Scuba divers & events that define generations

[lowwall]

Sadly, the only first generation Scuba diver in the US on ScubaBoard that I am aware of is @Sam Miller III. We are lucky to have his first-hand experience available.

Is there an agreed on classification of scuba generations?

If not, let's make one up now.

The Pioneer Divers were those who began after the public introduction of SCUBA after WWII until late 1958, when Sea Hunt went on the air, followed shortly after by the commercial availability of neoprene wetsuits. This period covers the creation of recreational scuba diving and scuba training.

But roughly 12 years is too short to be called a generation, so let's include in the First Generation all those who started before the first airing of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau in 1968.

The Second Generation thus more or less coincides with the general adoption of buoyancy compensation and the single hose regulator.

Likewise the Third Generation begins with the BCD, spg, and octo being considered mandatory gear in new diver training. If guess this was somewhere around 1985?

Continuing the theme, the Fourth Generation will have the same gear as the Third except for the adoption of the dive computer as standard gear in new diver training. Shall we name 2005 the start of the Fourth Generation?

Who knows what will characterize the coming Fifth Generation. When I started diving 20 years ago, I was sure the next step was going to be recreational rebreathers. It hasn't worked out that way so far.

---

---

A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This message was split from New Vintage Scuba YouTube Channel

---

 

[Akimbo]

Is there an agreed on classification of scuba generations?

If not, let's make one up now.

That's an interesting question. My thinking is to start the clock with Cousteau in 1943, or the latest 1945. It could be argued to start the clock with Guy Gilpatric's The Compleat Goggler and Hans Hass' Diving to Adventure in 1938-39. Pioneers in the US has to start with the Navy's UDT and Dr. Christian Lambertsen who coined the acronym SCUBA. Civilians who took their cue from Guy Gilpatric's The Compleat Goggler include Connie Limbaugh, Bev Morgan, Jim Stewart, and our Dr. Sam Miller who dove with these guys. Of course the Southern California tribe as Sam calls them was much larger than this list but reading about them will link you to the rest. In my mind, these were the first generation because they took all the chances and learned the hard lessons, physically and financially.

I tend to think of Sea Hunt in 1958 as the transition between the first and second generation. It was a real sport by then (barely anyway), there were several legitimate full-line manufacturers, and there were dive shops instead of a corner of a few sporting goods stores. For-profit training agencies were starting to spin off from the LA County program and Skin Diver Magazine could be found on a few newsstands instead of by mail and dive shops only. I don't really have a of sense events between diving generations after that.

 

[lowwall]

Thanks for giving this its own thread.

I took my first stab above. My thought was that a generation should be roughly 20 years, but that's not really necessary. I will suggest that the answer as to where to draw the lines is likely to be based on some combination of changes in scuba technology, scuba training and perhaps the motivation for diving. Of course these feed into each other and the borders are fuzzy as advances first appear years before general adoption.

Maybe it will help to define where things started and where we are today. From what I've read, the very first scuba divers were primarily experienced free divers who were looking to extend their underwater time for specific purposes, mainly hunting or scientific research. They had rudimentary if any training beyond, "Don't hold your breath." Dive gear meant adding a tank with harness and double hose regulator to their existing gear of weight belt, mask, fins and snorkel. Wealthier divers might have a dive watch. Deco concerns were dealt with either by referencing US Navy dive tables or accepting the motto, "You can't get bent on a 72." The only generally adopted safety advance in the first decade was the j-valve.

Average new divers of today will have some swimming and maybe snorkeling skills, but are not likely to be comfortable free diving in open water. They are diving to see the sights and creatures and probably on a vacation to someplace with warm water. Gear is single hose regulator with octo, BCD, SPG and a computer. The mask and fins are still there, but the weight belt is usually replaced by some sort of integrated weights and the snorkel is left in a pocket or the dive bag. Training for an open water certification is formalized and fast.

