Start with this: All you can eat oysters.

Now this: Help restore one of the most significant artifacts in the history of underwater exploration, which just so happens to reside in Panama City Beach.

Do I have your attention?

What I'm talking about can only be the Man in the Sea Museum's 2016 Oyster Bash, the proceeds of which will help restore the SEALAB 1, the underwater laboratory which enabled man to first live and work for long periods of time on the sea floor. To put that in perspective: In the entire history of man, prior to the SEALAB 1, it was impossible to spend long periods of time working underwater, or studying the effects of prolonged time at depth on the human body.

Oyster BlogOkay, maybe I've lost some of you there, so I'm going back to the big sell: For only $25, you can hang out at the Dive Lab (where the future of SCUBA diving is being invented today), listen to some good music, hang out with good people, and eat as many baked or raw oysters as you want! This being an event attended by plenty of divers, you can bet there will be beer there, too, but it's always a very family friendly event. If you'd like to sponsor a table, you'll get 10 tickets and 10 bottomless beer mugs (a heck of a deal), and the satisfaction of helping to restore and preserve the underwater equivalent of NASA's lunar landing vehicles.

So many people don't know that much of modern diving has ties to Panama City Beach - in fact, all US military divers receive their training here, and after leaving the service, many of those divers use their experience and knowledge to develop the newest, most cutting edge dive equipment available today (some for military use, some for civilian use) right here in PCB! Regardless, it's all super cool, and something to be proud of.

And, obviously, oysters and fun and just as much part of Panama City Beach's DNA as diving, so this is a win-win event.


What: The 2016 Oyster Bash, benefiting the Man in the Sea Museum
Where: Dive Lab, 1415 Moylan Road, Panama City Beach
When: January 30, 1-8 p.m.
Cost: Tickets are $25 ahead of time, $30 at the door the day of the event. Sponsor a table for $500.
Buy tickets online here: http://maninthesea.org/shop/OysterBash.php

For more information about the SEALAB 1 and the Man in the Sea Museum, check out this blog. Or this one!