What was the most influential development in scuba diving?

[herman]

None of the choices....the regulator is, with out it, there is no diving. The rest of the stuff is just nice to have.

 

[Doc]

The media.
I use this photo as click bait, but it is history and on-point. (sorry, not sorry)

SCUBA would do well to remember the impact of The Silent World, Jaws, The Deep and even goofy reality shows.

 

[scubaozy]

I guess abc equipment and aqualung are considered as start of history, so, not considered as “development“.
But split fins would be a development.

 

[Pressurehead]

While we are are talking about regulators : Historical Diving Society | The “Porpoise” book reprint​

The Porpoise , the Australian diving technology the world copied

 

[Bob DBF]

The fundamental breakthrough was the invention of the regulator, done by Cousteau and Gagnan just after the end of WW2

Aqualung. I have dived without all of the items on the list.

None of the choices....the regulator is, with out it, there is no diving. The rest of the stuff is just nice to have.

Timeframe was set at 1960, so the regulator, and SPG for that matter, had been invented and in use at that time.

 

[Pressurehead]

1960, OK.
It's still thermal protection
I still remember being so cold diving ill fitting so called thermal protection, it was not until I could afford to pay someone to tailor fit my suits [wet and dry] that I did not have to think about the cold when diving.

Thermal protection (wetsuits, drysuits)​

 

[Bob DBF]

It's still thermal protection
I still remember being so cold diving ill fitting so called thermal protection, it was not until I could afford to pay someone to tailor fit my suits [wet and dry] that I did not have to think about the cold when diving.

I normally dive a 7mm farmer john in NorCal, and I still have to think about the cold the majority of time. So far I've pulled out several divers that have had hypothermia so bad they just stopped moving, if someone hadn't been paying attention, they would still be there. When back on board, or ashore, they had no recollection of the last part of the dive, they remember being cold, but were going to tough it out for the dive.

So I'm with you on thermal protection.

 

[Altamira]

Timeframe was set at 1960, so the regulator, and SPG for that matter, had been invented and in use at that time.

I chose the SPG, primarily because of the type of diving I was doing in the 1960s.
Perhaps as @Bob DBF stated, the SPG was invented and in use at 1960, but it certainly was not widely used or available to us budding recreational divers at that point. I started diving in 1965, primarily in caves and springs in southern Missouri, and would have bought a SPG immediately had that piece of equipment been available and affordable for a 20 year old college student. As I look back on diving in overhead environments at that stage of my life, with one regulator, a single 72 cf steel tank connected to a plastic backpack, a J-Valve, and a homemade full 1/4" neoprene wetsuit, I know a SPG would have been a godsend in a cave. Having a SPG for the type of diving I was doing in 1965, would likely give me a better current opinion of my judgement at that point in time.

Edit: Of course, when diving relatively shallow, non-overhead environments, a SPG would not have been such a big deal, and the J-Valve worked quite well, resulting in a far less stressful dive.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Timeframe was set at 1960, so the regulator, and SPG for that matter, had been invented and in use at that time.

As had training agencies, wetsuits, and a dive computer.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Dive computer. I thought that before I ever opened the poll.