Dangerous gear?

[Luis H]

Thanks Nemrod.

Paladin,
I saw your post asking about the Caravelle fins. I was surprised that Aqua Lung (US Divers) would ever use that name again, but then I remember how short is most divers memory.
This is like Ford coming out with a new car and calling it a Pinto.

If you do a bit of search over at VDH you will probably find some pictures of the original Caravelle... and it will be very clear what I was referring to.

US Divers lost the chance of getting the original Jet fin design from Beuchat because they were at the time fully committed to the Caravelle fin project. Scubapro ended with the Jet fins and a while later US divers tried to catch up with the Rocket fins. I am guessing that some people might have lost their jobs at US Divers or at least kicking themselves.

 

[Paladin]

Luis,
I looked it up and the 1965 Caravelle was indeed a monstrosity.

 

[Rich Keller]

This gear doesn't look too dangerous.

 

[Sam Miller III]

This gear doesn't look too dangerous.

View attachment 146577

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This image is not appropriate to the subject under discussion.

The image is that of Commandant Yves Le Prieur photographed in 1935.

The breathing apparatus is his 1920s/1930s invention which predates JYC well over a decade and a half.

The unit was the first to use compressed air but did not have the demand principle of the 1860s R&D unit, which Emile Gagnon was using for his "Gas O gen" which he and JYC modified to develop the "Aqua lung" in the early 1940s.

Commandant Yves Le Prieur has all but been forgotten by the modern obsessed Cousteau generation, yet Le Prieur was the true pioneer of modern recreational SCUBA diving - He established a Paris diving school, had outings to the ocean, developed a workable UW camera, a spear gun etc- years before JYC entered the UW world.

I would suggest that you might like to acquire the historic book "Commandant Le Prieur; Premier de Plongee," 1956, EDITIONS EMPIRE FRANCE, 263 pages plus indexes...

It would be an educational eye opener for you- and others.......

SDM

 

[David Wilson]

Luis,
I looked it up and the 1965 Caravelle was indeed a monstrosity.

The Caravelle was designed by Luigi Ferraro, who also came up with the original Cressi Rondine full-foot fin. Here is what the website dedicated to Ferraro says about the Caravelle at:

Inventor and Entrepreneur | Luigi Ferraro

[h=1]Caravelle Fins[/h] They were presented to the market in 1963 and therefore represent one of the first articles that Ferraro designed for Technisub, the company he founded the previous year. The Caravelle fin has two characteristics that set it above all other existing fins: it is composed of a shoe and a blade that are made from different materials. The Shoe is made of rubber, which, at the time, was the only material used to produce fins. The blade, however, and this is the novelty, is produced with a new material - polypropylene. This earned its inventor, Giulio Natta, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in exactly the same year that Ferraro employed it for the Caravelle fin. Blade and shoe can be easily dismantled and assembled by hand and the shoe can be used as a normal protective shoe to walk on rocks or sand. But this is not the only benefit of the Caravelle fin. Most of all, the fin ensures excellent performance due to the lightness and elasticity of the blade. Jacques-Yves Cousteau was so enthusiastic about it that he nominated Ferraro "the best fin designer in the world" and, as expected, used it for his team.

Here's how the fin looked assembled, with the two parts detached and the plasticine model of the prototype:

 

[danvolker]

The Caravelle was designed by Luigi Ferraro, who also came up with the original Cressi Rondine full-foot fin. Here is what the website dedicated to Ferraro says about the Caravelle at:

Inventor and Entrepreneur | Luigi Ferraro

Caravelle Fins

They were presented to the market in 1963 and therefore represent one of the first articles that Ferraro designed for Technisub, the company he founded the previous year. The Caravelle fin has two characteristics that set it above all other existing fins: it is composed of a shoe and a blade that are made from different materials. The Shoe is made of rubber, which, at the time, was the only material used to produce fins. The blade, however, and this is the novelty, is produced with a new material - polypropylene. This earned its inventor, Giulio Natta, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in exactly the same year that Ferraro employed it for the Caravelle fin. Blade and shoe can be easily dismantled and assembled by hand and the shoe can be used as a normal protective shoe to walk on rocks or sand. But this is not the only benefit of the Caravelle fin. Most of all, the fin ensures excellent performance due to the lightness and elasticity of the blade. Jacques-Yves Cousteau was so enthusiastic about it that he nominated Ferraro "the best fin designer in the world" and, as expected, used it for his team.

Here's how the fin looked assembled, with the two parts detached and the plasticine model of the prototype:

View attachment 146609View attachment 146610View attachment 146611

Interesting that they also saw the value in an optimal fit for the foot, so that maximum power transfer could occur....You see this today in some of the most expensive carbon fiber fins...see the C4's.. blow up the image and see the actual shoe type foot pocket, a left and a right!!!

 

[Rich Keller]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This image is not appropriate to the subject under discussion.

The image is that of Commandant Yves Le Prieur photographed in 1935.

The breathing apparatus is his 1920s/1930s invention which predates JYC well over a decade and a half.

The unit was the first to use compressed air but did not have the demand principle of the 1860s R&D unit, which Emile Gagnon was using for his "Gas O gen" which he and JYC modified to develop the "Aqua lung" in the early 1940s.

Commandant Yves Le Prieur has all but been forgotten by the modern obsessed Cousteau generation, yet Le Prieur was the true pioneer of modern recreational SCUBA diving - He established a Paris diving school, had outings to the ocean, developed a workable UW camera, a spear gun etc- years before JYC entered the UW world.

I would suggest that you might like to acquire the historic book "Commandant Le Prieur; Premier de Plongee," 1956, EDITIONS EMPIRE FRANCE, 263 pages plus indexes...

It would be an educational eye opener for you- and others.......

SDM

I am aware that Cousteau did not invent scuba but have you ever tried to convince anyone else of that? Even people who know nothing about nothing freak when you tell them that!

 

[danvolker]

So we could refer to Cousteu as the the diving incarnation of Columbus....who certainly was not first to America

 

[Rich Keller]

So we could refer to Cousteu as the the diving incarnation of Columbus....who certainly was not first to America

I would say he was more like the P.T. Barnum of scuba. All showmanship without the substance to backup the BS.

 

[Paladin]

I would say he was more like the P.T. Barnum of scuba. All showmanship without the substance to backup the BS.

Cousteau and Gagnan developed the first SCUBA regulator, making diving more efficient. Yves Le Prieur's system had no regulator. It was just a hose attached to a mask at one end and a compressed air tank at the other. The air flow was constant and the diver just breathed what he needed as it flowed through the mask and out the exhaust. It was not a true SCUBA rig.