Some historical perspective on the evolution of gear from someone who was YMCA certified back in 1968 😮 The 111st YMCA in Chicago had a pool with an 18 foot deep end (no diving board) designed for teaching SCUBA and it’s 40 member dive club which had installed a compressor and bank of large tanks in the men’s locker room. As a kid I vacationed in on Pensacola Beach in Florida and at age four taught myself how to skin dive with mask, fins and one of those snorkels that used a ping-pong ball as a valve to keep the water out. I practiced breath holding until I could hold it 2 min and was easily free diving down to 10-15 ft. as kid. I loved the TV show Sea Hunt and the Jacques Cousteau National Geographic TV documentaries. SCUBA was invented by Jacques Cousteau in 1948 originally with both high/low stages attached in back to the tank with two large 1” hoses coming over the shoulders to the mouthpiece with a one-way valve so one was for the incoming water pressure matching air the other for the exhaust. The advantage of that design was no bubbles in the face. The disadvantage was that the second stage wasn’t always at a consistent distance / depth relative to lungs and mouth which could result in it free flowing when inverted. When I took my class the free-flowing problem had just been solved by US Divers - the company originally created by Cousteau - with the design still used today with the high-pressure stage on the tank and the second stage integrated with the mouth piece. That two piece design facilitated another new innovation - a tank pressure gauge! Prior to the modern two stage regulator design the valve of the tank had a lever with a rod which would retain 500 psi in the tank until the lever was pulled. You’d dive until running out of air then pull the lever to get enough air to surface, always planning the dive per the US Navy dive tables (60 min at 60 ft) which was less time than the 2300psi 72cu ft. capacity allowed so decompression stops were not a factor unless immediately diving very deep. BCD vests had not yet been invented and the way we regulated buoyancy was by adjusting the amount of lead weights based on the planned max depth taking into account how the buoyancy of the 1/4” neoprene wet suit decreased with depth so once at the planned max depth you’d be neutral. On the surface you’d float with mouth / head out of water if lungs were inflated to max capacity. I have torso and lungs 30% larger than average so I floated like a cork with full lungs and sank like a rock if I exhaled completely. I learned to use my lungs as my BCD 😊. Because of my previous prodigious skin diving skills at age 16 I started assisting teaching SCUBA class to adults my parents age and running the club’s compressor to fill the tanks, narrowly missing getting seriously injured when the drying filter ruptured because someone had refilled it with the wrong drying agent when refilling it and it had reacted with and corroded the inside of the filter. The other guy who ran it had put his hands around it to gauge how hot is was (how we knew when to stop and let it cool down) and lost the tips of his finger and broke both wrists. The entire room got blown apart. It was an early wake-up call about how dangerous high pressure air is. Unlike PADI the YMCA stressed and require the ability to swim and free dive before one was allowed to strap on a tank. You had to be able to free dive without a mask to 8’, put the mask on and clear it before advancing to SCUBA and be able to swim 40 yards with no equipment. About 20% people washed out at that stage and their money was refunded. The PADI approach (I later became a PADI Divemaster) was to get a tank on the back and face under the water in the first lesson regardless if the person even knew how to swim-and sorry, no refunds if you couldn’t hack it. Something learned from free diving is the advantage of low volume masks because pressure squeezes mask on face which led to the development of very small masks. A new brand called SCUBA PRO had entered the market with new design for fins called the JET fin which had channels for water to flow through on the up stroke making them much easier use and allowing them to be 3x as large as the previous designs. The synthetic rubber used was also designed to have the same specific gravity as sea water so they were weightless. They were the set of fins I bought for the SCUBA class and I still have them. In 1970 I went off to college, got interested in photography and wound up selling my tank and regulator to buy a pair of Nikon Fs to start a photo journalism career which led to a job as pro photographer 72-74, working as a lab tech at National Geographic 74-77, printing production manager 77-82 and then getting hired by US Information Agency as sent to the Philippines to manage its publishing center where I was able to resume diving and underwater photography again, buying new gear and a new Nikonos V and electronic flash. The only significant change in 1983 from 1968 was the introduction of the inflatable BCD and 3000 psi aluminum tanks which allowed for more bottom time but also increased the times when decompression stops - still using the Navy table - were needed. Having lost my YMCA C card I took PADI advanced open water and started Divemaster train but didn’t get a chance to finish before leaving in 1987 because my female instructor got pregnant. I returned to Manila for a second tour in 1990 and by then PADI had added Rescue Diver as a prerequisite for Divemaster so took that and Divemaster becoming one in April 1991. The significant new tech then was dive computers which allowed for three dives per day which motivated me to have my own 30 foot outrigger Banca style dive boat build because the one’s used by the local guides in Anilao, Batangas were too small for 4 divers with 12 tanks. I and a colleague made a deal with the boatman we used in which we supplied the materials - including a 4cly. Toyota car engine and transmission - he built it and ran it for us for free for three years at which point we gave it to him - a real ‘win-win’ solution for hassle free diving. The other new tech then were a neat SCUBA PRO spare regulator which attached to the BDC hose and served as via hose to high pressure stage on tank as both BCD inflator and spare regulator - one less thing hanging off the tank. The other was the Spare Air mini tank and regulator which I wound up using several times with dive buddies who hadn’t watched their air supply. The J valve 500 psi reserve on tank valves had been eliminated which led to people with no free diving skills -because PADI did not teach them”-running out of air at depth and panicking, why once I got my Divemaster rating I stopped assisting classes and didn’t renew it because PADI added a new requirement of having $1 million liability insurance to maintain it. I stopped doing SCUBA in 1995 when completing my second tour in Manila. I continued to do off shore free diving as deep as 90’ in Florida where I bought a condo in PCB and back in the Philippines for my last and final assignment there 1999-01. The gear shown in this video is basically the same tech available back in 1990 just with more advanced electronics and probably costing 3x as much and still based on Cousteau’s 1948 design which just shows how good it was.
I like the aqualung wetsuit. so far i've only seen discount alibaba brands try to create that option. great to see a real scuba brand trying with a two piece. hope it works
Garmin’s new dive computer looks fantastic. I'd like to see a comparison with other console dive computers in the same price range. Will you be doing a test like that?
I see potential with the two-piece wetsuit, but is it practical with full scuba gear on? I mean won't the BCD or weight belt pull the two pieces apart?
the aqualung wetsuit in two parts looks like a great idea, but I’m worried about its overall durability. Has anyone tried it yet? When will you do a video review of it?
Honestly, it's ugly. Whether a man or especially a woman, who wants to have gills wrapped around their waste when they're lounging in between dives? Answer, fat people.
No, it's brand new, I can't even find it on their website yet. We'll hopefully get to test it soon and will update with a new video so make sure you're subscribed.
Thanks for your work. All together it appears that this years show was pretty lame, with little to none innovations, mainly redesigns and "maybe upgrades"
Glad you enjoyed it. Yes and no. So the X50i is interesting, but from a Garmin point of view, as it's nothing new in the industry to have a large display DC. The UW internet from DiveVolk is interesting, but not for divers really more in terms of what NGOs, research organizations, etc. can use it for. The FitFlex is new and innovative, and if it works, it would be great for warm water divers looking to add more flexibility to their suit setup. Then a lot of new colors, and as you say redesigns and upgrades. I think for DEMA this is an okay amount of news - in the last few years, there has been bigger "gimmicky" news like the rebreather dive helmet, folding fins, etc. that no one has seen in use. So, it's not really innovating the industry. It's not like going to the big Tech conferences that's for sure.
@@DIVEindotcom The UW Internet sounds interesting for a small niche. but I seem to recall a channel on YT which has UW live stream, so I guess, it is not that new, just a different approach. Most dive-shows nowadays are mainly for networking anyway, me thinks.
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Some historical perspective on the evolution of gear from someone who was YMCA certified back in 1968 😮 The 111st YMCA in Chicago had a pool with an 18 foot deep end (no diving board) designed for teaching SCUBA and it’s 40 member dive club which had installed a compressor and bank of large tanks in the men’s locker room. As a kid I vacationed in on Pensacola Beach in Florida and at age four taught myself how to skin dive with mask, fins and one of those snorkels that used a ping-pong ball as a valve to keep the water out. I practiced breath holding until I could hold it 2 min and was easily free diving down to 10-15 ft. as kid. I loved the TV show Sea Hunt and the Jacques Cousteau National Geographic TV documentaries.
SCUBA was invented by Jacques Cousteau in 1948 originally with both high/low stages attached in back to the tank with two large 1” hoses coming over the shoulders to the mouthpiece with a one-way valve so one was for the incoming water pressure matching air the other for the exhaust. The advantage of that design was no bubbles in the face. The disadvantage was that the second stage wasn’t always at a consistent distance / depth relative to lungs and mouth which could result in it free flowing when inverted.
When I took my class the free-flowing problem had just been solved by US Divers - the company originally created by Cousteau - with the design still used today with the high-pressure stage on the tank and the second stage integrated with the mouth piece. That two piece design facilitated another new innovation - a tank pressure gauge! Prior to the modern two stage regulator design the valve of the tank had a lever with a rod which would retain 500 psi in the tank until the lever was pulled. You’d dive until running out of air then pull the lever to get enough air to surface, always planning the dive per the US Navy dive tables (60 min at 60 ft) which was less time than the 2300psi 72cu ft. capacity allowed so decompression stops were not a factor unless immediately diving very deep.
BCD vests had not yet been invented and the way we regulated buoyancy was by adjusting the amount of lead weights based on the planned max depth taking into account how the buoyancy of the 1/4” neoprene wet suit decreased with depth so once at the planned max depth you’d be neutral.
On the surface you’d float with mouth / head out of water if lungs were inflated to max capacity. I have torso and lungs 30% larger than average so I floated like a cork with full lungs and sank like a rock if I exhaled completely. I learned to use my lungs as my BCD 😊.
Because of my previous prodigious skin diving skills at age 16 I started assisting teaching SCUBA class to adults my parents age and running the club’s compressor to fill the tanks, narrowly missing getting seriously injured when the drying filter ruptured because someone had refilled it with the wrong drying agent when refilling it and it had reacted with and corroded the inside of the filter. The other guy who ran it had put his hands around it to gauge how hot is was (how we knew when to stop and let it cool down) and lost the tips of his finger and broke both wrists. The entire room got blown apart. It was an early wake-up call about how dangerous high pressure air is.
Unlike PADI the YMCA stressed and require the ability to swim and free dive before one was allowed to strap on a tank. You had to be able to free dive without a mask to 8’, put the mask on and clear it before advancing to SCUBA and be able to swim 40 yards with no equipment. About 20% people washed out at that stage and their money was refunded. The PADI approach (I later became a PADI Divemaster) was to get a tank on the back and face under the water in the first lesson regardless if the person even knew how to swim-and sorry, no refunds if you couldn’t hack it.
Something learned from free diving is the advantage of low volume masks because pressure squeezes mask on face which led to the development of very small masks. A new brand called SCUBA PRO had entered the market with new design for fins called the JET fin which had channels for water to flow through on the up stroke making them much easier use and allowing them to be 3x as large as the previous designs. The synthetic rubber used was also designed to have the same specific gravity as sea water so they were weightless. They were the set of fins I bought for the SCUBA class and I still have them.
In 1970 I went off to college, got interested in photography and wound up selling my tank and regulator to buy a pair of Nikon Fs to start a photo journalism career which led to a job as pro photographer 72-74, working as a lab tech at National Geographic 74-77, printing production manager 77-82 and then getting hired by US Information Agency as sent to the Philippines to manage its publishing center where I was able to resume diving and underwater photography again, buying new gear and a new Nikonos V and electronic flash.
The only significant change in 1983 from 1968 was the introduction of the inflatable BCD and 3000 psi aluminum tanks which allowed for more bottom time but also increased the times when decompression stops - still using the Navy table - were needed. Having lost my YMCA C card I took PADI advanced open water and started Divemaster train but didn’t get a chance to finish before leaving in 1987 because my female instructor got pregnant.
I returned to Manila for a second tour in 1990 and by then PADI had added Rescue Diver as a prerequisite for Divemaster so took that and Divemaster becoming one in April 1991. The significant new tech then was dive computers which allowed for three dives per day which motivated me to have my own 30 foot outrigger Banca style dive boat build because the one’s used by the local guides in Anilao, Batangas were too small for 4 divers with 12 tanks. I and a colleague made a deal with the boatman we used in which we supplied the materials - including a 4cly. Toyota car engine and transmission - he built it and ran it for us for free for three years at which point we gave it to him - a real ‘win-win’ solution for hassle free diving.
