Tekna question

[HBO MD]

Hi Guys,
Just a question of "historical" interest. Way back when, Tekna seemed to burst onto the Aussie market with a bang : innovative stuff and an initial good rep. This seemed very short lived and the company seemed to fizzle and vanish. Anyone know the story?
Just curious.
Thanks.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Tekna was formed in 1978 - the year before I got into freediving and was broken up and sold off to several different companies in 1990. I never really heard why. The rumor I remember from that time was a law suit or related product liability insirance cost issues made staying in business unfun and/or unprofitable.

That may have been true as product liability was at the time just beginning to be the major problem it has become. Not carrying product liability insurance and vigorously defending each case was an approach some companies tried at the time. Pipar Aircraft tried that with less than stellar results.

I know their lights when to Rayovac and most of the scuba stuff ended up being sold to the company that eventually became Ocean Reef. The dive knife rights went to a knife company but i don't recall which one. Their truly excellent and trend setting scooter changed hands a couple times before being picked up by Oceanic who still sells the last Tekna version as the Mako.

It is really too bad as they made great stuff with some very innovative engineering and some great refinements to even simple things like SPG's and depth gauges.

My first SPG and depth gauge were made by Tekna and I later added the bottom timer option. I also owned an excellent Tekna dive lite. It was well ahead of its time in terms of offering lots of light in a small package.

I also bought a set of Dive Bubbles - they rank as one of those purchases that look at in retrospect as being pretty stupid, but they seemed like a cool idea at the time. No company is perfect.

 

[Nemrod]

I bought a T2100 in 78 or 79, loved it and still use it, I have owned several T2100B. I made a 235 plus foot dive on my T2100. I have several of their stiletto knife, have owned and rebuilt several of their scooters. Tekna went out of buisness due to a lawsuit, some parts of the company were sold off but I understand the molds and spares and everything for the T2100 series regulators pretty much went into a dumpster and their were some middle fingers possibly used. That is a shame.

They were an innovative company with out of the box thinking that is sorely missed in the industry today.

N

 

[akscubainst]

I'm not certain but getting in to the dive computer business too early might have lead to their demise. I had a Tekna air integrated computer in 1989. It was innovative but had tons of bugs. Went through several of them before eventually getting my money back. Shortly thereafter they were gone.

dm

 

[widget]

I was a big TEKNA fan, dont know why they went out of business though, so it is interesting.

The dive bubbles...............Aaaah, I remember them well, lots of students letting them go at 60ft and following them up, getting them lost in currents, mixed up, ........they were great!!

I think their bottom timer was one of their biggest hits, it was way ahead of its time and priced affordably, I dont think there are too many divers out there who was active at the time who didnt have one.

..........but if I think back, we could ask what happened to a few companies, PARKWAY had a good market share and disappeared, there was some gauge manufacturer SIERRA Gauge (I think, cant remember) EIT industries who made the PHOENIX and famous Skinny dipper computers - there are others I just cant think of them now.

Okay, I just thought of another - Wenoka - great knives and a semi great fin where you inserted a flexable strip into the fin to make it stiffer - I never really saw the fin take off in sales even though it was quite revolutionary at the time.