Since 2001, Dive Sports has been a proud retailer of the Safe Sea Jellyfish Sting protective lotion. This is an amazing product and has protected millions of divers and ocean-lovers from the painful sting of jellyfish, sea nettles, and other stinging ocean organisms. There is no other product like it on the market and the folks at Nidaria, Inc. created a really nice product.

When we opened our online store, of course we put the Safe Sea lotion up as one of our very first products. We have grown to become one of the major retailers of this product in the United States; filling orders for dozens of bottles each week. During the time that we have acted as a retailer for this product, we have seen several North American distributors come and go…but we have always been able to maintain a good supply at a price that satisfied the market.

On Monday of this past week, we phoned Teeka Tan, the North American distributor, to place an order for approximately 50 cases of the product. I was stunned when I was told that they would no longer be distributing Safe Sea. Apparently, the manufacturer, located in Israel, is somewhat difficult to deal with and the buys for the North American distributor are gigantic. Teeka Tan feels it is no longer economically feasible to handle this product. That is really bad news for DiveSports.com and especially bad news for our army of faithful customers. Unless someone steps in and takes the helm with this product, we have no source of supply. We are already out of the popular SPF 30 version, and our supply is running short on other protection varieties. As much as I dismay in saying this, it appears that Safe Sea is no more.

Maybe we will be lucky and someone will step in and sign a suitable contract with Nidaria for this product. DiveSports.com and hundreds of other loyal retailers will happily provide the orders and the consumers, who have come to rely on this product for ocean protection, will make sure that the sales are there. Anyone interested in becoming the North American distributor for Safe Sea?

Phil Ellis

Save on Discount Scuba Gear at DiveSports.com

We got our shipment of the XS Scuba MiFlex braided hoses in today. This is a nice looking product. We had dozens of order for these from our online store, so we spent most of the day boxing and shipping hoses. While we were checking them into our inventory, two customers walked and got their first look at them. They just had to have MiFlex.

We will know much more after several people have used these hoses. I can tell you…they look great, they are very flexible, and the look way cool. Thanks for your business and don’t forget to get YOUR XS Scuba MiFlex hoses.

Phil Ellis

MiFlex Braided Hoses - In Stock at DiveSports.com

We have been seeing several new products each month from Highland Millworks. For those not familiar with this company, it was started by Joe McGrath to manufacture dual cylinder tank bands and hardware for technical diving applications. Joe quickly established his company as THE company for dual cylinder diving accessories. When Joe decided to retire and close his company, XS Scuba contacted him about taking over his operation and continuing the supply of dual cylinder bands and other products. This stainless steel backplate is one of several new products have have released in the past several months.

It is difficult to establish a particular backplate as a unique product, but this one has some features of interest to typical users. Highland Millworks has combined the best features found on the best backplates into a single solution for rigid-backplate diving with single cylinder or dual sets. Made completely from 316 stainless steel and featuring a beautiful #4 brushed finish, the Highland Millworks backplate is designed to serve the needs of the very demanding diver. With a slightly flatter bend than many plates, the Highland Millworks stainless steel plate is extremely comfortable and places the cylinders much closer to your center of gravity. All holes and slots are cleanly cut and Highland has also provided cam band slots to allow the use of a single cylinder without the necessity of using a single cylinder adapter. At 6 pounds, this plate provides more than adequate negative buoyancy for diving in heavy wetsuits or dry suits. Take a look at the Highland Millworks stainless steel backplate. We think you will like what you see.

Phil Ellis

Highland Millworks Stainless Steel Backpates at DiveSports.com

In Alabama, the mere mention of the word “snow” closes the schools, delays factory openings, sends everyone to the grocery store, and basically radically changes the lifestyle of several million people who think a harsh winter is two or more days below freezing. Our fear of cascading out of control down a snowy road, submerged forever in a dark creek or river, is stronger than any natural urge. Having been surprised in some select years in the past by heavier than normal ice and snow coatings, we are easy prey for the panic, doom, and gloom forecast by our local television stations. Yesterday and last night was typical of what we see about every two or three years…..a forecast of the “big one”.

I pride myself in not falling prey to the hysteria that is our local weather reporting. I laugh as my fellow Alabamians rush to get 10 loaves of bread and 5 gallons of milk “just in case”. Unlike others I know, I fear no weather! Unfortunately, this time they even got me.

I live in Florence, Alabama, about 60 miles from our store in Decatur, Alabama. To make my way to work, I must cross one of three bridges or river damns operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a federal entity created nearly 75 years ago to manage the mighty Tennessee River and its water resources. TVA will close these transportation facilities at the drop of a hat, and when that happens, I have no way to get to the “other side of the river”. So yesterday, as everyone who dropped into the store talked about the blizzard of 2008 that was coming, I decided that I should spend the night in a local motel and eliminate the possibility of being stuck 60 miles away from my business, unable to do what I do every day, without fail…..open the scuba store. We had an open water class scheduled, we have a distinguished visiting guest from a major scuba company in today, and as always, we have the online orders that must be filled. So, for last night, I lived at the Best Western just down from the store.

Well, the Alabama blizzard of 2008 didn’t amount to much in our part of the world. A little sleet, a little snow, and a blistering 30F overnight temperature. Of course, that didn’t stop these gentle Alabama folks from creating chaos on the roads. Cars in the ditches, police cruisers everywhere, and not a gallon of milk to be found this morning on any grocery store shelf. All in all, we have survived here in Alabama. The Blizzard of 2008 will be much more interesting years from now when I am telling the story to my grandchildren. Prone anyway to a little exaggeration, I bet I will be able to tell it well 10 years hence.

Personally, I could kick myself for falling for it this time. I wasted $69 on the room fee, my skin will take weeks to recover from the scratchy hotel sheets, and Jan had to put the dog on the telephone this morning for his “daily walk” with dad. Oh well….time to go back to what we love, introducing a brand new crowd to this great sport of ours…..scuba diving. THEY will be able to say that they learned to dive during the Blizzard of 2008!

Phil Ellis

Rain, Sleet, or Snow…Get the Best Scuba Prices at DiveSports.com

Back in November, we made an announcement (November Art to Media Post) about the Art to Media waterproof dive map cards. We began our inventory with waterproof cards for the Oriskany and the Spiegel Grove. These card have been a very big success with our walk-in customers and our Internet audience. The concept of having a full 3D view of the site you are about to dive is a great one and the detail, planning, and measurement effort that went into these cards is clearly reflected in the final product.

We have recently added several more of these Art to Media waterproof cards to our inventory. In addition to the two Oriskany cards and the Spiegel Grove, we now have the shipwreck of the Duane, the Bibb, and the Eagle in south Florida. In addition, we have an Art to Media card for the reef site at the Christ of the Abyss in Key Largo.

For your next shipwreck dive, go with a detailed waterproof wreck site map card from Art to Media. We have them all in stock and ready for immediate delivery at DiveSports.com.

Phil Ellis

3D Dive Map Cards at DiveSports.com

On February 27, I made a post on this blog announcing the selection of XS Scuba as the North American distributor for MiFlex double braided regulator hoses. As an XS Scuba dealer, we are naturally excited about the introduction of any new product, so we were glad to see this agreement that would allow us to offer this hose. As is my practice with new and unique products, I made a post on www.scubaboard.com offering these hoses as a Hot Deals offering to anyone that might be interested. This is a common method we use to get a little sales boost on new products and we continue it with new products because it works. The ScubaBoard users are our good friends and customers and we always want to give them a shout when we get something new. You can use the link below to see that thread on ScubaBoard.

Dive Sports Hot Deals Thread - XS Scuba MiFlex Hoses - ScubaBoard Chat Board

I am absolutely astounded at the response we have had to this to this product. Even though we were promoting this as a pre-delivery offering, we got orders for over 25 hoses on the first day of the post! And the orders continue to roll in. The interest and discussion of this product is actually shocking and surely indicates that this is a hit. As the days since the introduction have passed, we noticed another unique thing….we had over 675 DIFFERENT users enter the term “miflex” in our internal search engine on www.divesports.com. Honestly, I can’t remember any single product getting that much search action in such a short period of time. And remember, this is a brand new product not being seen by US customers in their local scuba store. So, the question is….why is this hose so hot?

Well, there is no doubt about it…the XS Scuba MiFlex hose offers some attributes that would be a considerable improvement over the standard scuba hose. They are very flexible. Standard hoses often pull at the diver’s regulator due to high rigidity. The XS Scuba MiFlex does not. They are light. Standard hoses, especially in the longer lengths can be heavy. The XS Scuba MiFlex is not. They are durable. Standard hoses have a realistic life of about 5 years with an active diver. The testing by the manufacturer suggests that the XS Scuba MiFlex hose might by 3 times more durable than a standard hose. Best of all, the XS Scuba MiFlex hose really looks cool! It gives a regulator set an upscale look and feel. We have a sample here in our store and everyone that sees it remarks on the great looks.

Apparently, the interest in the XS Scuba MiFlex hose indicates that there has been dissatisfaction with old standard rubber scuba hose. For years, we thought we would just need to live with it. Now, with the introduction of the XS Scuba MiFlex double braided regulator hose, maybe we don’t. You see, ANYTHING can be improved. This is a great example of improvement.

Phil Ellis

XS Scuba MiFlex Regulator Hoses - Buy Them Now at Divesports.com

We have just completed our March newsletter and scheduled it for delivery at 6AM on Monday. For this month, we are offering a new discount code to allow our customers to continue with the savings at www.divesports.com. This new coupon code is MARCH15 and it gives an immediate, online discount of $15 OFF of any online order totaling $150 or more, not including shipping and sales tax. Like all discount codes, this one is applied at the shopping cart and the discount is shown on your electronic invoice. This discount code cannot be used with any other discount. If you apply the MARCH15 code and then attempt to apply another discount code, the last code applied will be the active one. Additional information about using discount codes can be found at www.divesports.com. Simply click the Promotions Link on the gray menu bar in the header of the website.  Note:  This discount code can ONLY be used for online, electronic purchases.  It cannot be used for purchase in our brick and mortar store.

DiveSports.com was the first scuba diving retail site to provide our users with a link that explains ALL of our discount codes. We will continue to offer you THE BEST PRICES POSSIBLE on all of your scuba diving equipment and accessories. Remember, at Dive Sports, we want to be your local scuba store, no matter where you live!

Phil Ellis

Save More with Discount Codes at DiveSports.com

I have spent the morning working on the next edition of our monthly newsletter and one of the articles I was considering got me to thinking….is the DiveSports network Web 2.0? To get a grasp on the answer to this question, we have to first define what Web 2.0 is. This term (Web 2.0) was first mentioned by Tim O’Reilly during a Internet conference in 2004. At the time, he defined the term as an Internet application where users provide content to move the modern website to a two-way communication device.

For my business use, I define the term Web 2.0 as an Internet application where we (the Dive Sports crew) begin to use the Internet to talk WITH you instead of TO you. Our old, static website simply gave you information about our products and our operation. It was a single platform of communication where we told you things about our products and services, without the capability for you to speak back. Our current website at www.divesports.com is, in fact, designed in keeping with our personal definition of Web 2.0 technology. Not only do we tell you about our products and services, but you have the capability to talk back to us through product reviews. You can use the Post a Review capability on every product page to tell us what you like and what you don’t like about that product. But your communication, through product review, goes even farther. You can directly influence our shoppers by having your reviews and comments published right there on the product page for potential buyers to read and consider BEFORE they press the Add to Cart button!

Taking this two-way communication concept a little further, we now envision our Dive Sports Internet presence not as a website, but as a network of sites working together. This web blog, the DiveSportsBlog, is just another part of this network. It is tightly linked to the primary website at www.divesports.com and extends YOUR capability to communicate with us even further. In addition, we have added opt-in email communications to our Dive Sports network, further extending the ability to communicate with our customers.

Later this year, we will begin adding content to another website designed JUST for product reviews. We already have another blog at www.divegearreviews.com waiting just for this purpose. We have not added any content yet, because we haven’t yet determined how this content will be added. We would like to have a number of friends and customers providing in-depth reviews of the products available to the modern scuba diver. If anyone has any suggestions for www.divegearreviews.com, we would love to hear them. We want to get this up and going, and providing you with valuable information and reviews, before the years end.

So, is DiveSports.com Web 2.0? I think so. Mind you, our technological ability is dwarfed by that of some of our competitors. That said, we are working hard and using every bit of our skill and ability to make our Internet network a two-way communication platform that achieves our business objectives while keeping a keen ear to the ground about what YOU think.

Phil Ellis

See Web 2.0 at Work at www.divesports.com

We just added a neat product to our online offerings….the HitchSafe trailer hitch receiver safety vault. This cool product has been around for a few years, but we have just become aware of it and it is perfect for scuba divers. Divers always have a tough decision to make when driving to a shore-diving location. They can’t lock their cars without finding a safe hiding place for the car keys. The HitchSafe completely solves this problem. The HitchSafe installs in a standard 2″ trailer hitch receiver and provides you with a secure place to put your car key, a couple of credit cards, and maybe a little cash. This solid steel vault is secured inside your 2″ hitch receiver by strong, steel bolt pins that can only be removed when the HitchSafe is properly removed using the combination. A simple user-chosen three digit combination allows you to easily remove the HitchSafe and access your contents. The included dust cover cap hides the whole works from trouble makers and the security of the combination entry prevents unwanted intrusion. Take a look at the link below for more details on the HitchSafe security vault for divers.

HitchSafe Trailer Hitch Security Vault - Available at DiveSports.com

This is also a great place to store that second car key so you can easily rescue yourself if you lock your keys in your car. No need to worry with those magnetic boxes that often fall off and are the FIRST place a potential thief checks. Put that spare in the HitchSafe and it will always be there when you need it.

Phil Ellis

Buy a HitchSafe Trailer Hitch Security Vault at DiveSports.com

Save on Many Other Scuba Diving Items at DiveSports.com

We have been internally discussing this new innovation in regulator hoses for several months now, and we are finally able to make it public. Today, XS Scuba announced an agreement to distribute the MiFlex (pronounced ME flex) double braided regulator and inflator hoses. Dive Sports is proud to be one of the first dealers selected by XS Scuba to offer this line of regulator hoses. Mike Piantoni from XS Scuba feels that divers will quickly realize the benefits of using the MiFlex hose to improve durability, comfort, and safety in regulator performance. The following press release was distributed by DiveNewsWire:

XS Scuba To Begin Distribution of Miflex Hoses

Versatile and unique, the new Miflex hoses to begin shipping by April 1, 2008.

Miflex Hoses, the manufacturer of the range of Xtreme high performance diving hoses are pleased to confirm the launch of their products in America, working with the established and successful company XS Scuba.

Developed in cooperation with expert divers, the Xtreme range of diving hoses have been developed by a team of Miflex engineers, analyzing the weak points of traditional rubber diving hoses.

The fruit of their research is the Miflex Xtreme range of high-performance hoses.

Available in a wide range of lengths, for regulators and BCD quick-disconnect applications and in three colors:

Black, Blue and hi-viz Yellow.

Miflex Xtreme hoses feature a patent-pending,double nylon safety braiding designed tooutperform and outlive traditional rubber hoses.

Miflex Xtreme hoses are 30% lighter than anequivalent length rubber hose and haveunmatched flexibility.

You can tie a Miflex Xtreme hose in a knot andstill be assured of continuous, uninterrupted airflow.

XS Scuba is a worldwide supplier of a full-line of recreational and technical diving equipment. Miflex hoses will be available for delivery by April 1st.

For further information:

www.miflexhoses.com

XS Scuba

4021 W. Chandler Avenue

Santa Ana, CA 92704

tel: 866.977.2822

info: info@xsscuba.com

DiveSports.com will be proud to be one of the first dealers authorized by XS Scuba to resale the amazing MiFlex hose. In fact, we have already begun taking pre-delivery order for this product and have seen online sales of over a dozen hoses in the first morning since promotion began. Follow the link below to learn more about the XS Scuba MiFlex double braided hose……

XS Scuba MiFlex Braided Regulator Hoses - Available from DiveSports.com

Initial inventory of this hose will be limited, but you can place a pre-delivery order now on www.divesports.com. Be one of the first to realize true innovation in regulator hose performance and comfort.

Phil Ellis

MiFlex Regulator Hoses at DiveSports.com