Scuba Diving Equipment Explained

Early Diving Equipment Milestones

I remember watching Jacques-Yves Cousteau as boy and being fascinated by the wonder of the underwater sea. By the time I saw his videos he had been filming underwater for over forty years- he made his first underwater film 18 Meters Deep in 1943. He created the Aqua Lung, precursor to the modern scuba equipment of today. Here's an abbreivated history of scuba equipment.

Of course the earliest dives were made without equipment, where men simply held their breath. This remains the most widespread dive even today, used by pearl divers, fisherman, and of course kids in pools.

As a matter of fact, in April 2009, a British woman did something amazing off an island in the Bahamas. Sara Campbell dove to a depth of 96 meters - and spent 3 minutes 36 seconds underwater, setting a single breath free dive record.

Next on the timelinecame the snorkel- first documented by the greeks, but was probably used many years before as a simple reed. Varients are still very much in use today. Modern snorkeling is a great and easy way to see sea life in water with good visibility.

Believe it or not, diving bells go back to the 4th century in Greece. Leonardo Da Vinci had plans for an air tank carried with a diver in the 15th century. The 1800s brought the submarine and diving helmets, which allowed divers to stay down up to an hour. Man began to open the treasure chest of information that was the sea and modern diving was born.

At the end of the 1800 and early 1900s compressed air tanks became available, but the regulator did not make an appearance until 1939. In 1908 John Haldane publishes "The Prevention of Compressed-Air Illness", on decompression sickness, and creates a table of decompression stops, which allow the gases to dissapate- it is immediately adopted by the Royal Navy and the public. Christian Lambertsen created a "Self-Contained Underwater Oxygen Breathing Apparatus", first the use the abbreviation SCUBA in the mid 1940s.

Think about the experience of exploring the ocean depths without the capability of controlling and adjusting the body weight and equipment brought in terms of the surrounding environment. Imagine sinking like a stone and your knees smashing onto that coral reef or sea urchin (ouch!). Or how about popping up like a cork every time you dive down- or even worse ascending too fast from a deep dive- which can be life threatening. As you can see, the ability to create neutral buoyancy- or “float” without rising or sinking is important for divers. Fish use a swim bladder, divers use a buoyancy compensator.

In order to understand the process better, buoyancy compensator functions by adjusting the volume of gas inside the device in accordance to the wearer’s weight in order to achieve neutral buoyancy to help the diver dive, ascend, or remain in a neutral position. Add some air, and up you go. Vent a bit and you sink. This makes the process of maintaining the state of neutral buoyancy in scuba diving a continuous and active process, very much comparable to the balancing process.

There are basically three types of buoyancy compensator to choose from starting with the wing type. This first type is made up of an inflatable bladder worn near the cylinders. The stab jacket type is worn around the upper torso which could also support the cylinder containers. This type is the most favored among scuba divers as it is the easiest to navigate in terms of easier balance maintenance. The last type is the diver’s lifejacket which could be found worn around the neck and chest and easily straps between the legs and the mid waist.

In order to be able to acquire a quality buoyancy compensator device, you should ask your fellow divers. Students can get recommendations from their PADI instructors. It’s a good idea to rent a compensator you’re thinking of buying before you purchase- it does you no good to buy an expensive piece of equipment if you don’t like the way it looks and works. Fortunately, there is a lot of information available in the internet when it comes to purchasing a buoyancy compensator. Read reviews, visit dive shops, and try it out first hand.