8th ANNUAL CAMP JEEP Branson, Missouri - Ozark Mountain Talk About Customer Service! Before we begin, let me get the staff assignments straight. The counselors in the green shirts are experts in the Camp Jeep event and the actual site. If I have any questions about activities or exhibits, I ask a counselor in blue's and if I want to know the ins and outs of Jeep vehicles, I go to the guys in the yellow shirts-who are actual Jeep engineers, by the way! The bottom line here is that Camp Jeep has seen to it that smiling counselors are at every turn insuring that the needs of the Camp Jeep attendees, or ''campers'', are taken care of in every way. For the record, I am wearing a blue shirt and my area of expertise is manning the Sport Diver Magazine/PADI scuba pool - a 40x20 foot, 25,000-gallon pool. What are we doing at the world's largest camp for Jeep owners? Turning them on to the underwater world, of course. To pull it off in style, Sport Diver magazine enlisted the expertise of an old friend, BIG WAVE DAVE from The Scuba Tour. Dave is the Operations Manager of the Sport Diver magazine/PADI scuba pool and introducing the world to diving is his mantra. The logistics of creating the complete _Sport Diver/PADI scuba pool included not only trucking in landscaping featuring trees, bushes and tons of sand (for that cool beach effect) but, most importantly, water. Lots and lots of it. As I mentioned before, it takes 25,000 gallons to fill the tank and every ounce had to be trucked into the camp site - no running water out here! GETTING THEM WET!!Camp Jeep is a three-day event with more than 2,000 registered vehicles and 10,000 Jeep owners. By early count nearly 700 Jeep Campers experienced their first breathe underwater. To capture their underwater moment, campers received a framed digital picture of their first dive compliments of Sport Diver magazine. We want to give special thanks to our very good friends at Sea Life Cameras and Ikelite, who provided housed underwater digital cameras for the event. Nearly a thousand images were taken, framed and distributed. Talk about a workout for your HP printer!! New divers of every age, shape and size took part-some curious, some maybe a bit apprehensive at first-but all finishing with one thing in common: they all had a blast! BRING ON THE PROSThe Sport Diver/PADI scuba pool was professionally staffed by Scuba Sports in Branson, Missouri. Owner Louis Chapman provided 12 of his experienced PADI Instructors and Divemasters to take care of the new divers' every need. They did an outstanding job. I was certified as a PADI Instructor in 1982 and have seen instructors work their magic all over the diving world, and this gang of fun-loving teachers is tops in my book. WHAT THE CAMPERS HAD TO SAYLibby and Mitch Funke, ages 19 and 13, from Evansville, Indiana, came to Camp Jeep with their folks in their family Grand Cherokee Loredo. It is the 5th Jeep in the family since 1985, and to say they are Jeep enthusiasts would be an understatement. After experiencing their first breaths the brother-sister team were hooked. Their one-word assessment of scuba diving? Awesome. Their dad also made sure to thank me for costing him a lot of money when they get home to begin their new favorite sport. ''Hey Dad, it's the least we could do. Now let's suit you up and get you diving too!'' SOMETHING FOR EVERYONEIt was easy to experience all the fun Camp Jeep had to offer. The site plan was laid out in villages, each with a theme and purpose. JEEP 101The Jeep Course & Performance Area was the campers' ticket to Jeep 101. Jeep is all about all- terrain performance-and there was a varity of trails and test tracks to choose from. Jeep furnishes an array of brand new Jeeps for Campers to test drive the various courses and agility stations. Campers can begin by honing their skills on an intensive track before going on an actual 4X4 trail ride. I had the opportunity to meet the course designer, Ken Gistedt. This is the second course Ken has designed for Camp Jeep, and from the feedback of the campers it was the best ever. His goal is to build a course that will challenge the driver while showing what a Jeep can do, so when the campers complete the course they will have the confidence to take on trails in their own Jeep. Ken said that 200 campers per hour ride the course - at seven sessions per day that's 1,400 campers learning the ropes of Jeep 4WD performance. Campers who took on the course came from near and far. Mexico City's Mauricio Kuri is a Jeep brand Manager and Liberty owner and hopes someday to create a 101-style program back in his country. Wrangler owner April Myers trekked the 30 miles all the way from Springfield, Missouri, and was thoroughly impressed with the magnitude of the 101 course. The course was fantastic. To create this dream track more than 100 tons of rocks and logs were brought in for the three-day event. There is another story to this massive effort. The team at Camp Jeep is dedicated to reclaiming the land. All the course materials are hauled away at the end of Camp Jeep. In fact, to build the site more than 300,000 cubic feet of dirt were moved. All of it was replaced to ensure that the area was returned to it original state after the completion of Camp Jeep. TRAIL RIDES - YEAH, BABY YEAH!There were 10 trails - four scenic, four intermediate and two difficult - located on Branson Creek, about 25 miles from the Camp Jeep site. An experienced guide traveled with each group in a separate vehicle to show the way. Crossing streams and climbing ridges was all part of the fun. SPORTS FOR ALLCamp Jeep included everything from seminars on kayaking to GPS land navigation hikes. From basket weaving (no, I am not kidding - basket weaving) to digital photography courses. From yoga to cooking. You get the idea, it's a hands-on experience. But there was also plenty of pure fun for everyone. Josie Rodriguez, PADI Diving Society Liaison/Event Coordinator for Sport Diver magazine, received her wings at Camp Jeep Flight School. Flight School trained campers to become a pilot on a radio-controlled model aircraft in no time. With a classroom debriefing session, practicing on a flight simulator, campers were doing aerobatic maneuvers on these fully crafted models planes. ''It was so awesome seeing my plane flying in the sky by remote control. I play aircraft games on my Playstation 2 at home but this does not compare. I truly enjoyed it,'' says Josie. _ The extreme-sports crowd was also in attendance, entertaining campers with BMX freestyle riding and ski and snowboard trampoline aerial acts. After watching the pros do their thing - you could hop on a bike or a board and learn from them at exclusive clinics. ENTERTAINMENTDaryl Hall & John Oates kicked off the event with a fantastic show. With 19 gold and platinum awards, they are one of the best-selling duos in rock history. The music continued with the Blues Brothers, featuring Dan Aykroyd (Elwood) and Jim Belushi (Brother Z Blues). Decked out in their own camping attire of matching black suits, sunglasses and porkpie hats, they brought down the house with R&B hits including ''Soul Man'', ''Messing with the Kid'', and ''Everybody Needs Someone to Love.'' Want to join the fun? Go to www.jeep.com for details on this event or other Jeep events. You can find me at the scuba pool.