Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

- Producer and Musical Director Maribeth Solomon (right) attend opening of Imax Under the Sea at the Ontario Science Centre in April. At the Opening - Story to Follow

. Toronto Dive Industry on the Ropes? First signs that the current recession is taking its toll of Toronto's scuba industry appeared early in 2009 when the classey Toronto dive shop, Waterline, quietly closed its doors. The dive store, located on Avenue Road in the heart of Lawrence Park, one of Toronto's most affluent neighbourhood, has been servicing sport divers since 1992. The shop, established by Wendy Rutherford and her late husband Craig, was a full service store. It offered equipment, repairs, classes and popular dive trips. Waterline was the first shop to use the Internet to effectively communicate with divers throughout the city. Rutherford has always believed in having a close relationship with the dive community. On her website she has long said that the goal of her store was "to provide top-quality merchandise from companies which stand behind their products and value customer satisfaction, and to provide incredible customer service by knowing our products,...

. Early version of a piece written for Sunwings' inflight magazine, summer 2009 edition There is a myth about Canadians that just won’t go away. It says that we are a nation of hewers of wood and drawers of water. Truth is, most Canucks live in urban communities within 150kms of the American border, our trees are for shade and the water comes right out of the tap. A visit to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario (just north of the City of Toronto) shows, however, that the myth has done some good things for the country. The publicly owned gallery is the only major art gallery in the country that solely collects and exhibits Canadian Art, and its most prized works were created by the Group of Seven, painters who painted the myth! In 1920, seven artists – Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston, Franklin Carmichael and A.Y. Jackson – decided, for the first time, to exhibit as the Group of Seven. The Group’s first exhib...

. Canadian Star teams sail against the world's best off Miami Beach in March Bermuda's Peter Bromby and veteran Star Class crew Magnus Liljedahl of Miami won the 2009 Bacardi Cup Star Class Regatta Friday March 13th on Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida. Bromby and Liljedahl sailed to victory on the final race in the six race regatta to finish with a commanding six-point lead over Floridian Mark Mendelblatt, the 2005 Bacardi Cup champion, and crew Bruno Prada (BRA) who finished second overall. The Bacardi Cup Regatta, hosted by the Coral Reef Yacht Club on Miami's Key Biscayne, attracted sailors from around the world. There were 128 sailors in 64 teams representing 15 countries competed in the race. Eight of the competitors were from Canada including four-time Olympian Hans Fogh and the Queen City Yacht Club (Toronto Island) team of Terry Hofkitchner and Jeff Imai. According to Queen City Yacht Club Vice-Commodore and Diver Magazine photographer Pat Whetung, the r...

. Diver Magazine at Volunteer Driven Festival Welland, Ontario Shipwreck Symposium marks its 15th Year - Niagara Diver’s Association For the third year in a row, Diver Magazine will be at the day long Shipwrecks Symposium in Welland, Ontario. The Magazine’s travel editor, Stephen Weir will be at the annual conference to meet subscribers and to take pictures of the popular dive conference for Diver. The Niagara Divers' Association’s 15th Annual Shipwrecks Symposium, "Shipwrecks/2009" will be held Saturday, April 4th at Welland’s Centennial High School. This year the volunteer driven event features nine multimedia presentations given by both world-renowned wreck experts and local divers. Jonathan Moore is one of the headline speakers. Moore is an underwater archaeologist with Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Service. He will be showing never before seen pictures of the government protected wrecks of Lake Ontario’s Hamilton and Scourge (War of 1812 shipwrecks...

. Granite State Pairs Chocolate and Martinis New New Hampshire Trail is Shaking And Stirring Tourists’ Road Trip Imagination with Chocolate Martini Tour Toronto– In New Hampshire the pairing of martinis and chocolate make for an original, tasty and fantastic getaway. For those who like their vacation shaken but not stirred, the Chocolate and Martini Tour has a licence to thrill. You could spend many nights sampling a delightfully-varied array of crème de cacao and vodka combinations in the great bars of New Hampshire’s Seacoast – from Roosevelt’s at Wentworth (their signature Stoli and Kahlua martini and the molten chocolate cake dripping with Valhrona are out of this world) to the Espresso Hazelnut and the rest of the martini menu at Green Monkey on Pleasant Street in downtown Portsmouth. Just around the corner on State Street, sample exceptional chocolates at Byrne & Carlson, produced in small batches using the finest ingredients. Driving your Aston Martin DBS V12, or hitting t...

