEMENT SNIPERS THWARTED THE ENEMY’S INITIAL ATTEMPT BY ELIMINATING TWO INSURGENTS. THE ENEMY CONTINUED TO ASSAULT THE ELEMENT, ENGAGING THEM WITH A ROCKET-PROPELLED GRENADE AND SMALL ARMS FIRE. AS ENEMY ACTIVITY INCREASED, PETTY OFFICER MONSOOR TOOK POSITION WITH HIS MACHINE GUN BETWEEN TWO TEAMMATES ON AN OUTCROPPING OF THE ROOF. WHILE THE SEALS VIGILANTLY WATCHED FOR ENEMY ACTIVITY, AN INSURGENT THREW A HAND GRENADE FROM AN UNSEEN LOCATION, WHICH BOUNCED OFF PETTY OFFICER MONSOOR’S CHEST AND LANDED IN FRONT OF HIM. ALTHOUGH ONLY HE COULD HAVE ESCAPED THE BLAST, PETTY OFFICER MONSOOR CHOSE INSTEAD TO PROTECT HIS TEAMMATES. INSTANTLY AND WITHOUT REGARD FOR HIS OWN SAFETY, HE THREW HIMSELF ONTO THE GRENADE TO ABSORB THE FORCE OF THE EXPLOSION WITH HIS BODY, SAVING THE LIVES OF HIS TWO TEAMMATES. BY HIS UNDAUNTED COURAGE, FIGHTING SPIRIT, AND UNWAVERING DEVOTION TO DUTY IN THE FACE OF CERTAIN DEATH, PETTY OFFICER MONSOOR GALLANTLY GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS COUNTRY, THEREBY REFLECTING GREAT CREDIT UPON HIMSELF AND UPHOLDING THE HIGHEST TRADITIONS OF THE UNITED STATES NAVAL SERVICE.

SIGNED GEORGE W. BUSH

Wow. How lucky we are.

Phil Ellis

I am apparently not the only one asking the question about how this day came to be. The answer is apparently so important that Yvette Best, a staff writer for NationNews, the largest newspaper in Barbados, actually wrote an article giving an explanation for this day.

The History of All Fools’ Day
Published on: 4/1/08 on www.nationnews.com

by YVETTE BEST

BE CAREFUL with whatever you do today; someone might very well be playing a trick on you!

Today is April 1, commonly known as All Fools’ Day, and while there are no specific traditions associated with the day here in Barbados, it has become the norm for people to fall prey to a few pranks. These tricks usually involve prank calls, silly jokes, being sent on false errands and leading people into believing that their shoelaces are undone or that something is on their face. Whatever the prank, the trickster invariably yells “April Fool!”.

Research has shown that there is no first April Fool’s Day that can be pinpointed on the calendar, but it is believed the day evolved in different cultures around the world, from celebrations involving the first day of spring.

The All Fools’ Day tradition is believed to have started in 1582 in France. Due to a change in the calendar under Charles IX, when the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, New Year’s Day was moved from April 1 to January 1. According to one account, news of this change traveled by foot and many people did not receive the news for several years. Some of those who got the information refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. Those people were listed as “fools” by the general populace and were subject to ridicule and often sent on “fools’ errands”, or were made the brunt of practical jokes.

The tradition spread to England and Scotland in the 18th century and later to American colonies of the English and French. It is celebrated for two days in Scotland, with the second day devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. It is called the
Taily Day. The origin of the “kick me” sign can be traced to this observance.

Over in Mexico, April Fool’s Day is actually observed on December 28. What was originally a day to remember children slaughtered by King Herod, evolved into a lighter commemoration involving pranks and trickery.

Well, I have already noticed that the jokesters are out on several of my favorite chat boards, I already have a prank email from a customer demanding a refund on everything he has ever purchased, and I expect more before the day ends. Regardless of how this day came to be, everyone sure seems to enjoy it. So, play a joke on me. I am an easy target.

Happy April Fools Day

Phil Ellis

Low Prices are No Joke at DiveSports.com

Just as a joke, I tried changing the date of this article to November 2, 1976, but WordPress wouldn’t let me. I guess the folks at WordPress don’t celebrate April Fools Day. Oh well.