The other new tech then were a neat SCUBA PRO spare regulator which attached to the BDC hose and served as via hose to high pressure stage on tank as both BCD inflator and spare regulator - one less thing hanging off the tank. The other was the Spare Air mini tank and regulator which I wound up using several times with dive buddies who hadn’t watched their air supply. The J valve 500 psi reserve on tank valves had been eliminated which led to people with no free diving skills -because PADI did not teach them”-running out of air at depth and panicking, why once I got my Divemaster rating I stopped assisting classes and didn’t renew it because PADI added a new requirement of having $1 million liability insurance to maintain it.
I stopped doing SCUBA in 1995 when completing my second tour in Manila. I continued to do off shore free diving as deep as 90’ in Florida where I bought a condo in PCB and back in the Philippines for my last and final assignment there 1999-01.
The gear shown in this video is basically the same tech available back in 1990 just with more advanced electronics and probably costing 3x as much and still based on Cousteau’s 1948 design which just shows how good it was.
Thanks! I’m looking forward to seeing the reviews of the new two piece wet suit.
I like the aqualung wetsuit. so far i've only seen discount alibaba brands try to create that option. great to see a real scuba brand trying with a two piece. hope it works
Thank you for the walk thru of the DEMA show. I had to miss it this year due to family stuff.
Glad you enjoyed the video, and hope you can make it next year.
Thanks for detailed info !
Glad it was helpful!
14 D rings is hilarious, underwater christmas tree
Garmin’s new dive computer looks fantastic. I'd like to see a comparison with other console dive computers in the same price range. Will you be doing a test like that?
Did you see any nice patches?
I see potential with the two-piece wetsuit, but is it practical with full scuba gear on? I mean won't the BCD or weight belt pull the two pieces apart?
I'm not sure. I think it really depends on how tight the seal/suit is around the waist. It'll be interesting to test.
the aqualung wetsuit in two parts looks like a great idea, but I’m worried about its overall durability. Has anyone tried it yet? When will you do a video review of it?
Honestly, it's ugly. Whether a man or especially a woman, who wants to have gills wrapped around their waste when they're lounging in between dives? Answer, fat people.
No, it's brand new, I can't even find it on their website yet. We'll hopefully get to test it soon and will update with a new video so make sure you're subscribed.
Underwater internet, Great, now I can have Wi-Fi dead zones on my favorite reef too. Can't escape the buffering 🤪
😂
Very true.
The underwater internet idea sounds ambitious, but what will the costs look like?
Does the Fit Flex wetsuit come in different colors?
I'm not sure. We only saw the one demo, but once we get a review up you'll be able to see more about it, and how well it works.
I hope the Garmin DC doesn't "chirp" while comunicating with the air integrated transmitters like the MK3i does....
Most likely it will. It's the same technology - SubWave sonar - so it communicates via sonar so it's sounds being transferred through the water.
Any F1 race cars at the dive show? Looks like a great DEMA despite being in vegas.
A few cars at the show but not an F1 - they were outside though. Looked like quite the show.
That Garmin X50i looks amazing. Waiting for your in-water review with anticipation.
Coming soon! Remember to subscribe.
Thanks for your work. All together it appears that this years show was pretty lame, with little to none innovations, mainly redesigns and "maybe upgrades"
Glad you enjoyed it. Yes and no. So the X50i is interesting, but from a Garmin point of view, as it's nothing new in the industry to have a large display DC.
The UW internet from DiveVolk is interesting, but not for divers really more in terms of what NGOs, research organizations, etc. can use it for.
The FitFlex is new and innovative, and if it works, it would be great for warm water divers looking to add more flexibility to their suit setup.
Then a lot of new colors, and as you say redesigns and upgrades.
I think for DEMA this is an okay amount of news - in the last few years, there has been bigger "gimmicky" news like the rebreather dive helmet, folding fins, etc. that no one has seen in use. So, it's not really innovating the industry.
It's not like going to the big Tech conferences that's for sure.
@@DIVEindotcom The UW Internet sounds interesting for a small niche. but I seem to recall a channel on YT which has UW live stream, so I guess, it is not that new, just a different approach.
Most dive-shows nowadays are mainly for networking anyway, me thinks.
Great video and channel! Like and sub!! Thank you! ❤