SEASPACE started back in 1969, when the Houston Underwater Club (HUC) President Hal Reuter rented the Houston Music Hall and the Club put on an Underwater Film Festival. The two feature films shown were Silent World and World Without Sun, by Jacques Cousteau. At the time, there was virtually nothing about the underwater world on public television. The Music Hall was packed!
The next year the film festival moved to Jones Hall. This allowed much more room to display dive-related equipment, as well as a gallery of striking underwater photography.
As the years went by more activities and events were added, and the name SEASPACE was first used in 1972. For several years, the film festival was held in Jones Hall, and the rest of SEASPACE took place elsewhere.
In 1981, everything was brought under one roof - the Shamrock Hilton Hotel. As a result, we had more space for exhibitors and more room for seminar presentations. Since seating for the film festival was smaller, a matinee performance was added. At the time, the Shamrock's super huge swimming pool (they water skied in the pool on St. Patrick's Day!) was ideal for equipment demonstrations, and the local dive shops offered a free Introduction to Scuba for people who weren't sure they wanted to spend money on a diving course, but wanted to give it a try.
SEASPACE was held yearly through 1977, and then every second year until 1985, when it went back to being an annual event. At the same time it had become a considerable drain on HUC man/womanpower. However, the Club membership was growing significantly during the same period, and the members realized what a positive effect SEASPACE had on both the diving and non-diving community alike.
The Shamrock closed in April 1986 but re-opened especially for the SEASPACE weekend in early June, then closed for good as everything that was not nailed down was sold starting two days later. SEASPACE then moved to the downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel in 1987, and remained there through 2000. Starting with SEASPACE 2001 our new home is the Reliant Arena.
SEASPACE was incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, separate from HUC, and began operations in 1990, although there are still very strong ties between the two, and SEASPACE will always be HUC's "baby." The SEASPACE logo was specially designed by resident Houston artist and scuba diver, Robert L. Straight, in 1981.
These SEASPACE Web Pages were originated by Ken Aitken, a long time SEASPACE Volunteer. Ken Aitken passed away on April 19, 2001. His intelligence, creativity, talent and humor will be sorely missed.
More than 250 volunteers from the Houston Underwater Club and other local dive clubs worked to put on the last SEASPACE show. Many of these people have been with SEASPACE for years, and at least one person has been very active since the original 1969 show! We are forever grateful to their contributions and efforts. Thank you.
SEASPACE, Inc. Houston, TX
SEASPACE, Inc. is a 501(c)3 corporation
| Last updated on 6/6/2010, by |  |
