The Press Release. Aghh! Sometimes light humour can help
Every PR campaign needs a press release. Writers spend days writing only a few hundred words. PR managers spend an equal amount of time rewriting these tomes of commerce. Days are spent crafting the ulitimate quote. Clients agonize over every last comma. Large profitable companies like Canada News Wire Group and PR Newswire Group have armies of young journalism grads working around the clock to email, text, post, fax and mail that release to working journalist around the world.
Yet for all that sweat and bother, the media rarely read a release. At best the headline of the release will be looked at ... for a nano second. Aside from Saturdays and Sundays, thousands of press releases are issued every hour in North America. There are just too many releases arriving at a news outlet computer for a reporter or editor to actually read. As a result, most press releases never end up being used by anyone!
One of the ways a press release can catch the attention of a jaded reporter's eye is by using gentle humour. Below is a release recently written for the state of New Hampshire. It uses rhyme to bring attention to events and places that normally would not make it into print.
For Immediate Release
March 26, 2008
On the first day of Christmas, New Hampshire gave to me
A Chop and Shop Weekend and a big free holiday fir tree
The Granite State gears up for holiday season with pizzazz and price conscious events
Toronto – Toronto – New Hampshire has so much on the go this winter that it would take more than just 12-days of Christmas to experience the best that the Granite State has to offer. And the State has it all –- which makes it really hard to pick just a dozen unique things that tourists can enjoy before December 25th. Consulting the Official 2008 In-State Visitors Handbook and using a dash of poetic licence, visitors should consider the following:
On the first day of Christmas, New Hampshire gave to me, a Chop and Shop Weekend and a free holiday fir tree! The Gale River Motel and Cottages in Franconia provide two nights accommodation, dinner for two at the Sugar Hill Inn, a 22-inch Balsam Fir Wreath and an 8 ft tall Christmas tree. The special is $290 US and the hotelier will help load the tree onto the roof of your car! www.galerivermotel.com/aspecials.html
On the second day of Christmas, New Hampshire gave to me, amazing holiday shopping that is always tax-free. This is the best time to get one’s Christmas shopping done sans tax in the outlet stores of Settlers' Green Outlet Village and North Conway Village. For just $198 the Cranmore Mountain Lodge in North Conway has an affordable Shop Till You Drop package for visiting couples. Package includes a bag of samples and coupons and a standard room for two nights. www.cranmoremountainlodge.com
On the third day of Christmas, New Hampshire gave to me, an antique hunter’s map and a bottle of wine for thee. In December The Glynn House Inn in Ashland has an Antique Get Away For Two. Guests receive a delicious picnic lunch for two, including a bottle of wine, plus a special folder containing information about the best antique shops and auctions. www.glynnhouse.com
On the fourth day of Christmas, New Hampshire gave to me, ten-minutes of quality time up on Santa’s knee. The North Colony Motel & Cottages in Bartlett offers a Santa’s Village two-night package (starting at $212) for families which includes 2-nights lodging for 2 adults and 2 children and 4 Santa's Village tickets. www.northcolonymotel.com
On the fifth day of Christmas, New Hampshire gave to me, turkey dinner and a huge Bingo win under B Three! Join the Lake Winnipesaukee Historical Society at the Funspot Bingo Hall every Tuesday in December . Doors open at 4:00 pm. The charity Bingo is catered by Hart's Turkey Farm Restaurant. Weirs Beach www.LakeWinnipesaukeeMuseum.org
On the sixth day of Christmas, New Hampshire gave to me, a mountain hike to photograph a moose behind a tree! Grab your camera and come see the views and maybe a moose, December 20th and 21st. Outdoor Escapes New Hampshire holds its popular 2-day Guided Nature Backpacking Tour, in the Great North Woods. The price for 2 days of guided hiking with a nature/history focus and 1 -night remote camping is $200 per person. www.outdoorescapesnewhampshire.com
On the seventh day of Christmas New Hampshire gave to sis, a hayride in the snow you don’t want to miss! This December 13 th tourists are invited to the Farm Museum in Milton to celebrate Christmas on the Farm. Take a sleigh or hayride, make a gingerbread man and tour the beautifully decorated farmhouse. www.farmmuseum.org
On the eighth day of Christmas, New Hampshire gave to you, a walk in the park with the state’s solstice crew! The Margret and H.A.Rey Observatory in Waterville holds a very popular walk every winter solstice. The free annual winter solstice hike to the Solstice Stone on Dickey Mountain will be held on Saturday December 20th. www.visitwatervillevalley.com
On the ninth day of Christmas New Hampshire gave to me, snowshoeing followed by eggnog for free! From December 19 to 29 children and adults of all ages will find winter merriment at Mount Washington Resort. Enjoy a festive celebration of sleigh rides, snowshoeing, skiing, stories with Santa and holiday refreshments. Snuggle in front of the fire before being tucked in by one of Santa's elves. Christmas Day invites a full day of skiing and outdoor adventure! www.mountwashingtonresort.com
On the tenth day of Christmas, New Hampshire gave to dad, a guided snowmobile ride that is really really rad. Alpine Adventures have guided snowmobile tours through the White Mountain’s Franconia Notch during the holiday season. www.alpinesnowmobiling.com/
On the eleventh day of Christmas New Hampshire gave to us, a magic light show worthy of a fuss. After a day on the slopes head to the White Mountain Holiday Magic Light Park in Campton where you can ride through a mile of animated light displays with thousands of enchanting lights. Take a family portrait with Santa, snuggle up on a free wagon ride, build a free craft with the kids, and sip hot cocoa by the bonfire. www.holidaymagiclightpark.com
On the twelfth day of Christmas New Hampshire gave to families, an invitation to ski on New Year’s Eve above the trees. Ring in 2009 at Cranmore Mountain’s Crantastic New Year's Party. Ski until midnight, and enjoy tubing, music, fireworks, party favours and more. www.cranmore.com
The 2008 Visitor’s Guide Book is supported by a sophisticated, user-friendly website (www.visitnh.gov ) which has comprehensive sections geared specifically to the Travel Trade. The site is updated daily and has the latest information on holiday season event listing throughout the state.
To find out more about New Hampshire or to receive the new free visitor’s guide, call 1-800-FUN-IN-NH (386-4664) or visit www.visitnh.gov. Canadian travel trade and media may call 1-888-423-3995, or email visitnh@travelmarketingexperts.com.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
A Calvacade of New. Giving 2-bite brownies for dogs 20 seconds of fame.
cutline: John Scott on the set of Canada AM, showing new food products coming to a store near you this winter.
Three days of PR work (and some midnight veggie shopping) for a brief but fruitful food segment on the Canada AM news show
The media consumes New. New movies. New faces. New problems. New leaders. New messiahs. New ideas on old themes. New New New. And that was just last week's headlines.
Public Relations practitioners who represent clients that have New, will find a welcome reception from usually frosty television show bookers when pitching new. A broadcast favourite is a 5 minute segment that puts the spotlight on a procession of new products - be it clothing, cars, tools, gadgets or new foods. The biggest challenge for PR people is not finding a TV show interested in New, but, deciding which show to offer the Cavalcade of New to.
One of the best places to showcase freshly minted products is on CTV's nationally broadcast morning news/talk show Canada AM. Although its numbers have dropped, it is one of the few Toronto created shows that has a daily cross-Canada English audience. A show and tell with purveyors of New is a welcome break from stories of fires, murders and scandals.
Every so often I help Crane Communications (an Oakville PR firm) with the pitching and servicing of Cavalcade of New segments for Toronto television shows. Owner Linda Crane has a well respected expertise in placing new products on TV, be it on Canada AM or CITY TV's Breakfast TV, Global Television's morning show, Rogers Daytime and now and then the Weather Network. Crane has showcased everything from new boat products (bikini clad models with its bitsy life jackets), to home show cleaning products. Last month I assisted her with the Grocery Innovations Canada trade exhibition and the PR campaign which included bringing shopping carts filled with NEW food products onto Canada AM. Viewers got a chance to see new products that will be making their way onto store shelves this fall and coming winter.
Grocery Innovations Canada, is the country’s largest grocery trade show and conference. Staged for the owners of independently owned food stores, the conference was held on Sunday, October 26 and Monday, October 27 at Toronto Congress Centre.
John F.T. Scott, president, Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (pictured above on the set of Canada AM), was our presenter on a Thursday morning Canada AM broadcast. Along with host Seamus O'Regan, the pair managed to look over 50 new things that you will soon see in independent food stores. The show-and-tell ran the gambit from 2-bite brownies for dogs (people can eat them too), to squeeze bagged Ketchup sweetened with honey instead of sugar. Seamus O'Regan sampled new cream cheese spreads on new glutton-free crackers. He took a pass on peanut butter made with soya and only sniffed at 100% peanut free chocolate chip cookies but seemed to be fascinated by new East Indian sauces made in Saskatoon.
The whole process, like the medium itself, is fast, furious and not particularly in depth. Unless viewers have a pen and pencil beside their TV sets, it is unlikely that consumers will actually be able to remember the names of the products they saw flash across their screens. Despite the lack of specific brand recognition, the broadcasted food segment did reap rewards for the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers -- the producers of the trade-only exhibition where the new products were debuted to food store owners.
Scott's performance graphically showed consumers that small independent food stores continue to be an important part of the country's economy. A 2008 Kraft Canada/Canadian Grocer sponsored study reports that independent grocers (including franchises) comprise 40.2 % of Canada’s $76 billion grocery industry.
The independent stores continue to be strong even though their competition is huge -- think WalMart, Price Club, Metro, Soebys and the Loblaws Superstores. The Canada AM segment not so subtlety showed that the corner store is the place to shop to find cutting edge new products.
The under current messages? Independents are concerned about the health of its customers. Many of the product labels shown on TV that morning included the word organic in their names. Some of the new products answer the dietary concerns of a changing population. There were many new ethnic foods launched and the segment also showed that the independents have a desire to go with the 100-mile diet concept ... selling food that is processed within 100 miles of where their ingredients are grown.
5-minutes of television on the run doesn't come easy. Three people spent two 8-hour-days collecting product samples from producers and another 8-hr day to get even more samples (after it was determined that the line-up was a little light). Scripts and back-grounders had to be written, and one run through with John Scott was held via phone conference. Scott had to know everything about every project displayed on TV in anticipation of an out-of-left-field question from a sometimes wacky Seamus.
I personally scoured the market for ornamental gourds, dried Indian corn and orange squashes to decorate our show-and-tell TV set table. I bought veggies at midnight (to be fresh under the lights at 7-am the next morning) and drove an SUV filled with product to Canada AM's east-end Toronto studio at the crack of dawn. Two of us spent an hour dressing the table with the products prior to John Scott going on air.
After the show ended the producers of Canada AM came on set and congratulated the Grocery people for a job well done. We were asked to come back next year ... provided we had something Newer than this year's New to talk about.
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
How Not To Get Radio Coverage Of Your Event
Cutlines: Dave Trafford outside Studio 1010 interviewing Minister Fonseca and pannist Joy Lapp at the Scotiabank Caribana City Hall launch 2008.
Cutlines: The crowd at the Scotiabank Caribana launch
Cutlines: The crowd at the Scotiabank Caribana launch
This Blog is nominally about how public relation people like me can help clients get that extra 5 minutes of fame. As this item will show, the Blog is also about what NOT to do when dealing with the media.
Getting publicity is not usually a difficult task. The "secret" is to really understand the event/persons/thing that is to be promoted and determine what aspects of the project will have some interest to the media. Media outlets do not all have the same interests in stories; so, a publicist has to match up the news worthiness of a project with the appropriate outlet.
Timely informing the proper media contacts by email and phone calls, coupled with an informative data package, does wonders for getting coverage. Reporters and Assignment Editors get to know publicists and usually will listen to their pitches ... and positively respond to their calls.
There is also a growing trend that publicists help create partnerships between media outlets and events/persons/things.
Media partnerships come in many different forms, but, typically it means free advertisements, story coverage ("good" coverage is not guaranteed by any means) and access to the people that matter are given in return for the media's name, logo and, sometimes their "stars" given top billing by the event/persons/thing that you are promoting. Often times the media outlets are given exclusive access over their competition.
For their part, publicists have to support the responding media by getting what they need, on time, and in a form that they need. That could mean a succinctly written, honest press clip, or, an interviewee that can perform well on camera, or a good voice on radio. In short, they must make good for their client in supporting the media partnership.
The annual Scotiabank Caribana festival depends on media partnerships. Television networks, radio stations and newspapers have paid monies to attach their name to a Festival that attracts over a million participants every summer. It delivers an audience that mainstream media has had difficulty in reaching.
For years CFRB has been a media partner with Caribana. It has given the parade cash donations, free advertising and live broadcast coverage of the parade. That relationship crashed and burned this year, and, as the publicist of record, it was my fault.
