The Atlantic City Scuba Show Main Stage, over 6-7 June, is absolutely bursting with world-class talent – underwater photographer and videographer Becky Kagan Schott, cave explorer Patrick Widmann, Hollywood stunt performer Liz Parkinson, freediving guru and tech diver Kirk Krack, and NASA-trained NEEMO Aquanaut and DEEP scientist Dawn Kernagis.
Liz Parkinson
Freediving guru and PADI IDC Staff Instructor Liz Parkinson is rapidly becoming the go-to person for Hollywood and TV companies when it comes to teaching talent to scuba dive or freedive, or when they need a stunt performer who can excel whether they are on a set of scuba gear or diving breath-hold.
Over the past several years, Liz has been involved with leading water-themed films, including James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, Marvel’s Wakanda Forever, Netflix’s mini-series Thai Cave Rescue, and Blumhouse thriller Night Swim, among others.
Her work has allowed her to also work on a variety of different production mediums, including television and documentaries. This work allows her to travel the world, working with actors, explorers, conservationists and fellow stunt performers.
Patrick Widmann
Austrian Patrick Widmann is one of the world’s most-experienced underwater explorers, having been involved in countless expeditions around the world.
Patrick has devoted his life to the diving profession since the age of 19. His technical diving journey began in the beautiful waters of Egypt in 2003 and evolved into cave diving in 2005 in the stunning underwater cave systems of Mexico, where he has resided since 2007.
Over the past two decades, Patrick has had the privilege of diving and exploring caves in 17 countries around the globe. Since 2014, he has led annual expeditions to Madagascar, where his team has made remarkable discoveries within remote underwater cave systems.
In 2024, Patrick participated in the Bottom Line Project, an expedition to the mines of northern Thailand. During this remarkable venture, he and his teammate Mikko Paasi achieved the deepest mine dive in Asia. Returning in 2025, Patrick surpassed this achievement, discovering a new 354ft level. This record-breaking dive resulted in a 90-minute bottom time below 229ft and a total dive time approaching ten hours.
Becky Kagan Schott
Becky Kagan Schott is an esteemed underwater cinematographer and photographer, earning five Emmy Awards for her exceptional work played across major networks. With a career spanning exploration documentaries for National Geographic, Red Bull, and Smithsonian, she excels in capturing stunning visuals in challenging underwater environments, including submerged caves, beneath ice, wildlife, and deep shipwrecks.
Becky is co-owner of Liquid Productions, Inc, and her projects have taken her all over the world from the Arctic to Antarctic documenting polar wildlife to scientific endeavours. She’s captured images of penguins to polar bears, leopard seals, walrus and dozens of species of sharks. She’s explored virgin shipwrecks in over 90m of water in Japan and the Great Lakes, repelled into caves in Mexico and organized one of the first expeditions to scuba dive inside glaciers in Alaska for Seiko Watches.
Becky’s biggest passion is shooting haunting images of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, where she combines her artistic style with powerful stories of tragedy, mystery, and survival to ignite the viewers imagination which has captivated viewers worldwide.
She’s constantly pushing the limits of technology, using mixed gases and rebreathers for almost two decades. Becky creates awe-inspiring lighting techniques that breathe life into shipwrecks from the famous Gunilda to World War Two wrecks in Bikini Atoll, Chuuk Lagoon, and beyond. She believes each ship has a powerful story to tell and by developing compelling shots connects us to history. Her dedication to meticulously planned and executed projects, leading experienced teams in deep, dark, and cold depths, sets her apart as a pioneer in her field.
Kirk Krack
Due to unforeseen circumstances, TV Wreck Detective John Chatterton has had to pull out of the Main Stage at the Atlantic City Scuba Show, but freediving guru and tech diver Kirk Krack – fresh from his well-received stints at this past weekend’s Long Beach Scuba Show – has stepped into the breach.
In his presentation, Kirk shares how nearly four decades in the water have shaped his approach to human performance and multi‑disciplined diving. Beginning in the late-1980s and progressing into mixed‑gas technical dives to 550ft in the Cayman Islands in the early 1990s, Kirk learned how physiology, psychology, training, and environment must align for divers to safely push limits.
He then applied those lessons to freediving, founding Performance Freediving International and coaching athletes to 23 world records while building the first comprehensive freediving instructional system.
Kirk’s work evolved into Technical Freediving, survival and special operations breath‑hold programs for military units, and human performance consulting with elite teams, corporations, and athletes.
Along the way, he helped bring ambitious underwater film projects to life, including The Cove, Racing Extinction, and working for James Cameron on the Avatar sequels: The Way of Water and Fire and Ash, by preparing actors and crews to perform safely under demanding conditions.
Dawn Kernagis
Dr Dawn Kernagis, NASA-trained NEEMO Aquanaut and Director of Scientific Research at DEEP, will present an overview of past, current, and future efforts in support of human subsea habitation.
