Aqualung Aquasense announced (aquanounced?)

[NauticalNick]

I feel like it might have some use from a teaching perspective? Like maybe if you're teaching open water you can give the whole class this system for more data and it can correct their trim etc.?

 

[icouldcarelessbutdont]

I feel like it might have some use from a teaching perspective? Like maybe if you're teaching open water you can give the whole class this system for more data and it can correct their trim etc.?

From my own life experiences in engineering, when teaching new things to either laymen or those just getting into the field, this would be information overload to the masses, they're already task loaded with things like buoyancy control, proper finning technique, breathing, etc. Adding more information for them to glean and make yet another adjustment would just compound the problem for both the instructor and the student. We've watched someone teach proper giant stride technique in the pool to someone for over two hours....two hours! This is just a distraction, you don't teach a person to fly by putting them directly into IFR training in a jet, no, they're taught to fly visually in a single engine, clapped out, Cessna.

 

[lowwall]

I feel like it might have some use from a teaching perspective? Like maybe if you're teaching open water you can give the whole class this system for more data and it can correct their trim etc.?

How would this even work? I guess a digital inclinometer in the first stage. But how does it know when you are in trim? Do you need a buddy with a 4' level to calibrate you?

 

[Umuntu]

People use regulators 50 years and older without any trouble. It can be a product that once bought lasts you a life-time.

This is a problem for scuba equipment manufacturers. They need to build in obsolescence into their products so that their customers find it necessary to replace their equipment.

There are many divers still using equipment they purchased decades ago. And a well maintained or lightly used second hand MK5, MK10, Conshelf or Titan is as good as almost any new piston or diaphragm regulator. This is a problem for the profitability of the scuba industry. Hence the silly “innovations.”

This Aquasilliness looks very plastic fantastic and will get brittle and crack with age, assuming the electronics don’t go first.

 

[icouldcarelessbutdont]

Its becoming the same across the board for everything, let us all be lucky we don't have to pay a subscription to breathe from the regulator.

 

[Outbound]

Rolling this product out doesn't make a whole lot of sense. In addition to all of the issues people have already raised, there is the additional problem that people are not likely to purchase a brand-new, expensive, electronic piece of gear at a time when AL seems to be circling the drain. People are already worrying about the future availability of service kits for AL regs. You think people are going to buy a complicated piece of underwater electronics when the future of the company is so uncertain? Why would AL put so many of their eggs into this basket?

I don't pretend to know much about business, but it seems to me that AL should be focusing on reducing its number of SKUs, jettisoning some of its product lines, and streamlining their business model.

I was hopeful that AL could pull itself out of the morass, but this makes me highly doubtful. I'm guessing this Aquasense line flops hard, and drags down whatever remnants of the company are still standing.

 

[Badger7]

Rolling this product out doesn't make a whole lot of sense. In addition to all of the issues people have already raised, there is the additional problem that people are not likely to purchase a brand-new, expensive, electronic piece of gear at a time when AL seems to be circling the drain. People are already worrying about the future availability of service kits for AL regs. You think people are going to buy a complicated piece of underwater electronics when the future of the company is so uncertain? Why would AL put so many of their eggs into this basket?

I don't pretend to know much about business, but it seems to me that AL should be focusing on reducing its number of SKUs, jettisoning some of its product lines, and streamlining their business model.

I was hopeful that AL could pull itself out of the morass, but this makes me highly doubtful. I'm guessing this Aquasense line flops hard, and drags down whatever remnants of the company are still standing.

All good points, but realize that the target market for this regulator is not your typical scubaboard enjoyer. Assuming AL has the capital to put these in production, they'll hype it on social media, get it included in the random "best scuba regulators for 2025" blog posts, and put one in the glass case of every Aqualung dealer. The financial health of the brand isn't even going to be in the top-10 of the purchase criteria for the target consumer. They'll want to know what the glowy lights are for, if the local shop can service it when they get back from Cozumel each year, whether they can change the hose to a different color, and if there is a matching octopus.

 

[scubadada]

I would imagine that the Aquasense has been in development for some time, perhaps even started before Air Liquide sold Aqua Lung to Montagu in 2016, certainly before Aqualung was acquired by Barings in 2023.

Remember that Aqua Lung acquired Pelagic Pressure Systems from American Underwater Products in 2015. They started releasing their new line of dive computers based on the PPS platform in 2016.

 

[NauticalNick]

From my own life experiences in engineering, when teaching new things to either laymen or those just getting into the field, this would be information overload to the masses, they're already task loaded with things like buoyancy control, proper finning technique, breathing, etc. Adding more information for them to glean and make yet another adjustment would just compound the problem for both the instructor and the student. We've watched someone teach proper giant stride technique in the pool to someone for over two hours....two hours! This is just a distraction, you don't teach a person to fly by putting them directly into IFR training in a jet, no, they're taught to fly visually in a single engine, clapped out, Cessna.

These are all fair points. I was thinking just of the LED lights for gas remaining or any other signaling they can do so that the instructor knows someone isn't checking their gas or lying about it.

 

[NauticalNick]

How would this even work? I guess a digital inclinometer in the first stage. But how does it know when you are in trim? Do you need a buddy with a 4' level to calibrate you?

I have no idea. I thought their was something on the screen that gave you data on that. Perhaps with relative positioning data on the computer, reg, and first stage it can at least see that you're not diving in a jesus position.