Dive Rite has always been a very strong player in the HID light market. They have lead the industry with economical performance upgrades, and a large variety of battery and light head combinations ranging from 10 watts to the super-powerful 50 watt HID lights. That being said, the Dive Rite 10 watt HID canister lights have remained the most popular among serious divers who need to watch the pocket book.

We have just received notice from Dive Rite that we can offer a pretty nice sale on the Dive Rite 10 watt HID canister lights from now until the end of April. This sale includes both the LT6250MR11-SS Sunspot fixed focus light and the LT625H10 10 watt variable focus light. Both of these lights come with the Slimline canister and NiMH battery combination, the smallest canister available today. Even then, these light offer an amazing 4 hours of burn time, more than enough for short cave exploration, deep technical ocean dives, and multi-tank recreational dives. Both lights come complete with canister, light head and cord, NiMH battery, battery charger, and the protective STORM rigid storage box. Take a look at the links below and move NOW to get your own Dive Rite 10 watt HID canister light.

LT6250MR11-SS Sunspot HID Canister Light - Only $499!

LT6250H10 Variable Focus HID Canister Light - Only $599!

If you have been waiting for the right time to add a Dive Rite canister light to your arsenal of dive equipment, now is the time. To sweeten the deal a little more, all order placed from now until the end of April will also include a rigid Goodman handle, a $75 vale, absolutely FREE! Don’t wait. Sales like this don’t come along often. Get your Dive Rite HID 10 watt canister light now from DiveSports.com.

Phil Ellis

Dive Rite 10 Watt HID Lights on Sale at DiveSports.com

Any local scuba store works quite different from a large laboratory or industrial setting where items and components are prepared for exposure and use in an oxygen environment. There is considerable misunderstanding about what scuba stores mean when they use the term “oxygen clean” and how this same term might be used in industry, science, and medical applications. As Harry Avril stated in his April 20o0 article written for Dive Rite, the issue is one of semantics. In that article, Mr. Avril quoted on old story about three blind men and an elephant to describe the misunderstanding many people have about the issue of “oxygen cleaning” cylinders and valves….

Three blind men came upon an elephant. The first, feeling the animal’s leg, proclaimed that an elephant must be much like a tree trunk. The second, finding the animals trunk, said that a more apt comparison would be a snake. The third, holding on to the elephant’s tail, was puzzled by the first two’s misinterpretation of the facts. To him, an elephant felt exactly like a rope.

Quoted from “What Exactly is Oxygen Clean” by Harry Avril April 2000

Differences in the meaning of the terms “oxygen clean” and “oxygen ready” are as open to misunderstanding in the scuba industry as is the description of an elephant in the story above.

In industrial and medical settings, items prepared for oxygen service are properly cleaned, tested, and assembled in special clean rooms, designed to prevent any sort of contamination that might damage the results of the cleaning and assembly. Items are then tested using millipore weight tests, or other scientific test methods, to MAKE SURE that no material lingers that might make the components unsafe in the presence of pure oxygen. In the scuba store, we lack clean rooms and the sophisticated tests necessary to do it they way it is done in industry. So, we resort to more basic ways of preparation.

“Oxygen cleaning” for a scuba cylinder and valve, in a local scuba store, is more about the business of making the scuba items “as clean as possible” by following a defined and tested cleaning process. Given the inability to perform cleanliness tests after the cleaning, the importance of following a defined process, step by step, cannot be understated. Cylinders and valve components are repeatedly washed in special solutions designed for removing hydrocarbons; solutions that don’t leave drying residue that creates more damage than good. They are rinsed thoroughly with clean water and are assembled using o-rings and other components made from materials known to be less effective as fuels in the event of an oxygen fire. All lubricants used in assembly are special lubricants known to be “oxygen safe”. Of course, all of this is done in an area that is as clean as possible, so environmental contamination is limited. The result is an assembly that is as “clean as possible” and provides reduced risk when exposed to pure oxygen. However, we should clearly remember that it IS NOT the same as a clean-room assembly and we don’t have the cleanliness testing capability used in industry and medicine.