CFRB is a Toronto talk station and at first blush would seem to be an odd station to supporting a Caribbean Canadian event. It tends, at least in the high rating weekday mornings drive, to lean heavily to the right. Its prime time hosts are almost exclusively white and male. The one black host has a short Sunday shift when the ratings are very low. Both the CRTC and the broadcast standards association have received complaints from minorities -- blacks, Jewish listeners and even overweight Canadians -- about so called unfair comments made on air.
Despite that all, CFRB has been a strong voice for Caribana. It even went live – with our help – for four hours from the 2007 parade.
This summer things did not go well. This is what happened.
After getting verbal agreement from CFRB to be our sponsor. I arranged to have their broadcast truck - studio 1010 – to have exclusive radio access onto the City Hall property for the Scotiabank Caribana launch in early summer (not a mean feat, City Hall doesn't want heavy trucks on the patio).
CFRB promised to go live at noon and asked that Joe Halstead, the CEO of Scotiabank Caribana, come over to their booth for an interview at 12.02. We agreed.
The Square was bedlam. TV crews, reporters, and over 5,000 spectators crowded onto a space meant for 2,000. Loud Soca music boomed over the speakers and politicians jostled to get onto stage.
At noon Halstead was standing 50 feet from the CFRB truck. I sent him over for his interview. On his way, a Global TV crew grabbed him and started interviewing him live. I went over to extract him. By the time I got him to the CFRB booth to be interviewed by News Director Dave Trafford, the spot was lost. (Picture taken of Global broadcast wrap-up seconds after Joe left for CFRB http://www.stephenweir.com/gallery1/main.php?g2_itemId=474)
Personal apologizes to the news director and later the station's PR person, fell on deaf ears. CFRB did not formalize the partnership agreement and much of the support that was given in previous years did not occur (but their news team did cover events and there were in studio appearances by Caribana people including Joe Halstead). A 40-some relationship appears to be over.
What follows are 3 emails sent during the summer. The first is from me, to, a producer who had called to see if we were going to have our regular Thursday Caribana update on the CFRB noon package.
Stephen Weir: (The Launch Broadcast) didn't go well at 12.01. Dave (Trafford, news director) is pretty pissed. Sent Joe (Halstead) over for his inte'rview at CFRB and Global grabbed him. By the time their just "one minute" was up the (CFRB) interview was lost. Tried to apologize to Dave afterwards but ... Tourism Minister and musician (we brought on for the second interview) was great radio.
Thanks. Let me know about Thursday, ain't holding my breath on David chilling out
Dave Trafford saw that email and responded. This is the email a publicist never wants to get!
Stephen,
You certainly got the right read yesterday.
I wouldn't be so annoyed if this were something new. We deal with all the major festivals and their organizers and dealing with you is the most trying. Whether it's slack response or no-show guests, doing LIVE remote broadcasts from Caribana events present unnecessary stresses. I don't expect things to run perfectly, but I do expect that you don't just abandon us when things fall apart at your end. That's what happened yesterday.
Pointing Joe in our direction is not good enough. You should have delivered him as promised, made Halstead keep his commitment with us.12 noon is 12 noon...not 12:08 when I'm in the middle of another segment. Apologies and excuses are meaningless to our audience. The opening of our show didn't deliver as promised. It was an "on location" Caribana special...with nothing "on location" from Caribana! You made us sound weak.
We committed a full hour of LIVE programming to the event, based on your commitments, and you blew us off WITH NO NOTICE so the TV guys could get a 20 second quote from Joe. If our coverage of Caribana is not a priority for you, I'm happy to accommodate. I'm not interested in wasting time, resources and programming.
Dave Trafford
News Director
Newstalk 1010 CFRB
Astral Media Radio GP
2 St. Clair Ave. West
Toronto, ON, M4V 1L6
dave.trafford@cfrb.com
I responded a week later by email. My associate Alicia Sealey (a broadcaster who had been our voice on Radio Noon the year before) made several calls to Mr. Trafford. Neither of us got a response but, that is par for course when you are a publicist.
Dave:
Got your email. Wanted to wait a week before responding -- time has a way of putting things in perspective.
First off, your email is right on. If I had it all to do again I would have taken Joe by the arm and dragged him to 'RB. I went through hoops with city hall to get the mobile truck on the plaza, and it was personally disappointing to loose the opportunity to have our CEO talk to your audience (and your numbers are way better than Global at Noon). Our CEO only had to walk 50 feet without me to make the interview. I can't believe he didn't make it. Joe Halstead is mortified; I sent him a copy of the CFRB letter. He did try to apologize, but you had left by the time he got off stage.
I have worked with CFRB on a variety of live broadcasts over the years, from the boat show to the gourmet food and wine show, to the home show and others that I have long since forgotten. So to say all those remotes went without a hitch would not be an accurate statement. But, because of the very nature of Caribana (run by a variety of committees and thousands of volunteers), our shortcomings are much more spectacular than the failings of events that are run by private industry. Sorry that this is the way it ends between CFRB and Caribana. Historically our festival and the station have had a strong relationship even though one would immediately identify your audience as being interested in Caribana.
In the early days Gary (Slaight - the former owner of the station) would write a personal cheque to Caribana's Caribbean Cultural Committee. The first time I met him was in 1999 when I came by the building to pick up one of those cheques. FLOW, which at one time Standard owned 25% of, donated monies as well to the parade and now, I believe gives support to individual mas bands in our parade.
The Festival Management Committee (representatives from the city, the province, the mas bands, the Calypsonians and the pan artistes and the CCC) is aware of your concerns and the end of your sponsorship. I have tried to remove the CFRB logo from our list of proud sponsors, but I am afraid it is too late. All of our print material deadlines have long since passed.
The City Hall launch fiasco does have a certain amount of irony for me. The last time Caribana worked with CFRB was at the parade launch in 2007. Your station was to go live for four hours from the route.
In preparation for the day I took parking passes, maps and press kits over to your host's Riverside home and briefed her on getting into the grounds. I drove her son around for part of an afternoon in preparation for his being on the line during the parade and reporting back to his mother. I had my staff seek out suitable interviewees (including Joe Halstead), and scheduled them to come on air during the parade.
The day of the parade I met your truck at Yonge and Eglinton and drove with them into the grounds to make sure they got on location without problems. We moved them around a couple of times until they got the spot they wanted within the confines of the judging area.
One of my staff members, Alicia Sealey, was to help on-air by describing the floats marching by to your host. Like me she has worked in radio and is comfortable behind the mike, but, up until that day didn't know how 'RB physically put a show together (what buttons to push, what spots to throw to etc)
Just before CFRB was to go on air, Alicia, our first guest and myself came over to your truck. Nancy (the PR director) meet us as we came across the parade route. She gave us the news. No host! Your host was lost/stuck in traffic. And, there was no one back at the studio that could take over ... So, Alicia put on the headphones and filled in. With Taggart's (sp?) help she did very very well.
Your host didn't have a cell phone with her, but, I was able to put out a call to our 300-security force and we did locate the missing announcer and bring her to the trailer. I can't remember how long Alicia was in the chair, but she says it felt like 24 hours.
Anyway, as you can see, with 'RB and Caribana, it isn't always the guest that misses their time check.
I hope you have a good summer. I have copied Nancy on this email. The Festival Management Committee understands why CFRB will not be covering the festival and again I do apologize again for not being able to remove your logos from our many banners and printed materials.
Stephen Weir
ps - not one for e-mails, but when I did try to apologize in person, but as you know you were not having anything of that.
Monday, 14 July 2008
Death - the ultimate media magnet
This is a website about getting that extra 5 minutes of fame, beyond the quarter hour that Andy Warhol promised us all. However, because of my involvement in the sport of diving and because I have posted a few thoughts on scuba diving dive fatalities, I continue to get letters from people looking for information about recent scuba accidents. Sadly I have to post another item about a diving death.
A diver has died in Tobermory, Ontario. I think that this is the first dive fatality of the year here in the province of Ontario. The Ontario Underwater Council will probably post information about the accident on their website. I did a quick search for media reports on the incident. There isn't much available and what I have seen so far has little information (which wreck he was diving on, name of the boat he was diving off and the club he was diving with (if indeed he was diving with a group).
I haven't dove in Tobermory for a few years. It is a long 5-hour drive from Toronto and when you are a single diver it is hard to get passage on a summer weekend dive boat. Clubs and shops book the boats months in advance. The town, located in a National Park at the tip of the Bruce Penn. is where Lake Huron splits off into Georgian Bay. The weather can be harsh in Tobermory (hence all the shipwrecks) and it is not unusual for dive boats to cut back on their trips because of high seas.
Still the dive community continue to visit Tobermory every summer. A number of hotels, B&Bs and campgrounds have sprung up to service the dive community. There is hyperbaric chamber in the town and a well qualified medical staff is in place. Dive fatalities are rare but do occur - probably one every two or three years. The waters are usual crystal clear and the shipwrecks (husbanded by the National Park) are worth seeing. What makes the diving difficult is the extreme cold of the water. Even in July a depth of 30 feet, the water temperature can be in the low 50s. The deeper you get the colder it gets.
Originally the only information that I had came from newspaper and radio reports, which, I now find are much different that what the Ontario Underwater Council has posted on its accident site. What follows is an excerpt from the Ontario Underwater Council followed by two samples of media clippings collected a day afer the accident.
Excerpt from 2008 Report on Scuba Diving Related Incidents in Ontario
http://www.underwatercouncil.com/dow...ts_in_2008.pdf
Date of Incident: 2008-07-13
Summary: 53 year old Craig Whitehouse, of Niagara on the Lake, died while diving in Tobermory this past weekend. Craig was apparently a very experienced technical diver who was highly regarded in his group.
Apparently Craig was diving solo, on technical equipment (a rebreather).
The dive was planned to depths of 200 feet or more.
Craig surfaced at some distance from the boat. The boat was unable to move to expedite the rescue due to other divers doing deco/safety stops on the anchor line.
Craig received CPR but was pronounced dead a short time later. The coroner has reported the cause of death as massive air embolism.
The coroner is still investigating the equipment and will make other information available as appropriate.
Details to be confirmed as more information becomes available.
OUC Recommendations:
• Insufficient information to be able to make any recommendations at this time.
• Once more facts are known, OUC would appreciate representatives from Ontario’s
growing Technical Diving community contacting us to help ensure any recommendations drafted are relevant and applicable.
The following brief news story was broadcast on an Owen Sound, Onatario radio station dated July 14, 2008.
Diving death in Tobermory
Written by Manny Paiva
A 53 year old man is dead while diving at Tobermory.
Bruce Peninsula OPP were called to the diving destination in Northern Bruce Peninsula around 10:40 Sunday morning.
Police say the diver -- who was operating off a dive boat -- surfaced in medical distress.
CPR was administered but the man was pronounced dead a short time later.
The man has been identified as Craig Whitehouse of Niagara on the Lake.
The Canadian Coast Guard and Parks Canada personnel were called to assist.
A post mortem will be done today at the Owen Sound hospital to determine the exact cause of death.
A similiar, very brief, oddly written report appeared in the July 15th edition of the Owen Sound newspaper.
Experienced Diver Dies In Tobermory;
Posted By THE SUN TIMES
A 53-year-old diver who surfaced in the waters around Tobermory in a state of medical distress died Saturday despite attempts to save him.
Police say Craig Whitehouse of Niagara- on-the-Lake was an experienced diver and was part of a large group of people who chartered a dive boat on the weekend.
At the time of the incident, Whitehouse was diving alone, away from the main group, which was working with a dive master. The boat was anchored in 35 feet of water.
"He was off on his own, away from the group that was getting instruction from the dive master," said Staff Sgt. Brad Fishleigh of the Bruce Peninsula OPP.
"He was very experienced and they weren't in very much water at the time."
The cause of death is under investigation by the police, coast guard and Fathom Five National Marine Park officials. The man received CPR but was pronounced dead a short time later.
This Obituary was posted earlier this week
Obituary for Craig Ian Whitehouse
WHITEHOUSE, Craig Ian - Resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake, age 53, died tragically on Sunday, July 13, 2008 at Tobermory, Ontario. Mr. Whitehouse was born in Hamilton, Ontario on September 25, 1954, the son of Freda and Len Whitehouse. He married Deborah Ginter on May 17, 1980. Mr. Whitehouse was a member of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, NOTL, a graduate of General Motors Institute and Harvard University. He was a manager at General Motors, St. Catharines for 33 years. He was active in motor sports, sailing and scuba diving. Surviving are his wife Deborah Whitehouse, of NOTL, sister Zena Elizabeth and her husband Jim Barkey, of Stoney Creek, sister-in-law Judith Anne and Steven Wieneke, of White Lake, Michigan, and Little Brother, Chris Doucette. He will be missed by all of his friends and family. Cremation has taken place. Visitation will be held at the NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE- CHAPEL of the MORGAN FUNERAL HOMES, 415 Regent Street on Thursday evening from 7-9 p.m. A Memorial Service will be held at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, NOTL, with the Rev. Gordon Ford officiating on Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock. Interment will follow in the church cemetery. Donations may be made in lieu of flowers to Big Brothers Big Sisters Niagara and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Online guest register at www.morganfuneral.com. 11167002
Deb has said to Matt that she would love to see the church filled to capacity with divers. Diving was one of Craigs many passions.
and finally from the St Catharine's Standard:
Scuba diver was group's 'unofficial' leader
Wife fondly remembers her soulmate, who died diving at Tobermory
Debbie Whitehouse called him her soulmate.