, SHARK AND FUNBITES – MAKING JUNK FOOD EDGY Grocery Innovations Canada, is the country’s largest grocery trade show and conference. The closed-to-the-public is the place to see new food trends and sample the new foods that will be stocked in independently owned food stores in the months to come. The conference was held late in October in Toronto, and two products debuting at the show shared a common theme … diving and the underwater world! It will be Sharks, Sharks and more Sharks in Canadian grocery stores if the new importer of Thailand’s most popular energy drink has a say in it. Meanwhile, one Canadian company is betting on children wanting to have a feeding frenzy with FunBites, an all fruit treat shaped like underwater creatures. FunBites is produced by Sun-Rise a British Columbia based food producer. The product is 100% fruit and has no artificial flavours or artificial colours. “Your kids can explore an ocean full of whales, sea horses and turtles with Berry Blend flavour,” ...

. You say Winterlude. Insiders call it Fun-a-lude Midway between winter and spring, Ottawa throws a party One of many product reviews written in December 2008 Toronto, January 28, 2009 – Ottawa is the capital of winter fun. And, as Canada reaches that halfway mark between winter and spring, the city is getting set to take a Winterlude break. Every February, Canada’s Capital Region is host to Winterlude, the nation’s largest and most popular winter celebration. This year the festival runs February 6th to 22nd, which means there are three fun-filled weekends of excitement and activity awaiting visitors! From spectacular ice carvings to an amazing playground made of snow, Winterlude is a great way to take in the best of our Canadian winter. Most of the Winterlude activities are absolutely free! It costs nothing to skate on the frozen downtown Rideau Canal, the world’s largest skating rink! Tourists are encouraged to bring their cameras to get pictures of the majestic snow sculptures and ...

. • The UnderwaterChannel.tv is now available worldwide through the Internet. Launched on September 1st the UK based free TV station features professionally produced video from international underwater filmmakers. The new service is at www.theunderwaterchannel.tv. • During the recently held Republican Convention in Minnesota, visiting political reporter was invited to dive in the Mall of America’s shark filled aquarium. Many scribes accepted the invitation and found it less stressful than covering the convention! The mall is one of the largest indoor shopping centres in the world. • Last year Diver Magazine featured a story I wrote (and have posted on this site) about how the Georgia Aquarium was allowing divers to swim in their giant Whale Shark tank. This month the Atlanta facility announced the addition of a manta ray to that 6.3 million gallon gallery. Nandi, a female manta ray, is the only manta in captivity in the US. Nandi, who measures more than nine feet across and weighs...

What to do while decompressing? Watch the Watch New watch mechanical watch from Japan arrives in North America The Japanese based Orient Watch company put a big push on this past Christmas season to introduce its mechanical saturation diver watch to the North American market. The watch, which retails for $1,300 US has, according to company spokeswoman Christina Koshzow “a special case design that prevents the penetration of helium gas (while diving at depth). This means that the internal pressure hardly rises at all, eliminating the need for an escape valve and a diver no longer has to use a valve to adjust the pressure inside the case when diving or surfacing. The watch is rated to a depth of 300 meters (900 feet), with a strong exterior that has excellent corrosion resistance. The self-winding watch has a large crown and rotating bezel, which makes it easy to operate even when wearing thick dive gloves. The watch company has teamed with North American broadcasters to sell their ful...

. INTERNATIONAL USB TAVEL ADAPTER ALLOWS DIVERS TO RECHARGE IPOD, SMART PHONES AND SOME CAMERAS WHILE ON THE ROAD One of many product reviews written in December 2008 Cut line : The International USB Travel Adapter and its four interchangeable input plugs. Be it above or below the water, more and more divers are traveling with their IPods. And since most IPods are charged through an USB cord, there is now a new “must have” for divers on the road. The Amzer Power Adapter is a direct power source for iPods, mobile phones, Blackberrys, digital cameras and any other new electronic device that recharges its battery through a USB port. Away from home, this adapter can be plugged into any wall socket, be it 100 volt or 240 volt service, and then hooks up, through a USB cord, to your electronic device. This new USB power adapter comes with four plugs for use in North America, the UK, Europe and Australia Diver Magazine recently field-tested the Power Adapter in Havana, Cuba. An Ipod was repe...

. Sculptures to make you think cutline - owl sculpture from Keene New Hampshire Auguste Rodin, that French fellow who sculpted "The Thinker" has nothing on the people of Jackson. For the past 8 years they have been carving Tiki Gods, cougars, chair lifts and yes, even a snowy version of The Thinker in the annual New Hampshire State Sanctioned & Jackson Invitational Snow Sculpting Competition! While Rodin carved in stone, in Jackson, hundreds of winter artists will be using snow to create their masterpieces. The outdoor art festival and competition begins at noon on Friday January 30th and runs through Sunday February 1st, 2009 in Jackson Village Park, Jackson Village, New Hampshire. This event attracts a wide variety of sculptors, both amateur and professional who are dedicated to putting a wow factor on piles of frozen snow! This event is sanctioned by the Association International de Sculpture sur Neige et Glace and WinterFun, Inc., which is the only sanctioning organi...

. . Six Dive Wreck Shorts from the January issue of Diver Magazine cutline: the liveaboard diveboat the Spree watches as the Texas Clipper is scuttled off Padre Island to create an artifical reef and a new dive site. By Stephen Weir Deeper is not always better in Florida Dive chat boards around the world have been deep in discussion lately talking/typing about how a scuttled aircraft carrier has moved deeper into the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently this summer’s Hurricane Gustav not only battered the Gulf’s north coast, it actually shifted the Oriskany, the world’s largest artificial reef. In May 2006 when the aircraft carrier was towed out into the Gulf near Pensacola, Florida, and sunk, the flight deck of the Oriskany was 135 ft (45 m) below the surface. After Hurricane Gustav rumbled through the area, the sunken ship slipped 10 ft (3.3 m) deeper into the Gulf. While it is not unusual for sunken ships to shift and settle on the bottom of the ocean, what has attracted the attention of...

. A DAY AT AN AUSTRALIAN BEACH HARD HAT ARTIST DRY DIVES THE TITANIC (an article written for www.divermag.com ... but to date has not been posted. sigh). Rob Jan is an Australian artist, journalist, radio host and photographer who posts offbeat popular pictures on Flickr. A set of strange hard hat diver pictures he has posted on the Internet photo sharing web service has begun to attractthe attention of divers from all around the world! Zero G (Jan’s nomme de plume) has been fascinated with hard hat dive suits long before he decided to stage a sea side photo shoot with members of the Australian chapter of the International Costumers Associations in 2006. Two and half years ago, Jan posted the pictures he and his friends took on Flickr and since then divers have been raving about and freely downloading the pictures. “It's amazing how popular that whole photo set has become,” Rob Jan told Diver Magazine. “If I'd known that real divers would be looking at it someday I recko...

. STEALTH UNDERWATER ROBOT HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT Cutline: McGill University graduate student Olivia Chiu and York University’s Jim Zacher hold AQUA at the Adventure Show held in Mississauga earlier this year. AQUA, a new experimental underwater robot, can walk on the ocean floor, noiselessly swim amongst school fish unnoticed, and quietly crawl out the of the water and walk onto the beach when its mission is over. So stealthful is this 6-limbed robot that it almost went unnoticed when it made its Mississauga, Ontario debut at the February Adventure Show. Built over a period of four years, AQUA is described as “an amphibious walking and swimming robot”. However, for visitors to the Adventure Show, AQUA looked like a safety deposit box with three flippers sticking out of each side. “ This is the second generation of AQUA” said Jim Zacher, a York University graduate student. “ IT is the result of an on-going research study involving McGill, York University and Dalhousie universitie...