Dr Kernagis completed her PHD at Duke University, where she studied the genetics of decompression sickness and mechanisms of oxygen toxicity in divers.
Kernagis has assisted with numerous DoD and NASA-funded projects focused on extreme environmental physiology, and she was also a diver and manager of numerous underwater exploration, research, and conservation projects around the world from 1993-2007, including the deep underwater exploration of Wakulla Springs and surrounding caves for over a decade.
In 2016, Dawn was selected as one of six crew members to live and conduct research while living underwater with NASA’s undersea mission, NEEMO 21. Based on her extensive exploration, mentorship, and experience in diving and in the extreme environment research community, she was selected as an inductee into the Women Divers Hall of Fame (Class of 2016) and as a Fellow National of The Explorers Club, and in 2026, she was leading the first Vanguard habitat mission for DEEP off the Florida Keys.
In 2018, she received the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society’s Young Scientist Award.
Atlantic City Scuba Show
The Atlantic City Scuba Show, this year sponsored by www.scuba.com, is launching its inaugural event in 2026 (6-7 June). A sister show to the long-established Long Beach Scuba Show, it represents the first shows under the banner of new owners Rork Media Limited, which also runs the GO Diving Shows in the UK and Australia, and publishes the global-multi-edition Scuba Diver magazine, as well as being behind the Scuba Diver Magazine YouTube Channel, and long-established website Divernet.
At this new East Coast event, Rork Media plan to retain everything that made the Scuba Show such a staple on the West Coast diving circuit, and enhance it with new and improved elements, including a Main Stage with a huge video wall right in the exhibition hall itself, a new layout designed to stimulate exploration around the hundreds of booths, and additional interactive attractions including a VR dive on a deep-water shipwreck in the Baltic Sea, the Marine Careers Experience, where you can pilot an actual ROV through an obstacle course, get a selfie with a difference in our Shark Cage, try scuba, sidemount and CCR in the pool, break out the dive props at the Photo Booth, and much more.
As well as the Main Stage in the exhibition hall, there is also an Inspiration Stage host to some truly exceptional speakers.
Whether you’re an experienced diver, a new enthusiast, or just curious about the underwater world, the Scuba Show brings together everything you love about diving under one roof.
Greg Holt from Scuba Radio will be entertaining the crowds on mornings before and as the show opens, offering plenty of fun and games, and the chance to win some amazing prizes.
Explore hundreds of exhibitors showcasing the latest scuba gear, dive destinations, underwater photography equipment, training programs, and ocean conservation initiatives, and connect with dive professionals, travel operators, and fellow divers from across the country.
You can even sell your old scuba kit at the Scuba Show to free up some of your hard-earned cash to go and buy shiny new gear, book that next vacation, or sign up for your next training course. Eastern Sports will be on-hand at the show to give you a cash offer on your used scuba gear so you can then go spend that cash at other vendors. You don’t even need to haul all your kit with you – they also offer a free shipping program for customers to send their gear, so chat to the team on the show floor.
There is also the opportunity to expand your skillset. The PSI-PCI Visual Cylinder Inspection course is open to everyone who wishes to inspect high-pressure breathing gas cylinders, or just know about the process. These specialty courses support the inspection process with formal function specific training on valve maintenance and repair, and Oxygen Cylinder Cleaning. Inspectors who are at the three-year renewal mark and want to attend the PSI-PCI Update course will be able to take care of it at the Scuba Show as well.
PSI-PCI offers the only training that is formally endorsed, utilized, and referred to by the cylinder manufacturers. The training has been created with the input of industry professionals and experts in each field to provide you with the best training available to meet the Federal requirements for the associated processes. You can join the team of PSI-PCI Professionals at the Scuba Show. Don’t wait, seats will fill up quickly! Click here for more information and to book a slot.
The Scuba Show offers two full days of ocean adventure, hand’s-on experiences, and exclusive show specials, and is where the US dive community comes together to celebrate the underwater world.
Get your tickets now!
Tickets are on sale now for the Scuba Show, and new for 2026, there is a change to the cost of entry – there is now one ticket price, which gets every attendee full access to the Exhibition Hall, and all of the presentations.
With many of the speakers on the dedicated Inspiration stage either only presenting on one of the days, or giving two different talks, plus with the headline acts on the Main Stage, and the plethora of booths, interactive elements and much more, there is plenty to keep you occupied on both days, so why not make a weekend of it?
Tickets are available now – click here – priced at $33 for a day ticket, and $60 for a weekend pass. There is also the option of a VIP Pass, which includes a weekend pass plus 6 issues of Scuba Diver magazine and 6 issues of California Diving News (Magazine delivery US & Canada residents only), and a Scuba Show Dive Team T-shirt, for $100.
Under 16s go free – bring the family and let the kids dive into the fun as well.
Join us for two incredible days, 6-7 June 2026, celebrating the world of diving at the Atlantic City Convention Center!
