The OZTeK’07 Gala Dinner: Awards, Prizes and Surprises
The final event in a weekend given over to diving excitement, the OZTeK’07 Gala Awards dinner - held at Dockside, Darling Harbour, on Sunday 18th March – proved a sell-out social occasion given over to Prizes and Surprises.
Supported by Rolex Australia, sponsors of the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society, (OW-USS) and with the OW-USS President and Chief Operating Officer, Jim Corry, in attendance to introduce Mathew Kertesz, a 22-year-old marine biology major and the first Australian to be awarded the prestigious scholarship, the more formal part of the evening also included the announcement and presentation of the OZTeK Awards.
Celebrating the achievements and endeavours of Australia’s leading Divers and Dive Industry personnel - those people who have helped push back the boundaries of knowledge and exploration, and whose efforts are leading to the development and use of new diving technologies - the OZTeK Awards are intended to acknowledge those people who have made a significant contribution to the development and advancement of diving within the Asia Pacific region, the individual efforts of each of these people have often had a far-reaching impact throughout the world.
INDUSTRY RECOGNITION AWARDS
In previous years, recipients of the OZTeK Industry Recognition Award have included: Rob Cason; Dr Simon Mitchell; Richard Nicholls; Barry Hallett, and Tony Davis.
This year’s recipients are two people whose contribution to recreational diving – and encouragement of technical exploration diving – has had a profound impact on the development and growth of the activity.
Terry Cummins
A graduate of the University of New South Wales, Terry Cummins exchanged a promising academic career for the challenges and uncertainties of the diving industry.
Appointed, in 1981, to be the first Director of Training of the fledgling PADI Australia - and later its C.E.O - he played a leading role in the eventual amalgamation and re-structuring of the various regional offices that now form PADI Asia-Pacific.
An active member of those leading industry organizations and government committees that have helped to shape recreational diving throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Terry Cummins is now a member of the PADI Board, and International Vice President of Marketing Metrics & Performance.
With a history of interest in Technical Diving stretching right back to his early involvement with the sport, he has been a very keen cave diver; was one of the early explorers of the Mount Gambier cave system in South Australia; and – as a member of the CDAA – previously held Instructor credentials with that organisation.
With a keen interest in wreck-diving and a passionate advocate of marine conservation and environmentalism, Terry Cummins played an instrumental role in ensuring the success of Andrew & Liz Wight’s award winning television series, “The Adventures of the ‘Quest’”; a programme that did much to popularise diving during the ‘90’s.
An accomplished diver whose views on the development of diving transcend agency affiliations, his support for the introduction of technical diving played a vital role in attracting the highly adventurous person into diving.
(Travelling on business and therefore unable to attend the Dinner, the award was accepted on Terry’s behalf by PADI Asia Pacific’s, Richard Evans.)
Barry Andrewartha
A person who, for more than four decades, has chronicled the changing face of diving and, in the process, given the Asia Pacific diving community an established and respected ‘voice’ in which to share adventures, discoveries and concerns, Barry Andrewartha’s commitment towards the development of recreational and technical diving is evidenced in the pages of the diving publications that he, (together with his wife and business partner, Belinda Barnes) produces.
With an interest in diving initially sparked by the television documentaries, books and films of Hans Hass; a growing passion that was further fuelled by the exploits of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Barry began writing for the Australian Skindiving and Spearfishing Digest in 1960.
Between 1966 - 1970 he authored and co-wrote five books on diving and, in 1970 in response to a growing interest in diving, he launched, Skindiving in Australia, a publication that underwent several minor name changes to reflect its growing circulation and sphere of influence throughout the Asia Pacific region and the forerunner of today’s Sportdiving Magazine.
Maintaining an interest in all aspects of diving, Barry Andrewartha is a co-director of, Mountain, Ocean & Travel Publications Pty Ltd, a company that - together with, Belinda Barnes - he founded in 1987. As the ‘hands-on’ co-publisher and co-editor of, Sportdiving Magazine, Dive Log Australasia and International Freediving and Spearfishing News, he continues to actively support and promote an activity that has dominated his life.
(John Lippmann, of DAN Asia-Pacific presented Barry with his award.)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Previous recipients of the ‘Outstanding Achievement’ Awards include, Kevin Denlay; Ron Allum; Andrew Wight and Chris Brown. This year’s winner, Dr Mark Spencer, was acknowledged for his efforts in the discovery and on-going exploration of the WWI Australian submarine AE2 and received his award from long-time colleague Colin Willcox, of Eagle Rebreathers.
Dr Mark Spencer
Taking up diving in 1975 and taking photographs underwater since 1978, Mark eventually realised that photography was not only a means of sharing his experiences with others, but of conveying his feelings of the sea and our special relationship with it. His interests soon extended to shipwrecks and subterranean caves.
An assignment photographer for Australian Geographic and also production photographer for the Adventures of the Quest television series, Mark has been published in many major journals, including Geo, National Geographic, BBC Wildlife and Living Planet magazines.
In 1997, he was elected a Fellow International of the Explorers Club, based in New York.
In 1997, Mark led an Australian contingent on the first of two expeditions to Turkey to examine the alleged discovery of the Australian WW1 submarine AE2. In 1998 his team confirmed the wreck as indeed the AE2, and a full report of this project was submitted to appropriate Government and Defence departments, as well as major maritime museums and archaeological establishments.
A qualified tri-mix rebreather diver who regularly dives and photographs in depths over 100 metres, Mark has, in the past few years, been working with maritime archaeologist Tim Smith and the Submarine Institute of Australia to return to Turkey. During this trip, which has recently been given financial support by the Australian Government , the team plans to undertake scientific investigation of the wreck’s condition providing information for future management considerations including the remote possibility of raising and conserving the WWI submarine. Another major objective of this expedition is to further document the wreck to inform the world of the AE2’s and the Australian Navy’s effort during WWI.
TECHNICAL DIVER OF THE YEAR AWARD
Previous recipients of the Technical Diver of the Year Award have been David Apperley, Paul Hosie and Trevor Jackson. This year’s award winner is:
Samir Alhafith
Founder and team leader of the, The Sydney Project - an association of technical divers involved in researching and discovering important historical wrecks in depths between 75 and 135 metres on the NSW south coast of Australia - Samir Alhafith (born in Baghdad, Iraq) began diving in 1995.
Quickly progressing from his early role as Divemaster at a Sydney dive store, he is an accomplished diver who uses both rebreather technology, (the APD ‘Inspiration’) as well as open-circuit mixed gas to advance scientific knowledge of the underwater world.
Apart from cave diving in Mount Field, Tasmania, as well as the Jenolan Caves west of Sydney, Samir’s major interest is in furthering The Sydney Project’s on-going mission to discover and document the historically significant wrecks lying off the New South Wales coast.
These have included the Liberty ship, William Dawes, lying in 135 metres, (the second deepest wreck to be dived in Australia) as well as the recently discovered, ‘Iron Knight’, sunk in 130-metres of water by a Japanese submarine during WWII.
A gifted filmmaker whose videos and images document cave and wreck exploration - and whose work was recognised with the First Place Award in the OZTeK4 Video Competion - Samir is regularly called upon to film underwater events for various TV news and current affair channels.
Based on a policy of sharing information about their discoveries, The Sydney Project enjoys a strong working relationship with many government departments such as the NSW Heritage Office, the Water Police and the Navy. It’s a policy that, in 2005, culminated in the Sydney Project receiving an Award from the Heritage Office for their exploration work on the South Coast of New South Wales.
Now currently working with other Sydney Project members to uncover two new wrecks, Samir is also involved in work on a documentary film due for release within the next year. Later this year, he will be the main underwater cameraman on the expedition to explore and document the ANZAC submarine, AE2, sunk during WWI in Turkey.
Presented with his Award by diving colleague and Sydney Project member, Paul Garske, Samir also received a state-of-the-art VR3 Dive Computer, a uniquely programmable and upgradeable computer that can be programmed with multiple gases, air, oxygen, nitrox, trimix or heliox, and that can calculate open-circuit, semi-closed or fully closed circuit decom-pression that was generously donated by UK company, Delta P Technology.
PRIZES
Throughout the evening everyone attending the Gala Awards Dinner had an opportunity to win one of the magnificent prizes that included:
- A KISS rebreather Diver Surface valve with Mares second stage regulator - donated by Jetsam Technologies of Canada.
- An Oxygen Analyser – courtesy of DiveTek
- A Beuchat, ‘X-Contact’ mask – donated by ZSports
- And, from Lissenung Island Resort, a 10-night accommodation, meals and diving package in fabulous Papua New Guinea.
An event open to everyone and a magnificent finish to two action-packed days of excitement, the OZTeK’07 Gala Awards Dinner provided ample opportunity to meet and talk with speakers and exhibitors, renew old friendships, meet new ones and enjoy the social side of diving in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere.