Innovation In Recreational Scuba Diving?

[tkdgodess]

Dry gloves! Life changing. They may have existed prior to 2000's, but they werent commmonly sold, even buying a custom made dryuit, maybe its regional. claws were the warmest, but i still wore 5 finger gloves when i needed dexterity or hand signs like teaching. Drygloves have increased my safety and bottom time dramatically.

 

[tbone1004]

so RJP, want an itty bitty scuba unit for belt?
Dry Suit / Pony Bottle Valve "Nitrox Ready!"
Stick one of those on any size scuba cylinder of your choice, stick a second stage on it, and good to go. Cheaper than most first stages on the market and is integrated with the valve. That is old technology that medical O2 bottles have had for years.

Want a little bag to put it on your waist?
13 Cubic Foot Tank mount bag
$10, can't argue there. Might need to get creative to get the strap long enough to go around your waist, but still not that hard.

So with a new bottle, second stage, and the fill adapter, under $400 to have a small thing to kick around in the pool. Not particularly cost effective, but since material cost is negligible in tank manufacturing, small AL bottles are the same price as big ones, and same with regulators, though you could use that for a pony bailout for normal OC diving no problem.

You brought bikes up, I work with some of the leading bicycle designers on lightening and stiffening the frames and removing the catastrophic failure inherent with carbon. It is innovative, but it's still an evolution, not a revolution. Carbon changed the bike world, but it was just an evolution in material design to meet the demands, it wasn't anything that completely changed how a bike works.

Cameras came up, yes the lenses were innovative to that market, but it was still existing technology adapted from industrial applications. It was novel, and new to the diving community, so evolutionary, but again not revolutionary

I did bring up the dive table discussion as being one of the revolutionary technologies. The computers that are associated with them are not revolutionary, they function no differently than the sensors on an airplane, automobile, boat, or submarine, and the computers are no different either, the only revolutionary thing about them are the algorithms associated with tracking compartment loading.

Training has come up too, that LDS model is definitely something revolutionary to the extreme sports industry, but frankly I don't think it was a good revolution, it has gotten out of control and is the cause of an unnecessary amount of accidents to both humans and wildlife. Much of the reef destruction can be brought directly back to inadequate training and unskilled divers, so thanks PADI for that one, it was revolutionary, it grew the sport to the millions of certified divers that are around now, but I don't think it was necessarily a good thing, but definitely revolutionary.

 

[RJP]

You brought bikes up, I work with some of the leading bicycle designers on lightening and stiffening the frames and removing the catastrophic failure inherent with carbon. It is innovative, but it's still an evolution, not a revolution. Carbon changed the bike world, but it was just an evolution in material design to meet the demands, it wasn't anything that completely changed how a bike works.

I would think that the person who posted THIS a month or so ago would take a far more inclusive view of what is "revolutionary" vs what is "evolutionary" >>>

sit tight boys, the scuba industry is going to be turned upside down in about 6 months or so. We are designing a webbing that is stronger than nylon, doesn't stretch, is inert to gasoline, chlorine *any acid or base actually*, jet fuel, and most anything else other than oil. UV is just as good as nylon, and it has better abrasion resistance. Will be coming out as a cordura alternative for wings as well.

I'm not sure which mfg I'm going to take it to first yet, but it will likely be Dive Rite. Be about double the cost of the current nylon products, so won't be for everyone, but it is going to be a game changer for anyone doing training in pools.

Again, there's too much focus on "what it is" rather than "what it does."

Carbon fiber doesn't have to completely change how a bike works to be innovative. Ask any of the leading bike manufacturers if they don't think that the introduction of CF frames - an evolution in bikes - didn't create a revolution in bicycling in general as well as manufacturing, distribution, retailing, upgrade path, mean price-point, accessory sales, etc. (Further, if you were an avid/active cyclist you might also understand how CF revolutionized the actual experience of cycling for millions of people.)

By your criteria, I'm assuming you'd say that iPod/MP3 players were merely an evolution of the Sony Walkman, which was merely an evolution of the portable radio, which was merely an evolution of the integrated home stereo? In fact, while all four were evolutionary in terms of "what they are" they were each clearly revolutionary in terms of "what they did" for the music industry, the consumer electronics industry, popular culture, society, fashion, and more.

