What was the most influential development in scuba diving?

[CT-Rich]

Just an observation, since 50 years and CCR seem to be getting tossed around quite a bit. In 1972, I doubt many divers would expect the push button boyuancy control we have today or the ease with which light deco and mixed gasses can be done the aid of ubiquitous and cheap dive computers, or how popular tech and cave diving would become because of all the advances in equipment and training.

Seeing divers prepping CCRs at the local dive spots does not generate much notice any more and they are not considered quite the death traps they once were.

In 50 years, I doubt much diving beyond 100‘ will be done OC and many charters will not allow OC on certain dives because of safety and insurance concerns. OC diving will be relegated to unwashed masses currently paying for snorkel charters. A DM on the boat will monitor the depth, BT and air consumption of the tourist, even able to remotely control their ascent rates.

The diving of Sea Hunt and the Under Sea World of JYC was a longtime ago.

 

[Joris Vd]

???
Before the octopus, we were using two full regs (which I continued to use also after the crap idea of using just one first stage for feeding both second stages was developed).
The octopus was the way for reducing costs for training centers working for-profit, saving on the cost of (twin) tanks with double valves, which were the norm before the success of commercial diving agencies.

up to the mid 70's most twinsets only accomodated one first stage. And almost nobody was using two full regs.
You might have, but it wasn't the norm.
What I mean with the octopus, is the practice of using a second regulator for redundancy. Something which wasn't even happening in cave diving for the longest time during the 60's- early 70's. I don't mean a yellow unbalanced regulator.

It's just not true that double valves were the norm for twinsets. Unless you're talking about 80's and later.

 

[Angelo Farina]

up to the mid 70's most twinsets only accomodated one first stage. And almost nobody was using two full regs.
You might have, but it wasn't the norm.
What I mean with the octopus, is the practice of using a second regulator for redundancy. Something which wasn't even happening in cave diving for the longest time during the 60's- early 70's. I don't mean a yellow unbalanced regulator.

It's just not true that double valves were the norm for twinsets. Unless you're talking about 80's and later.

I know that Technisub (Luigi Ferraro's company) was not well known outside Italy. But here they were ubiquitous in the seventies, a 9+9 or 10+10 liters Technisub twin tank, either steel or alu (named Aralu) was the standard during my diving course in 1975.
I and my girlfriend did purchase two used Aralu twin tanks, which carry a manufacturing date of March 1973.
So these tanks were absolutely common here...
And all had two posts plus a reserve.
What is true is that many divers did use them with a single reg, in fact a typical skill to practice was buddy breathing from a single reg.
Regulators were very expensive!
We did buy our 2nd regs only in 1978, after an OOA episode which required my girlfriend to give me air and to ascend from 42m with a deco obligation...
So the tanks had two posts, but two broken students, as we were at the time, could not easily afford the cost of a complete second reg.
The octopus was some sort of compromise: much lower cost, but not the same safety. An octopus had made no benefit in my OOA accident, as the problem was with the valve. That's the reason for which I do not consider the octopus a big improvement, for me it was a step back from the standard solution of using two complete regs.
Here you see one of our Aralu tanks (year 1973):

 

[Angelo Farina]

And here twin tanks from La Spirotechnique in 1971. The version with double posts is recommended for speleology (caves)...
The 12+12 liters capacity is claimed of providing enough air for 20 minutes at 70 meters...

 

[scubadada]

@Angelo Farina

You are a fount of knowledge regarding diving in Italy, I appreciate all the information you contribute, thanks I learned to dive in California in 1970, the contrasts are very interesting. We used single 72s with a J-valve, a single regulator, a primitive flotation vest, a capillary depth gauge, and a watch. Of course, we had some exposure protection.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It depends on what era.
The wetsuit was a big deal, as was the SPG, and finally a BCD that was reliable and officially manufactured, not some home made contraption.
Next the computer came along and is still a big deal with all the new advances.
If you’re talking about training then GUE/DIR. love them or hate them, they probably shook up the training and methodology world more than any other agency/group.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Okay, I'm going to throw you a curve ball. The most significant innovation in diving is probably the Calypso/Nikonos underwater camera system, followed by movies/videography. Without the photos coming back, without the movies and videos, diving would not have experienced the boom in the 1960-80s. Imagine a world without Sea Hunt, without Cousteau adventures, without the documentation of the underwater world available to anyone with a Nikonos camera.

You can talk all you want about improvements in scuba gear, power inflators, fins that work, the warmth of dry suits, and I'll tell you that I was diving when none of those were available. Why? Because I saw the results in photos, movies and videos. Of the photos below, the two black and white ones were of me by Bruce Higgins, using a Nikonos II. The one of the anemone/amphipod commensal relationship was with a Nikonos II with a Subsea Strobe, and close-up attachment between the camera and the lens. The one of the sculpin was with a Canon F-1N in a Ikelite housing. Underwater photography had an enormous impact on diving itself.

SeaRat

 

[happy-diver]

Magnificent!

 

[Angelo Farina]

My wife still owns a Nikonos-III, the flash was built by me dismounting her father's Rollei flash and fitting it inside a plexiglass case...

 

[Akimbo]

I had one of the Calypso cameras before it was sold (licensed?) to Nikon. It leaked twice before getting my money back from US Divers when I bought a Nikonos 1.0. Quite a clever design from ergonomics and mechanical perspectives. It was first sold in 1963 in the US: