Rutland Show 2017

Written by Club Member: Rick Smith

​After spending Friday & Saturday at the National Watersports Festival it was an even earlier start to our Sunday morning waiting at the gates to the Rutland Show just before 6am as we had to be set up and the vehicles off site by 7am!
Tracey, Paul, Alan and myself made short work offloading the van of everything required for the day to allow Paul to get off and up to the NWF before starting on the merchandising to get the Dive Rutland brand out there. Once all of the flags, banners posters and boards were out it was then time to fill the tables, rails and gondola with stock ready for the show gates to open.
Due to Scuba Steve being up at the NWF showcasing the new range of triathlon gear that is now available from the shop we had Scuba Sarah modelling a rather fetching Purple piped neoprene number with a matching mask for us, although she did not look impressed with Sam Adcock’s manakin challenge when he and Tracey joined us later in the day.
Soon the crowds were milling around with plenty of interest from the passing public, some were interested in the discover scuba competition and booked up for a future date, others in open water courses both full and referral, also qualified divers that were interested in joining a local active friendly club (we ticked all of those boxes) and we even managed to sell a few mask & snorkel sets too. 
Plenty of conversations were had by Tracey, Alan and myself in the morning and then John, Alan and myself in the afternoon regarding the details/complexities of the courses and how we tailor the courses around each individual rather than the fast-paced production line we have all seen elsewhere. People seemed to be really impressed by this approach.
A great day with the weather holding off just long enough for the show to finish, let us get everything packed away and then back to the shop to unload. The only thing I found amazing during the day was how many people mentioned that they “didn’t even know we existed” but we soon put that right.
Just leaves me to rinse and dry all my dive gear now before sitting down with a well-deserved cold one but looking forward to the 2018 show already, who’s coming to join us???
 

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