St. Maarten’s 12 metre Challenge. It’s the 1987 America’s Cup over and over again… Tired old racehorses are put out to pasture. Over-the-hill greyhounds become family pets. And retired 12-metre racing yachts? For five veterans of the extended 1987 America’s Cup campaign, the Golden Years are spent forever rerunning that famous series of races in the warm waters off St Maartens in the Caribbean Sea. Now that America’s Cup has switched to the International America's Cup Class size, the 12-metre has begun to fall out of favour with competitive racers. Although not dead yet (there still a few key 12-metre races being held) in terms of the Big Show, the once mighty 12-metre class seems destined for marine museum collections. But wait, in St Maartens, Canadian businessman Colin Percy has rescued five of the greatest 12 metre yachts ever sailed and brought them to the Dutch/French island of St Maarten. Three to four times a day visitors can now participate in a mini-America's Cup r...

Sidebar: And try the Aussie challenge! Cutline: size chart. 12-metre boat vs car Can’t get enough of the 12-metre Challenge experience? The next time you are in Australia visit the Melbourne 12-metre Challenge experience. The Aussie 12 Metre Challenge provides a day of America's Cup Style Racing on board the prestigious "Kookaburra" and "Kiwi” and caters for groups from 10 to 120 people. The Kookaburra I (KA II) is a high profile 12 Metre Yacht, known for its participation in the 1987 America's Cup Defense in Perth. Kookaburra defeated the Bond Group's Australia IV to defend the Cup for Australia. She also appeared as the feature yacht in the movie "Wind". The Kiwi (New Zealand - KZ3) also campaigned in the 1987 America's Cup. It was nicknamed the "Plastic Fantastic" for being the first fiberglass boat ever built. Kiwi was sold to the Japanese Syndicate and called "Nippon", before being brought back to Australia in 1998....

Underwater encounters off St. Maartens The sharks’ bad table manners leave bloody bits of half-eaten mackerel in spectators’ hair By Stephen Weir Underwater, a mile off shore from the island of St. Maartens, surrounded by a pack of hungry 10 foot sharks I learned an important life lesson. Always look an incoming shark in the eye and stare ‘em down … and if that shark’s nictitating membrane suddenly drops over the eye you are glaring at, put your hands under your armpits and pray! “Show fear?” said shark trainer Estanda Koblasa. “You can’t even think fear. They will know and they will be on you like a pack of dogs chasing a mailman.” Three afternoons a week Estanda is the centre of attention at an underwater sushi party for sharks. While the Czech diver dishes out hunks of raw meat to the sleek gray fish a dozen paying customers sit on the ocean floor and watch this high voltage dinner. “There are shark feeds in a couple of other Caribbean islands, ” said Estanda. “Here in St. Maarten...

cutline - food falling out of shark's mouth at St Maarten's underwater feeding. Photo by Stephen Weir 5 things to avoid doing during a shark dive and their consequences if you do 1. Don’t pet the sharks. They may nip at your hand thinking you are another shark trying to steal their food. Because of the sharp nature of those teeth, even a small nip requires immediate medical attention. If still have to stroke a shark, wear gloves, their skin is sandpaper rough. 2. Don’t pick up discarded meat and hand feed the sharks yourself. Sharks rip, they don’t chew. When the meat is grabbed the shark will immediately shake its head back and forth with enough force to dislocate you shoulder (if you don’t let go). 3. Don’t point! These sharks aren’t interested in you, but, if you offer finger food …. If you aren’t holding a camera, and hanging on to a cement block the experts advise you to put your hands under your armpits. 4. Don’t use an external power source for your underwater flash. S...

cutine: artist's drawing of an Aura condo suite College Park condo set to top Eaton’s vision Stephen Weir, for Metro Canada 13 November 2008 01:31 (The subway newspaper Metro - owned in part by the Star - picked up my College Park story from the Star, edited and added a couple of sidebars that they found on this website.) The article had two pictures. College Park is on the upswing of a roller-coaster ride of boom, bust and boom all over again. A revitalized Eaton’s College Park building, with its iconic, five-star Carlu Hall, has reignited an economic fascination for one of downtown Toronto’s most prestigious and historic blocks, bounded by College, Gerrard, Bay and Yonge streets. Canderel Stoneridge is poised to begin construction of Aura, a 75-storey condominium tower just south of College Park at the corner of Yonge and Gerrard. The residential skyscraper will cover the last street level parking lot along Yonge Street downtown. It will create a vertical community of close to...