 

[scubadada]

I've always thought of my self as 2nd generation. I was certified by LA County in 1970. Single 2nd stage, buddy breathing. No BC, separate vest, inflated orally, or by the scary CO2 cartridge, never tried it. No SPG, just the J-valve. Capillary depth gauge, watch, and Navy tables. What a blast it was to dive in Southern California and out at Catalina

 

[Angelo Farina]

Here in Italy the second gen (1968-1985), which is my one (having started my first course in autumn 1974) is charactarised by being trained mostly using the ARO (pure oxygen CC rebreather), and switching to the ARA (air twin tanks with single-hose regulator and reserve) just at the end of the course.
This was different from previous years (1st gen) when both training and subsequent recreactiional activity was only employing the ARO. Air tanks were not common here before the Cousteau TV shows, "scuba diving". In Italy diving was done almost exclusively with the oxygen CC rebreathers since 1946 to 1968. These units were cheap, easy to fill (pure oxygen was readily available in shops selling gas for soldering), light (less than 8 kg), they did provide long autonomy (up to 4 hours with a single fill). They did keep you warm, due to the chemical reaction between CO2 and the scrubber, so the mixture was really hot to breath.
However, around mid-sixties they started to fade out, due to depth limitation (at the time pure-oxygen units were used up to 18 meters, not just 6 meters as nowadays), and they were replaced by air twin tanks, typically 2x10 liters at 150-200 bars.
So, around 1968, also the training started to include diving with air tanks, and of course including deco.
During gen 2, deco was taught as standard practice since the first course (using US Navy tables with two mods: ascent speed slowed to 10m/min instead of 18, and the ascent time summed to the bottom time).
The BCD and SPG were not commonly used devices until 3rd gen, which started around 1985. At the same time the ARO was phased out from training of new divers. And the first 15-liters, 200 bars single tanks appeared. It is curious that here the first BCDs were horse-collars or back plate plus wing, although at the time these were not named this way. Jackets arrived much later, around 1990.
The 4th gen is the computer generation. I do not know about other parts of the world, but here in Italy it coincides with the widespread adoption of the Aladin Pro computer by Uwatec..
It was around 1995 when any diver not owing an Aladin Pro was considered a dinosaur here.

 

[lowwall]

I've always thought of my self as 2nd generation. Was certified by LA County in 1970. Single 2nd stage, buddy breathing. No BC, separate vest, inflated orally, or by the scary CO2 cartridge, never tried it. No SPG, just the J-valve. Capillary depth gauge, watch, and Navy tables. What a blast it was to dive in Southern California and out at Catalina

Was the vest just for surface use? How about wetsuits?

 

[scubadada]

Was the vest just for surface use? How about wetsuits?

We used the vest at depth for buoyancy control, oral inflation. We used 1/4 inch farmer john wetsuits, it was cold.

 

[Akimbo]

They had rudimentary if any training beyond, "Don't hold your breath." Dive gear meant adding a tank with harness and double hose regulator to their existing gear of weight belt, mask, fins and snorkel. Wealthier divers might have a dive watch. Deco concerns were dealt with either by referencing US Navy dive tables or accepting the motto, "You can't get bent on a 72." The only generally adopted safety advance in the first decade was the j-valve.

For all practical purposes, the earliest first-gen divers in the the Mediterranean and Southern California didn't have to worry much about decompression or volume of air in their tanks. They would get hypothermia long before getting bent! Fortunately, formal civilian training programs began about the time wetsuits became available. Diving was still too small to justify compressors in warm water locations in the Caribbean or Red Sea.

I remember seeing a 16mm movie by Dewey Bergman on an expedition to study sharks at the Rangiroa Atoll in 1964. They somehow flew a small mountain of steel 72s, full! I'm not sure why they didn't bring a couple of small compressors or how they found an airline to agree to fly with a hold full of HP cylinders. As a result, they did a lot of freediving. I mentioned Dewey Bergman because he was a key player in creating the dive travel industry and convincing people to install compressors and rent tanks.

I think the dive travel industry was the biggest single competitive factor in shortening and compartmentalizing Scuba training. The first generation Scuba courses were very much based on US Navy training. Resort courses developed in the Caribbean taught the minimum required to get their guests in the water. The problem was these resort trained divers expected to dive like everyone else when they got home to New England or Northern California.

 

[lowwall]

The 4th gen is the computer generation. I do not know about other parts of the world, but here in Italy it coincides with the widespread adoption of the Aladin Pro computer by Uwatec..
It was around 1995 when any diver not owing an Aladin Pro was considered a dinosaur here.

I got certified in early 2001 via a PADI course. Most of the classroom time was spent on learning to work the PADI dive tables. We weren't allowed to use computers for the course dives. I think that allows me to claim to be a 3rd generation diver.

But when I went diving everyone was using computers. One came with my rental gear on my first dive vacation and I bought one before my second one.

 

[Pressurehead]

In Australia it was for me the US show Sea Hunt and Ron and Valerie, Quote: Taylor opened our eyes to the wonders of marine life, and specifically sharks. I was 'hooked' early.
Ron and Valerie Taylor
And Ted Eldred, the man behind the Porpoise regulator, the world's first single-hose regulator.