She also referred to her husband, Craig, as Mr. Wizard because he was someone who friends and family say could do anything.
"If the world really was flat, Craig, my soulmate and the love of my life, would have been working on a means to turn it perpendicular to the universe so he could live on the edge," she said in her husband's eulogy Thursday.
Craig Whitehouse died Sunday while scuba diving at Dufferin's Wall in Tobermory, a popular spot that boasts deep water and the remains of many shipwrecks.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake resident was 53.
Matthew Mandziuk, who taught Whitehouse to dive five years ago, said details surrounding his death aren't known. The experienced diver's equipment is being tested and police are investigating.
But Thursday evening as friends and family gathered at the Little Red Rooster restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake, most of the dozens who came together were remembering and celebrating Whitehouse's life rather than ruminating about what went wrong.
Mandziuk was with Whitehouse when he died. He and fellow divers Terry and Christine Davidson, who were also in Tobermory with them, said he was always there for them, every Wednesday night, when the club from Dan's Dive Shop met for their weekly immersions into the region's rivers, quarries, lakes or the Brock pool.
He was the group's "unofficial" dive leader, Christine Davidson said. Unofficial because Whitehouse refused to take credit or be the centre of attention, even when he deserved it, friends said.
At those dive nights, he would be anyone's dive buddy and especially their mentor.
"We referred to him as Mother Craig," said diving friend Brian Buchanan. "He was the dad. We were the kids."
Christine Davidson often introduced him to new divers as "our everything."
"I'll never introduce anyone else like that again," she said.
He was also the club's MacGyver, Terry Davidson said.
Any time someone needed something or had a conundrum, Whitehouse was there with a pen and paper, drawing up the plans for a solution.
Whitehouse was more than a diver, however.
He was a longtime General Motors employee, spending much of his 33 years with the company in supervisory roles. He was an avid motorcyclist, sailor, car buff, a Big Brother to Chris Doucette, handyman, welder, mechanic, metal worker -- a renaissance man who was more inclined to make a bolt in his basement than go to the hardware store to buy one, brother-in-law Steve Wieneke said.
"There was very little he did not do," said Nick Trach, who worked with Whitehouse at General Motors' Glendale plant.
He was also a great conversationalist. That's why John Kernahan, who works with Debbie Whitehouse at the Niagara Parks Commission, always sought him out at parks commission events.
"He knew everything," Kernahan said. "The guy was really a wizard, a genius, so you never had a boring discussion. He's going to be really missed, I'll tell you that."
The Whitehouses, both highly regarded in their professions, were also perfectly matched, he said.
"The two of them, the energy they had, it was like walking into a high-energy force field," Kernahan said. "You almost felt a buzz about them. They were great together, and I can't imagine them apart."
The couple met about 30 years ago when Debbie and childhood friend Susan McDonald attended a frat party at the General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich., where Craig, who also graduated from Harvard University, was studying.
Three years ago, the couple renewed their wedding vows for their 25th anniversary.
"In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, until death do us part," Debbie Whitehouse said in her eulogy. "I just did not expect this last bit to happen so soon after our renewal of vows ..."
Craig Whitehouse is also survived by a sister, Zena.
A diver has died in Tobermory, Ontario. I think that this is the first dive fatality of the year here in the province of Ontario. The Ontario Underwater Council will probably post information about the accident on their website. I did a quick search for media reports on the incident. There isn't much available and what I have seen so far has little information (which wreck he was diving on, name of the boat he was diving off and the club he was diving with (if indeed he was diving with a group).
I haven't dove in Tobermory for a few years. It is a long 5-hour drive from Toronto and when you are a single diver it is hard to get passage on a summer weekend dive boat. Clubs and shops book the boats months in advance. The town, located in a National Park at the tip of the Bruce Penn. is where Lake Huron splits off into Georgian Bay. The weather can be harsh in Tobermory (hence all the shipwrecks) and it is not unusual for dive boats to cut back on their trips because of high seas.
Still the dive community continue to visit Tobermory every summer. A number of hotels, B&Bs and campgrounds have sprung up to service the dive community. There is hyperbaric chamber in the town and a well qualified medical staff is in place. Dive fatalities are rare but do occur - probably one every two or three years. The waters are usual crystal clear and the shipwrecks (husbanded by the National Park) are worth seeing. What makes the diving difficult is the extreme cold of the water. Even in July a depth of 30 feet, the water temperature can be in the low 50s. The deeper you get the colder it gets.
Originally the only information that I had came from newspaper and radio reports, which, I now find are much different that what the Ontario Underwater Council has posted on its accident site. What follows is an excerpt from the Ontario Underwater Council followed by two samples of media clippings collected a day afer the accident.
Excerpt from 2008 Report on Scuba Diving Related Incidents in Ontario
http://www.underwatercouncil.com/dow...ts_in_2008.pdf
Date of Incident: 2008-07-13
Summary: 53 year old Craig Whitehouse, of Niagara on the Lake, died while diving in Tobermory this past weekend. Craig was apparently a very experienced technical diver who was highly regarded in his group.
Apparently Craig was diving solo, on technical equipment (a rebreather).
The dive was planned to depths of 200 feet or more.
Craig surfaced at some distance from the boat. The boat was unable to move to expedite the rescue due to other divers doing deco/safety stops on the anchor line.
Craig received CPR but was pronounced dead a short time later. The coroner has reported the cause of death as massive air embolism.
The coroner is still investigating the equipment and will make other information available as appropriate.
Details to be confirmed as more information becomes available.
OUC Recommendations:
• Insufficient information to be able to make any recommendations at this time.
• Once more facts are known, OUC would appreciate representatives from Ontario’s
growing Technical Diving community contacting us to help ensure any recommendations drafted are relevant and applicable.
The following brief news story was broadcast on an Owen Sound, Onatario radio station dated July 14, 2008.
