Hollow reeds were the first form of diving equipment, dating back to 100AD, and Persian divers were using polished shells as primitive goggles as far back as 1300.
One of the more gently paced extreme sports, Scuba Diving has been around for a long time.
Hollow reeds were the first form of diving equipment, dating back to 100AD, and Persian divers were using polished shells as primitive goggles as far back as 1300.
The origins of modern Scuba Diving trace back to 1939 however.
After centuries of experiments in underwater-breathing apparatus led to little success and a lot of deaths, Dr Christian Lambertsen finally hit upon a method of storing pressurised air that could be carried and breathed by the diver as part of a contribution to the US war effort.
He called it the Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, and from that we derive the acronym.
Unfortunately, even this device was causing divers’ deaths at depth from high toxicity.
Emile Gangnan and Jacques Cousteau came along five years later and created the demand regulator, which finally allowed the airflow to adjust according to the divers’ needs.
The resultant package was called the ‘aqua-lung’, and is essentially what is used by Scuba Divers today.
The heavy death toll that was paid for the development of Scuba illustrates that it was afforded more importance than a regular recreational activity.
It has served countless military uses, and forms a significant part of the offensive activities of navies throughout the world.
Scuba is not a competitive sport in the traditional sense; competitive diving is more often seen in the sport of free-diving, wherein contestants compete to dive to the deepest point with no equipment and just a single breath of air.
Scuba Divers tend to challenge themselves, and this attitude has led to the development of various disciplines such as Cave Diving, Cavern Diving, Deep Diving, Ice Diving and Wreck Diving.
Scuba Diving has its share of dangers. Decompression sickness, caused by gas bubbles in the bloodstream, can be fatal, as can oxygen toxicity.
The effects on nitrogen breathed at high pressures can also cause nitrogen narcosis, which creates a feeling akin to drunkenness to suddenly affect the diver, an unpleasant and dangerous surprise when diving at great depths.
The fact that these risks are regularly taken by thousands of divers per year attests to the attraction of the sport, the truest way to enter a new world on earth.
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