Aging and diving 2.

Continuing from last week: I was going through the beginning years of my diving career.
The equipment was state of the art for the 1950s and ‘60s but as humans we seem to try to test the boundaries of the available technologies. With the late ‘60s came a breakthrough to push the equipment another step forward. That was the single hose regulator, the big difference was there now a second stage instead of a double hose and mouth piece. It was amazing, it had a single black plastic button in the middle of the front plate, it was connected to a thick diaphragm so when you pressed it it would purge the housing but not very well.
The first stage worked but not very well, it was a downstream regulator and that meant it only worked well when you stayed horizontal or vertical but if you rolled over on your back or ended up head down it required more effort to breathe. There still was not a submersible pressure gauge and the depth gauge was an iodine-filled tube that was very fragile and the tube would break if you went below 100 feet. I actually saved up my paper money $150 to buy it. Once you got used to it, it really wasn’t bad. The other issue was if you breathed too hard it would start to shut down and made it difficult to breathe until you slowed your breathing.
The mask was a big oval tempered glass with a rubber skirt and chrome-plated band that held the glass in. It was a big volume type mask and took a minimum of two breaths to clear. The fins where very heavy and made from ballistic rubber from ScubaPro and if taken care of they would last for decades in fact I still use the pair I bought in 1969. The next improvement was the SS backplate that you would weave the canvas strap through and SS bands would secure the tank to the back plate. The weight belt was made from the same canvas but it had a quick release similar to today’s release.
You still had the Mae West horseshoe collar that you could inflate at the surface only in an emergency to keep your head above the surface but it only floated you after you ditched all your equipment. Moving to the mid-70s the equipment took a major leap forward with the advance of the BCD (buoyancy compensating device). It’s not what you might think, they developed a large horseshoe with a inflatable bladder inside that would connect to the web harness that you already had. It did have an oral inflater but was very difficult to use and took lots of practice to get comfortable with.
By the 1980s and ‘90s the regulators had very dependable submersible pressure gauges and a good depth gauge, in fact neither of those gauges have changed in the last 40 years accept maybe the size of them. The regulators were designed so you could breathe well no matter the position you were underwater. Then for a decade there really was no innovation in the equipment only little gadgets and things to play with or make you look like you’re a professional diver. Where the real innovation came from was the cave diving folks. If it wasn’t for the need for better equipment for cave divers we would still be using the old style equipment.
Next week I will delve into the physical stuff that has what I believe has gone soft in our current time. Until then keep making bubbles.

Russell Miller #59999