In 2012, Wexford Sub Aqua Club lost Vincent O’ Brien to a tragic dive accident.  Vinnie as he was affectionately known, loved photography and videography and this competition is designed to remember him through the two mediums he loved the most

 We welcome all participants, to this memorial competition. 

We hope that you all enter some pictures or video into the event, whether they are above, or below water. 

 You never know what will impress the judges!! 

Wexford Sub Aqua Club.

“Philosophy”
It’s a fun competition and what few rules we have are there to make the organisation easier. We intend to spread the prizes, so no one person will “sweep the board”. We much prefer seeing several happy divers’ faces than one diver with an ear to ear grin. 

Below are the few rules and most importantly, the prizes.

If you’re not snapping and pressing the record button by now, you better start.

Irish Underwater Council – sponsoring trophies for all the major categories, including Portfolio, Wide Angle, Macro & Youth.  The Irish Underwater Council will also sponsor some t-shirts as runner up prizes. www.diving.ie

Anchor Diver Lights – thanks to Declan Burke who has kindly offered to sponsor three voucher prizes of €100, €75 and €50 for their retail outlet. Have a look at their website to get an idea of all the lighting and camera accessories you can buy there www.anchordivelights.com

O’Three Drysuits – thanks to Kieshia Summers and all the O’Three staff for sponsoring five “bundles of goodies”.  Each bundle contains a 25 Litre dry bag, T/Flex Gloves, Beanie hat, 600ml of Jollop, O’Three Stickers.  Each bundle is valued at €70. http://www.othree.co.uk

Waterworld Servicing – Ronnie Fitzgibbon has again come onboard with two servicing voucher.  One will be valued at €100 and the second at €50 and are a great way to get your gear serviced. www.waterworld.ie

Cameras Underwater – Joss Handy has offered a voucher to the value of £100stg to be spent in their shop, or online store. Cameras Underwater has been a leading supplier of underwater camera housings, lenses, lighting, and associated components since 1991, so you will find loads of items at all different prices on their website. www.camerasunderwater.co.uk

Safari Divers – Wendy and  Steve have been coming to the dive show for many years.  Now they will welcome you to the beautiful waters of Lanzarote where you can have a six dive pack with tank and weights.  Value €150.   Their dive centre is right on the beach of Puerto del Carmen.  Safari Divers can also offer accommodation.  The winner of this prize can chat to them at the dive show in March.  www.safaridiving.com

Aquaholics – Richard in Aquaholics, in Portstewart, Northern Ireland has kindly offered days diving gift certificate for two people…..so bring your favourite buddy and enjoy a day out. wwww.aquaholics.co.uk

Scuba Mallorca – are based in the northern part of the beautiful island of Majorca. Tom and the crew have offered a voucher for one certified boat trip experience, for two people which includes 2 dives per person. It will be inclusive of equipment and included hotel pick up if the customer will be staying in our pick up locations. http://scubamallorca.com/

Easy Dive – Thanks to Marco Salino who has secured a €100 voucher from Italian dive housing manufacturer Easy Dive. Have a look at their website for more details: www.easydive.it

Martins Jewellers – Owners, Brian and Kevin Martin were great friends of Vinnie. They will offer a nice piece of hand crafted jewellery made in their shop, in Wexford, as a prize..

Oceanaddicts – Ann and Graham have been sponsoring the Vincent O’Brien competition for many years and we are delighted that they will help out again this year.  They have offered a €50 voucher off diving with them from their liveaboard based in Kinsale, Co Cork.  www.oceanaddicts.ie

Alex Mustard – Alex was at the dive show a few years ago and left us a couple of signed books to use as prizes.  The final book on offer is called 20/20 Vision and is a showcase of wildlife photography. www.amustard.com

Categories

Remember that final allocation of prizes will depend on the number of people who enter the categories.    All images/video to be from 2017

 Beginners categories

• Portfolio of 3 wide angle and 3 macro images – Winner & Runner up prizes
• Wide angle image – Winner & Runner up prizes
• Macro image – Winner & Runner up prizes
• Foreign water image- Winner & Runner up prizes

Experienced categories

• Wide angle image – Winner & Runner up prizes
• Macro image – Winner & Runner up prizes
• Foreign water image- Winner & Runner up prizes

Open categories

• Junior image – Winner & Runner up prizes
• Snorkel image – Winner & Runner up prizes
• Split Shot image- Winner & Runner up prizes

Video categories

Winning video

• Runner up video
• Winning Foreign video

Rules:

• Entrants must be from the Irish underwater diving community
• The final allocation of prizes will be based on the number of entries into the various categories
• All entrants to abide by the “philosophy” of the competition and to ensure they meet the various category criteria
• All entrants to respect the marine environment when taking pictures
• 3 macro and 3 wide angle pictures must be submitted into the Beginners portfolio to be eligible
• 2 images / video can be submitted into each other category
• Beginners can enter the experienced category if they wish, but not vise-versa
• Snorkellers may enter all categories
• Images and videos must have been taken during 2017
• Image editing is allowed, but nothing should be added to the image
• Images submitted to the 2017 BIUPC, Cleancoast competition, SDW photo rally, CFT dive rallies, or our rolling exhibition can also be entered here, but remember if they have already placed in other “prestigious” competitions, they will be excluded
• Image and video must be renamed with a Title, Category and your name
• Address, Location of shot, Date, Camera model must be included in the email
• Images must be saved as JPEG of 1-2mb
• Do not include your copyright name in the image (this ensures anonymous judging)
• Video entries must be less than 4 minutes
• JPEG entries must be sent by email to ivandonoghue@gmail.com.
• Videos can be sent via Dropbox, or Google Drive, etc
• Participants agree for their picture to be used on social media, Subsea, etc
• Closing date for entries is Jan 12^th 2018
• Any entrant failing to follow the rules will be disqualified
• The organisers reserve the right to alter the rules if it benefits the fair running of the competition