A company changing a product is EVOLUTIONARY. An evolutionary product changing the marketplace is REVOLUTIONARY.

 

[daniel1948]

I think a big innovation is masks that let you squeeze your nose to make equalizing easier. My first swim mask was an oval that did not permit this. (I was not a scuba diver then.)

I also agree with posters above who list the SPG, the BC, the octo, and the dive computer as significant innovations. Knowing how much air you actually have is a BIG deal.

Yes, we're still "just" breathing compressed air, but we're doing it a lot more safely and it's much easier for ordinary folks than it was way back when.

 

[tbone1004]

and it is purely evolutionary. They have been using coatings and resin impregnation to try to fix nylon, and now we have a better alternative. It isn't revolutionary per se, but it will certainly make hazmat and pool diving a lot easier on the wallet. The fiber itself has been revolutionary to a lot of composite applications, but it will not revolutionize scuba, and it is still technology that has been theorized since the 60's and is just not coming to commercial viability.

The audio was truly revolutionary, they used new technology to make things smaller, LP, 8 track, Cassette, CD, solid state memory. Was still music, but was entirely new technology. The technology we use has been around for 100+ years....

 

[DownDiver]

I'm reading this thread wondering if someone is going to post an idea or ideal future state that would potentially drove innovation. I know I'd be interested in affordable tech that would put the capability of an atmospheric dive suit in the scope of recreational purpose. Explore things previously only available to subs and with greater mobility.

 

[DiveNav]

underwater housings for smartphones and tablets

 

[RJP]

underwater housings for smartphones and tablets

Bringing my phone with me on a dive? I'd call that DE-evolutionary.

:d

---------- Post added November 25th, 2014 at 02:41 PM ----------

I think I might throw a survey tool together to see if we can "crowdsource" a rating/ranking of the innovations listed above.

Anyone think there's anything else NOT listed above that should be put into the mix?

Stay tuned.

 

[drrich2]

Since bicycling was brought up, would mopeds and motorcycles be considered revolutionary expansions on bicycling? Or as modified cars? Mopeds & bicycles have such drastically different capabilities from bicycles in what they enable people to do, that they're hardly even thought of as being in the same category.

Similarly, some tech. diving advances aren't thought of as recreational diving, because they extended the envelope beyond what we think of as recreational diving. Perhaps we should have a broader outlook on rec diving than coral reef, sanitized wrecks & pretty fish?

Photography isn't really a diving innovation because none of the innovations were originally intended for scuba diving...

Perhaps so, but it has changed how & why many people dive, and contributed to broader awareness of what is scene down there.

I'd like to see a camera with wireless capability so a separate small device outside the housing could transmit depth info. to the camera to record depth in EXIF data for each pic, for documenting depth taken but also helping correct for lighting later.

The modern system of scuba certification has made it more practical to qualify/quantify a customer's formal training, which is probably beneficial to charter boat op.s deciding who can & can't go to the deep wreck sites, etc...

Richard.

 

[Akimbo]

… What do folks consider as an innovation timeline for scuba? For argument's sake, let's start with 1943 and the birth of the "modern scuba unit" (demand-valve diving regulator + tank of compressed breathing gas)…

The most important innovation has to be thermal protection. Cousteau didn’t have any. First was the wetsuit in 1952, followed by practical drysuits — dry suits were actually first but they were awful. The next innovation I hope to see is a practical and cost-effective non-compressible wetsuit material, at least to 100 Meters/328'.

I’m not so confident about rebreathers. The vast majority of recreational divers are satisfied with the capacity and utter simplicity of a single open-circuit 80, though 300 to 400 Bar/4350 to 5800 PSI would be nice. Sure everyone would “like” to have more, but that would probably end up with more cases of DCS.

Like most innovations, both of these require breakthroughs in material science. Diving is just too small to fund that level of R&D.

I think you must add the SPG. I believe it changed much in terms of procedure and mindset from using the "reserve" of a J valve to monitoring consumption with an SPG...

The SPG was actually mentioned in the early patents filed by Jacques Cousteau and Émile Gagnan. Cousteau didn’t bother with them because they held one of the three cylinders in reserve by closing a valve. They would breathe the two online cylinders down until they noticed breathing resistance due to low pressure and opened the valve on the reserve cylinder, equalizing all three. That was the signal the dive was over. Sort of the original rule of thirds.