"... SPGs were not yet available.."
SPGs (Submersible Pressure Gauges) were introduced to the diving world and used by Commander Le Prieur in 1926- 87 years ago. Suggest that you master French and read his 1956 book "Premier de Plongee." (First to Dive)
The American SPG appeared in 1954 produced by a long defunct company called Mar Mac, According to my Kalifornia Kalculator that is 59 years ago. An SPG has been on the American market since that date and was produced by many companies through out the years, many whom are no longer with us.
Don't you enjoy the fuzzy faced divers who loudly proclaim they were diving before the invention of the SPG?
SDM
Hi Sam,
I know you were diving long before the rest of us....While I was certified in 72, I was not heavily diving until 76.....What I do remember, was that in 72 when I wanted to buy gear, I really wanted the double hose regulator I had grown up watching on Sea Hunt--and while available, the dive store talked me out of it and into a
US Divers Calypso regulator....which had no spg and no octopus....No one I interacted with ever mentioned either in 72.... In 76, on a January term project with 3 colleges off of Tobago to study Bucco Reef, of about 25 divers, only 1 had a pressure gauge that I recall -- it was more of a novelty...the rest of us used j valves, and were happy with them and free ascending when the need arose to stay down beyond the few minutes the j valve reserve would give you.....
It seemed like many years before something of a "Tipping Point" would occur, and suddenly spg's became the obvious gear each of us should have---and after that, suddenly everyone had to have one of these octopus set ups.....As I remember this, I have to assume that the likely impetus for such a mass
"epiphany", would have most likely been NAUI or some other training agency, pushing this--or maybe even DEMA telling all the Dive Shops that this was what the smart stores would be "pushing".
I don't think either was consumer driven....divers were happy enough with J valves, and they were happy to do buddy breathing and free ascents. There was no rec.scuba or any good dive magazines beyond SKIN DIVER MAGAZINE, the first whore in a long line of prostituted gear evangelists that would masquerade as caring about gear or dive destinations that were good ( but where any with lots of money to pay them was good, those with no ad budget were non-existent or bad). So if an spg maker had ad dollars, this could certainly have suddenly made them the end all for divers to invest in
Today we have Rodales Scubadiving, a publication even more intimately involved in shameless trumpeting for the right money....and one that will certainly figure into helping some NEW Gear into becoming the standard in the future--quite possibly through no good reason beyond the advertising....and as you know, we have many like that now