While most manufacturers ( out of fear of legal liability) will never say that their components are “oxygen ready”, we all know and accept that pure oxygen is used in diving and that we must apply our best abilities to make sure that cleanliness and attention are used in our cylinders and valves. When processes are applied in the local scuba store, they are done to get the cylinders “nitrox ready”, a step below real industrial cleaning.

If you have scuba cylinders that are used for enriched air or oxygen service, you can follow a couple of simple rules to greatly improve the safety of their use…..

1. Clean them OFTEN using a proper process DESIGNED to remove hydrocarbons.

2. ONLY use gases from sources known to be as clean as possible.

3. NEVER take the importance of cleanliness and common sense for granted.

Phil Ellis

Save on Discount Scuba Gear at Divesports.com

Continuation of My Discussion on Over-Reaching MAP Price Policies

Many scuba manufacturers seem set on the concept of “creating a level playing field” for all dealers…local scuba stores and internet retailers alike. I have honestly never understood what this means, given that I can’t think of any other area of life where the playing field is level.

Scuba industry MAP price policies are really an attempt to buffer the difference between the traditional scuba store and the newer business models used by internet retailers. The major scuba companies seem to be trying to achieve a situation where the same price exists for a given product, regardless of the geographic location of the market, regardless of the economic strength of the market area, and regardless of the business model of the retailer offering the product. Most, fearing direct movement toward minimum retail price policies, attempt to do this through writing VERY restrictive MAP price policies that actually achieve the same thing. I would argue that “the same price” is confusing to consumers, who expect to see the natural variation in prices, and absent that variation, expect that something is rigged. I would argue that creating “the same price” for all retailers would be anything but level. In fact, this is a pricing concept that guarantees that the playing field is NOT level. In the internet scuba retail business (and this is EXACTLY what this is all about), the concept of “the same price” heavily favors the larger, established internet retailers. They already have the most traffic, they already have the highest customer count, they already have the marketing advantage. For a smaller internet retailer, this level playing field completely eliminates the ability to grow market share, by using the important motivator of price to obtain new customers. Many smaller internet retailers need to go head to head with the larger retailers, on price, in order to gain some market share.

The major scuba companies have an unusual group of supporters in the establishment of these very restrictive MAP policies….the largest scuba internet retailers. I personally KNOW that some of the large retailers want complete price parity; they want “the same price”. It protects their margins, but mostly, it prevents any “upstarts” from encroaching on their market, through lower prices driven by leaner operations and a willingness to surrender profit margin for website traffic and business growth. In other words, it prevents new internet retailers from gaining market share EXACTLY the same way the big guys did it in the beginning….with price competition. Over-reaching MAP price policies that insist upon “the same price”, and complete elimination of all discounts, simply give a never-ending, manufacturer-protected franchise to the biggest of the big scuba internet retailers.

I realize that many manufacturers, from a variety of industries, have MAP price policies. Scuba manufacturers certainly have the right to do the same. However, when the policies are written with rules and restrictions that are so over-reaching that they extend beyond price advertising, and attempt to attain “the same price” everywhere, then that is going too far. In our industry, already saddled with many systemic problems with few solutions, we don’t benefit when structures are put in place that prevent dealer to dealer competition in all areas, including price.

Phil Ellis

Discount Scuba Gear and Equipment at DiveSports.com

The introduction of the new Dive Rite RG3000 regulator is another step in the commitment to continuous improvement at Dive Rite. Building on the success of the well tested RG2500 regulator, the Dive Rite RG3000 features a brand new second stage, incorporating many improvements that should excite any avid diver. The new RG3000 second stage is fully balanced, and features an improved venturi feature that allows the diver to adjust the regulator to a full positive-pressure venturi regulator. When no venturi effect is desired, the RG3000 allows for a completely unobstructed air flow for full venturi action. the RG-3000 also has a diver-adjustable knob to allow the diver to vary the effort required to start the air flow. The combination of these two adjustments allow a diver to completely tune the regulator for personal comfort or for any dive conditions. For the first stage, Dive Rite stayed with the very successful RG1208 first stage. This rotating-turret first stage is used by thousands of serious divers world-wide and provides all of the air needed, when it is needed the most. For styling, Dive Rite has stayed with the “all black” visual, recognized by divers all over, for both the first and the new RG3000 second stage.