Diving death in Tobermory
Written by Manny Paiva
A 53 year old man is dead while diving at Tobermory.
Bruce Peninsula OPP were called to the diving destination in Northern Bruce Peninsula around 10:40 Sunday morning.
Police say the diver -- who was operating off a dive boat -- surfaced in medical distress.
CPR was administered but the man was pronounced dead a short time later.
The man has been identified as Craig Whitehouse of Niagara on the Lake.
The Canadian Coast Guard and Parks Canada personnel were called to assist.
A post mortem will be done today at the Owen Sound hospital to determine the exact cause of death.
A similiar, very brief, oddly written report appeared in the July 15th edition of the Owen Sound newspaper.
Experienced Diver Dies In Tobermory;
Posted By THE SUN TIMES
A 53-year-old diver who surfaced in the waters around Tobermory in a state of medical distress died Saturday despite attempts to save him.
Police say Craig Whitehouse of Niagara- on-the-Lake was an experienced diver and was part of a large group of people who chartered a dive boat on the weekend.
At the time of the incident, Whitehouse was diving alone, away from the main group, which was working with a dive master. The boat was anchored in 35 feet of water.
"He was off on his own, away from the group that was getting instruction from the dive master," said Staff Sgt. Brad Fishleigh of the Bruce Peninsula OPP.
"He was very experienced and they weren't in very much water at the time."
The cause of death is under investigation by the police, coast guard and Fathom Five National Marine Park officials. The man received CPR but was pronounced dead a short time later.
This Obituary was posted earlier this week
Obituary for Craig Ian Whitehouse
WHITEHOUSE, Craig Ian - Resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake, age 53, died tragically on Sunday, July 13, 2008 at Tobermory, Ontario. Mr. Whitehouse was born in Hamilton, Ontario on September 25, 1954, the son of Freda and Len Whitehouse. He married Deborah Ginter on May 17, 1980. Mr. Whitehouse was a member of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, NOTL, a graduate of General Motors Institute and Harvard University. He was a manager at General Motors, St. Catharines for 33 years. He was active in motor sports, sailing and scuba diving. Surviving are his wife Deborah Whitehouse, of NOTL, sister Zena Elizabeth and her husband Jim Barkey, of Stoney Creek, sister-in-law Judith Anne and Steven Wieneke, of White Lake, Michigan, and Little Brother, Chris Doucette. He will be missed by all of his friends and family. Cremation has taken place. Visitation will be held at the NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE- CHAPEL of the MORGAN FUNERAL HOMES, 415 Regent Street on Thursday evening from 7-9 p.m. A Memorial Service will be held at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, NOTL, with the Rev. Gordon Ford officiating on Friday afternoon at 2 o'clock. Interment will follow in the church cemetery. Donations may be made in lieu of flowers to Big Brothers Big Sisters Niagara and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Online guest register at www.morganfuneral.com. 11167002
Deb has said to Matt that she would love to see the church filled to capacity with divers. Diving was one of Craigs many passions.
and finally from the St Catharine's Standard:
Scuba diver was group's 'unofficial' leader
Wife fondly remembers her soulmate, who died diving at Tobermory
Debbie Whitehouse called him her soulmate.
She also referred to her husband, Craig, as Mr. Wizard because he was someone who friends and family say could do anything.
"If the world really was flat, Craig, my soulmate and the love of my life, would have been working on a means to turn it perpendicular to the universe so he could live on the edge," she said in her husband's eulogy Thursday.
Craig Whitehouse died Sunday while scuba diving at Dufferin's Wall in Tobermory, a popular spot that boasts deep water and the remains of many shipwrecks.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake resident was 53.
Matthew Mandziuk, who taught Whitehouse to dive five years ago, said details surrounding his death aren't known. The experienced diver's equipment is being tested and police are investigating.
But Thursday evening as friends and family gathered at the Little Red Rooster restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake, most of the dozens who came together were remembering and celebrating Whitehouse's life rather than ruminating about what went wrong.
Mandziuk was with Whitehouse when he died. He and fellow divers Terry and Christine Davidson, who were also in Tobermory with them, said he was always there for them, every Wednesday night, when the club from Dan's Dive Shop met for their weekly immersions into the region's rivers, quarries, lakes or the Brock pool.
He was the group's "unofficial" dive leader, Christine Davidson said. Unofficial because Whitehouse refused to take credit or be the centre of attention, even when he deserved it, friends said.
At those dive nights, he would be anyone's dive buddy and especially their mentor.
"We referred to him as Mother Craig," said diving friend Brian Buchanan. "He was the dad. We were the kids."
Christine Davidson often introduced him to new divers as "our everything."
"I'll never introduce anyone else like that again," she said.
He was also the club's MacGyver, Terry Davidson said.
Any time someone needed something or had a conundrum, Whitehouse was there with a pen and paper, drawing up the plans for a solution.
Whitehouse was more than a diver, however.
He was a longtime General Motors employee, spending much of his 33 years with the company in supervisory roles. He was an avid motorcyclist, sailor, car buff, a Big Brother to Chris Doucette, handyman, welder, mechanic, metal worker -- a renaissance man who was more inclined to make a bolt in his basement than go to the hardware store to buy one, brother-in-law Steve Wieneke said.
"There was very little he did not do," said Nick Trach, who worked with Whitehouse at General Motors' Glendale plant.
He was also a great conversationalist. That's why John Kernahan, who works with Debbie Whitehouse at the Niagara Parks Commission, always sought him out at parks commission events.
"He knew everything," Kernahan said. "The guy was really a wizard, a genius, so you never had a boring discussion. He's going to be really missed, I'll tell you that."
The Whitehouses, both highly regarded in their professions, were also perfectly matched, he said.
"The two of them, the energy they had, it was like walking into a high-energy force field," Kernahan said. "You almost felt a buzz about them. They were great together, and I can't imagine them apart."
The couple met about 30 years ago when Debbie and childhood friend Susan McDonald attended a frat party at the General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich., where Craig, who also graduated from Harvard University, was studying.
Three years ago, the couple renewed their wedding vows for their 25th anniversary.
"In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, until death do us part," Debbie Whitehouse said in her eulogy. "I just did not expect this last bit to happen so soon after our renewal of vows ..."
Craig Whitehouse is also survived by a sister, Zena.
