okay finally figured out what is the causing the tripping... it is the AIR BLOWER... when I disconnected the 2 power leads from the electrical panel to the air blower then NO TRIPPING... it's weird because during my testing I DID get the air blower to turn on.. after disconnecting the wires.. then reconnecting them... the air blower was running for about 2 minutes.. then I turned it off via the button on the LCD panel.. and as soon as I turned it off... TRIP went the breaker again. So now I just left the power wires to the air blower disconnected so the spa is running.
Question is however.. how could the air blower even have turned on for that short while IF the air blower is no good? when it was running it seems perfectly fine... but something with it is causing the breaker to trip.
I looked all over the inside of the cabinet.. the air blower was completely clean and dry.. no signs of water anywhere! The ground wire is properly connected, etc.
Here is a picture of the air blower.. I'm almost positive this is the air blower right?
https://picasaweb.google.com/100517607562992308032/Misc?authkey=Gv1sRgCLnn3vT17urWxwE#5644531368220889602