Legends of Diving Weekend

Legendary Sea Hunt Star Headlines Historic Dive Weekend

One of her several photos on the cover of Sports Illustrated, Zale Parry is credited with appearing on the cover for the first SI swimsuit edition, She will appear with others in the second annual Legends Festival August 10-12.

Bowling Green (OH) – Zale Parry, arguably the most famous female scuba diver in the world today, will headline the weekend of activities this summer at a popular northwest Ohio recreational dive site celebrating its second annual Legends of Diving series. Portage Quarry released its 2007 dates and headliner for the August 10-12 festival of dive legends. Owner Jeff Rice said he expects many of the same activities will return that made the 2006 August Legends Festival successful. Dive legends Sam Lecocq, Dr. Sam Miller, and Alec Peirce have also announced their return. In the inaugural event divers registered from 17 states and

set a state record for most divers in one location for a single event. Portage Quarry has registered with the Guinness book of World Records for an attempt to break the world record in most divers at one location.

In addition, prizes totaling over $10,000 will be given away to divers who participate in the activities on Saturday. The grand prize is a dive trip for two to Belize. Saturday evening concludes with a classic 3D showing, Creature from the Black Lagoon, shown on a large screen with viewing on the swim beach. Events will run Friday through Sunday.

Known for her appearances on Sea Hunt, Parry was a pioneer skin diver in the 1940s and an early underwater equipment tester for Scientific Underwater Research Enterprises in 1953. Parry also helped run the first civilian hyperbaric chamber for divers in California. In 1954, she set a woman's depth record to 209 feet and became the third female instructor to graduate from the L.A. County UICC program. That same year, Parry made her screen debut in Kingdom of the Sea, a Jack Douglas Production, which was shown in 70 countries and had a successful run of several years. Parry's knowledge of skin and scuba diving, as well as her astounding beauty in Kingdom of the Sea, made the producers of Sea Hunt cast her immediately without so much as a single screen test.

In the first Legends Festival last year, inventor Sam Lecocq, historians Sam Miller and Alec Peirce of Scuba 2000 presented their unique first-hand accounts on the history of sports diving. Another annual event started in 2006, the Mid-Ohio Divers sponsored its first club fundraiser for the HSA International (Handicap Scuba Association). The fundraiser also returns September 8 and 9. The annual concert BlowOut July 7 has a country western music theme with five acts booked. The season of events continue July 21 and 22 with the annual barbeque to benefit the Divers Alert Network (DAN). The Advanced Aquatics weekend is slated for July 28, followed the week after August 4 with the annual SledgeFest concert series.

ABOUT PORTAGE QUARRY: Located just one mile south of Bowling Green in Northwest Ohio, the Portage Quarry Recreation Club is a complete recreation facility that caters to the Scuba diver enthusiast. The Scuba diver will experience some of the best recreational diving in Ohio with clear water visibility, wreck diving, and plenty of fish. The Scuba dive shop includes tank rentals, nitrox fills, equipment, and PADI instruction. There are three professional beach volleyball courts along with recreational swimming from a sand beach. In the summer the Portage Quarry Recreation Club is home to two music traditions, a music Blowout the first weekend of July and the annual SledgeFest. Also on the schedule is a Divers Alert Network (DAN) Barbeque and the Advanced Aquatics Steak Roast. Trademarks are the rights of the perspective companies.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Contact Jeff Rice at (419) 352-9203 quarryman@portagequarry.com for high resolution photos or interviews with any of the legends announced in this release.

2006 Legends Weekend
August 11-13, 2006