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Book Publicity - from hiring publicist to self-publishing bad books
The demise of the PR/Marketing budgets of Canadian publishers has lead to a growth industry for publicists like me. Authors who spend years on a single title are prepared to hire independent publicists to assist in the promotion of their work. Typically book publishing houses have a small, experienced PR staff that have a finite amount of time and funds to promote each author in their stable. The bigger the author, the more time and the more money spent promoting the product. For new authors, or for writers producing work that has a limited audience, the PR support the publisher gives is limited.
Small firms giving personal attention to the promotion of just one title often gets more results that what a publishing house can get. Publishers know their limits and are willing to work with outside agents. However, there can be a BIG drawback. Often times the royalty money that an author can expect to get selling his/her book in Canada is less than what a publicist ... even bare boned operations like mine ... can expect to collect. It doesn't seem right to spend three or four years on a book and have a publicist take home more money than the author that is being promoted!
Some authors don't mind. They see the advancement of their titles as more important that the money they spend on PR. By pimping up the profile of a book, an author is likely to see more opportunities come his/her way, be it a TV or movie deal or simply by paving a wy to make the next writing project more lucrative and in less need of publicity. All writers pine for an appearance on Oprah, most authors have to settle for 2 minutes on Rogers Television (Canadian public access channel) thanks to the help of a publicist.
No advances, meagre royalty payments, limited PR support and predatory pricing by giant bookstore chains paint a grim picture for new authors. It isn't surprising that writers are turning away from publishing houses and self-publishing their own books figuring that what sales are lost by not having the support of a publisher are made up by getting a larger percentage of the sales revenue, controlling the marketing and PR for the title and reducing the printing costs by working with a print on demand company. Most of these books are available only on the web. I have been approached by a number of authors who want help in promoting their self-published books. I haven't had much success since the media tend to ignore books that are available only on the web ... they want authors and titles that are available in most bookstores across the country.
There are a few success stories for self-published authors. Steve Alten and I have corresponded a few times over the past decade. The author of Meg - a sci-fi story about the return of history's largest and meanest species of shark - originally was unable to find a publisher for his thriller. By using the web to presell his book to divers and horror story lovers, Alten was able to not only able to get his book onto the printing press with a huge (profitable) number of orders from people who had never read the book, the buzz on the Internet allowed him to sell the movie rights to Hollywood sight unseen.
Alten is a bit like Amway. He rewards customers who find more customers for him. He has a full-line of "stuff" to go with his growing list of book titles including gold and silver Meg tooth pendants (cast from a fossilized tooth), t-shirts and of course, coffee cups. His newsletters are so successful he could make a fortune renting out his mailing list. And, because he is promoting his own material, he doesn't have to retire a title when it gets too old, or to make room for another author's work!
The Alten method of book publishing (/www.stevealten.com/) is more of a lifestyle model than it is a sound business plan. The author lives and breathes self promotion. I don't really know the man, but, I suspect he spends more time selling his product than he actually spends at honing his craft.
Not everyone can be a Steve Alten. He writes well for his genre and he understands his market - Jaws in the 21st century. And then there is Calvin Keys, who's book cover graces this blog entry.
Keys like a growing number of niche authors, has self-published his first book. Turtles Lead to Treasure, is a thin, soft-covered picture-filled book that claims it knows how to find hidden Spanish treasure in the United States. Keys uses photographs of rocks to back-up his belief that in the 15th and 16th centuries Spanish adventurers buried huge amounts of treasure in North America and marked the location of those gold and silver troves by subtlety carving the shapes of animals and reptiles into huge boulders nearby. Of course the Spanish realised that if the carvings were too overt anyone wandering through the wilds of the deep South with a shovel and eye for outdoor art, would quickly become a millionaire. So instead, the treasurer hiders sought out rocks that were shaped like animals and were near where they were going to hide their booty, and modified those rocks to sorta-look like lion heads and dog. The Spanairds crafted secret symbols that people can't see if they aren't in the know (and buying this book puts you in the know -- although one reviewer spells that NO).
The book isn't well written (no budget for proofreaders and editors with this vanity press offering), has more typos than a Stephen Weir blog post (seriously) and has no creditable documentation to back up claims of discovering sign posts for buried doubloons. The only review I saw of the book said that the black and white photos of rocks and boulders had been photo-shopped to look like dogs and lions. For my part I couldn't see any of the animal shapes he was pointing out, except when he outlined the shapes. The pictures are badly taken and the print job is so cheap, it is difficult to tell what is a rock and what is a tree in some of the pictures. I did do an extensive search on Mr. Keys and could find no indication that he has ever found any Spanish treasure of his own .... maybe his symbolic rocks are more markers for where treasure has been and not where it is now.
I was interested in the book because I often write book reviews about diving titles. This book was being viral marketed through a number of dive chat lines I monitor. Most blood and bubble books talk about either sharks or treasure, so I decided to ask the author for a review copy. Since I didn't pay for the book I wasn't upset that in fact there was no reference in the book to diving and all the symbols and carvings he writes about are in some unnamed southern US forests. A check with the dive chat lines indicate that I was the only person to buy into the claim that the book would be of interest to treasure hunting divers (it wasn't).
So what has Keys gained by publishing a book that few will read? He does have the sastifaction of seeing his work in print. He has control of what happens to his work and he has established himself as an authority in dog shaped treasure rocks. Although I have no inside information on the sales figure for the book, I would suspect that Calvin Keys is going to have to find his own treasure trove to pay for his book
But, compare that to the author who works for a decade to put out REAL book with an established publisher and gets no reviews, no sales and no profit, and only gets to see his work in the remainder bins of a Barnes and Noble or Indigo superstore. Who is further ahead?
Thursday, 5 June 2008
Getting Media Coverage by Setting a World's Record in ... just about anything
While my work assignments as a publicist are always changing, the one constant thing remains ... clients who want media recognition for themselves, their employees, their products or their own personal accomplishments.
For clients wanting publicity for events that are frankly not newsworthy (even though they are raising money for a good cause, they aren't necessarily of interest to the news department or the society columnists). To overcome the lack of media starch, clients often want celebrities to attend and help promote their cause. Can't find a movie star, a TV performer, a rock muscian, an author or famous artist? Well, the next best way to draw cameras and pens is to set a world's record.
Setting obscure records to garner media attention is something I have already written about on this blog. However, this past month I have found myself writing, yet again, about world's records. I recently wrote two press releases about events in the city of Ottawa. This summer the city's famous Rideau Canal will be holding a festival to mark the fact that it has been designated a Unesco World Site. As part of the celebration the organizers are staging the world's biggest bike ride and are asking bike riders from all of Canada to come to the capital and help set a Guinness World Record. What does a giant bike ride have to do with a 19th century fresh water canal? Nothing. But, cue the bike built for two?