Dive Rite RG-3000 Regulator - Available for Immediate Delivery from DiveSports.com

Dive Rite remains committed to serious recreational and technical divers. They remain one of the few companies willing to retail regulator repair parts to consumers who choose to provide their own maintenance. Of course, this open parts availability policy applies to the new RG3000 regulator

When you want the best available in a a serious diving regulator, and you want the support of a company that really understands scuba divers, you want the new Dive Rite RG3000 regulator.

Phil Ellis

Buy the Dive Rite RG-3000 Regulator at DiveSports.com

Yesterday, after a one month delay, we got a brand-new pump installed and after several hours of rewiring, adjusting plumbing, and other related tasks, Brad and Jonathan turned it on.  As I sit here, I hear the gentle whine of the compressor running and filling our banks.   I don’t want to say too much, I don’t want to brag too loud.  All I will say it that for now, Dive Sports is making air.

Phil Ellis

Buy Lots of Stuff from DiveSports.com

In early January, a “price war”, of sorts, broke out among several of the largest scuba Internet retailers. This little “price spat” manifested itself as these merchants offered “whole order discounting” on any order placed in their site, in an attempt to spur website traffic in a slow time of the year. If the site contained scuba products already priced at the MAP price, then the whole order discounts provided by the combatants would result in the resell of the products below the manufacturer’s minimum advertising price.

This war resulted in a great deal of negotiation and discussion among several of the scuba manufacturers and these merchants that were offering whole order discounts. These negotiations, and the discussions involved, were only among the companies and the people causing the infractions; other retailers had no way to know of the discussions and were not involved in any of the “agreements” made as a result. After all agreed to play nice, the whole order discounts were “officially” ended and all was well in the scuba industry. Then, in steps DiveSports.com.

While this little retailer price spat was taking place, we were busy developing the new Divesports.com website. All along, we had planned to offer some purchase incentives as our customers moved from our old site to the new one. One such promotion was to provide a free $10 Gift Card with orders of $100 or more. Another provided other discounts that could be achieved by using the discount code capability of our new website platform. Remember, we WERE NOT INVOLVED in this first little dust-up about whole order discounts, but boy did we hear the news when we launched our new site with the purchase incentives. In fact, one of my early posts on this blog, titled Scuba Industry Price Controls dealt with a little of the blow-back we got from manufacturers and some of our competitors.

We are now several weeks past this initial confrontation about pricing. We are now starting to see manufacturers that are revising their policies to prohibit ANY DISCOUNTS on their products that would bring them below the MAP price. No “club” discounts, no “member” discounts, no “frequent customer” discounts, no “free gift cards” with purchases, no “chat board” discounts…in fact, not advertised discounts at all! While this seems to be an attempt to “level the playing field” for retailers, I personally think the new policies border on RETAIL PRICE CONTROL, a type of control that most consumers reject and that most manufacturers have worked hard to keep at arms length. The text of these new policies we are now seeing create a very complicated set of business rules, rules which are wide open for misunderstanding, and result in policies that will hurt the ability of local and on-line retailers to increase traffic, build business, and provide value to consumers.

Over-reaching MAP policies quickly morph into Retail Price Controls. This is a bad thing for our industry and it is terrible for consumers. Over-reaching MAP policies assume that all retailers WANT and NEED a level playing field. Some of us would prefer to slug it out in the marketplace with competitors. Over-reaching MAP policies interrupt the natural negotiation that occurs when a customer comes to the cash register…which is exactly what our shopping cart includes…a cash register. Over-reaching MAP policies require too much interpretation by the merchant, thereby complicating the business of doing business. Over-reaching MAP policies cause distrust among scuba consumers, who see the exact same price everywhere they go….. something that this industry simply cannot afford, and something we have worked hard to combat.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be saying more about my personal and business feelings about MAP policies that attempt to encumber the operation of my business. Some of the things I intend to say will not go down like a smooth, sweet pill. They will, however, be the truth of my opinion on the importance of this subject for scuba diving equipment retailers and local scuba stores. Stay tuned for more information about over-reaching minimum advertised price policies in the scuba diving industry.

Phil Ellis

www.divesports.com