A few days after writing that press release I wrote a press release about a number of hockey related events that will be happening in Ottawa this year. It all starts this month with the staging of the NHL Entry Draft at the Ottawa Senator's arena in Kanata (a suburb of Ottawa). Other Ottawa hockey events in Ottawa this year? Don't miss the Atom League Hockey Tournament. It is the world's largest hockey team with over 1,000 players taking part.
Other world records? While in Cuba attending a tourism conference staged in a 17th century Havana fort, I wandered into one of the fort's barracks and came upon an elderly Cuban man making the world's largest cigar. Even though there is a bit of connection between Cuban cigars and tourism, the actual record attempt was being done solely to attract media attention to Cuba. And, it worked. Even though the US has made Cuba off-limits to most Americans, the world's biggest cigar did attract cameras from CNN and AP. The new world's record garnered media coverage around the world.
Like every other media person with a camera, I did take time out from my meetings to take pictures of the record setting cigar. It was so long, the Cubans had to build a tent outside both ends of the barracks, to accommodate the stoogie.
While event managers embrace world records, sometimes the people achieving these weird milestones, can feel less than proud of themselves. For example, pictured above are five obviously embarassed American teenagers. This PR photo arrived in my inbox a couple of months ago from the makers of the"Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008." The teenagers set a bunch of Guinness World Records for scores they achied on the video game: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
Below is a Reuter's story on the World's Biggest Cigar. As well, I have posted some of the underwater records set in 2008 I have written about for Diver Magazine's website. (They haven't printed them yet but ...)
Friday, 16 May 2008
Even communist Cuba has the set-a-world-record fever. Communist country knows how to use World Record to gain media traction in the Free World
World's Biggest Cigar, story released by Reuters
With music, dancing and rum, Cubans celebrated on Friday the likely return of a record they consider rightfully theirs -- the world's longest cigar.
At just over 148 feet 9 inches, the thick stogie stretched like a long brown snake through a room and out its front and back windows at El Morro, the old Spanish fort overlooking Havana Bay.
British diplomat Chris Stimpson made the official measurement, which he said would be sent to the Guinness World Records in London for confirmation.
"The best in the world, no?" said the cigar's smiling, ash-stained roller, Jose Castelar Cairo, better known as Cueto.
His six-day-long project, completed with several assistants, eclipsed the previous record of 135 feet (41 meters), held by Patricio Pena of Puerto Rico.
Breaking the record was a point of pride for Cubans, whose cigars are considered among the world's best.
At just over 148 feet 9 inches, the thick stogie stretched like a long brown snake through a room and out its front and back windows at El Morro, the old Spanish fort overlooking Havana Bay.
British diplomat Chris Stimpson made the official measurement, which he said would be sent to the Guinness World Records in London for confirmation.
"The best in the world, no?" said the cigar's smiling, ash-stained roller, Jose Castelar Cairo, better known as Cueto.
His six-day-long project, completed with several assistants, eclipsed the previous record of 135 feet (41 meters), held by Patricio Pena of Puerto Rico.
Breaking the record was a point of pride for Cubans, whose cigars are considered among the world's best.
More World's Underwater Records
… no matter how silly
Recording the records for readers]
As spring rolls into the Northern Hemisphere, divers likewise will be rolling into the water to set yet more underwater records, accomplish first-ever events and invent new things to do under the surface of the water.
Recent underwater firsts noted by divermag.com include:
ß Divermag.com has written about the sport of underwater ironing in past postings. It is fun sport invented for people who just leave their housework at home. Here is how it works, a diver takes an ironing board, an iron and a wrinkled article of clothing and goes underwater as deep as possible and irons. World records have been set for the deepest recorded ironing and the largest number of ironers underwater at one time.
Last month in Australia 72 scuba divers have underwater-ironed their way into the Guinness World Record. According to the Geelong Advertiser, the divers belonged to a local club and wanted to establish a new record for the largest mass-ironing underwater. They beat the old record of 70, set by the same club a number of years ago.
ß Mark it down. Spring 2008 is when divers began to find out about the world’s newest underwater sport. Due to popular demand, the Swiss Underwater Sports Union began in late March to teach men and women how to play the brand new full contact game of Underwater Rugby. Playing on the bottom of a swimming pool, two teams of six, compete to see who can put a 6-kilo ball (filled with salt water) through the opposing squad’s basket. Players wear only bathing suits, flippers and goggles. Apparently underwater rugby was first developed in Germany as a training exercise for new divers. Now it is the new hit sport on the European continent this spring.
ß A UK based swimmer plans to train all spring in preparation for her May 11th attempt to break her own British record for distance swum underwater without breathing. Liv Phillips broke the underwater swimming record last August having swum 104 metres -- four lengths of an indoor pool -- without breathing.
The 32-year old will also attempt to break the National Static Record, where she is required to hold her breath underwater for as long as possible. She already holds Britain’s National Static Record after holding her breath for five minutes 32 seconds, which she did underwater in Slovenia last year.
You have read about underwater records, now watch them!
If web counters are to be believed, there is growing worldwide interest in stories about dubious and quirky underwater records. You Tube has many videos posted “showing” people as they set new records – the problem is trying to find these videos (many of them aren’t in English) in You Tube’s massive, and growing inventory of postings. There is a new website that has taken the search out of locating You Tube underwater record setting videos.
The Scuba Channel posts underwater videos made for the most part by European divers. As well, Scuba Channel has linked with You Tube to show underwater video’s posted on that popular site. The Scuba channel [http://www.video.scubadata.com] has a growing list of underwater record videos including:
ß Nordic Night Dives on camera. A group of Nordic divers set what they call a new world record in simultaneous night diving. A total of 1,859 divers in six Nordic countries all went underwater at the same time at a total of 138 sites. The Nordic Night Dive of 2007 took place December 6, 2007 and involved divers in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Organizers said they would have had more people in the water if rough sea conditions in the Faroe Islands hadn’t force participants to abort their group night dive. The Nordic Night Divers are going to try and break their own record this December 4, 2008 and invite divers from around the world to join in.
ß According to a video posted on the site, Nuno Gomes – the diver not the soccer player - is the current (2008) deepest dive world record holder. He set a mark of 318.35 metres in 2005 and that dive is documented on the video.
ß There is a You Tube posting that shows snippets of a diver setting the record for the longest time spent under the water in the open ocean (24-hours and three minutes). This record was set on 20 July 2005 by Will Goodman off the coast of Gili Trawangan, Lombok Indonesia.
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