Scuba Diving Blog

I couldn’t sleep so I thought I would update this blog since I haven’t been keeping it up as much as I had hoped to.  Give it time… Eventually we’ll have it up to it’s full potential.

Tim (my husband) and I are planning a trip to Australia with some friends.  The details are still being worked out, but we are dying to dive the Great Barrier Reef.

I have dreamed of traveling to Australia since I was about 5 years old and first fell in love with the Koala Bear.  I have studied the country for years and still haven’t made it there.  Now, the thing that excites me the most about going there is diving of course.

So, I am doing a lot of research and as I come across interesting dive information I will post it.  In the meantime, if anybody has any information on diving in Australia, please send me an email or post a comment.  Send me your favorite photos.  I would love to hear all of your insight.

I hope to hear some great feedback!!!

Kami@scubadivingblog.net

Diving can be traced as far back as as 4500 BC when many cultures used free diving to gather food.  Treasure hunters can be traced as far back as 500 BC  to Scyllias and his daughter, Cyana who hunted for treasures lost in the Persian and Greek wars.

Around 1500AC Di Vinci  designs the first self contained breathing apparatus which appears in his “Codex Atlanticus,” but no proof that he used or even designed this apparatus was ever found.

In 1771, a Frenchman, Freminet, designs a helmet with eye holes.  Air was pumped down to the driver.

It wasn’t until 1825, when Englishman William James created the first unit with compressed air allowing the diver limited time underwater.  This was the beginning of scuba as we know it today.

Also in 1825, American Charles Condert developed a reservoir for compressed air which contains a valve to inflate a dive suit.

In 1892 Frenchman Louis Boutan created a closed circuit system that allowed divers to stay submerged up to 3 hours.

1912 - The US Navy Tables were published.

1923- W. H. Longley developed the first color underwater photographs.

1943 - Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnam develop the first Aqua Lung which was imported in the US in 1949.

1954 - First full textbook of recreational diving, The Science of Skin and Scuba Diving is published by the Council for National Cooperation in Aquatics.

1956 - Ted Nixon introduced the red and white “diver down” flag to notify boats that divers are below.

1980- National Diving Accident Network opens, which is renamed Divers Alert Network in 1983.

And the rest is history…

For a more complete Scuba time line,  see Diving Pioneers, by Eric Hanauer, or visit the following website.

www.SeaSabres.com 

Back in the 1970’s, there were about 2 million tires dumped into the Atlantic Ocean off the Coast of Dania Beach in an effort organized by fisherman to create an artificial reef. Three decades and $2,000,000 later, military divers now begin a 2-5 year project to remove these tires from the ocean floor at a rate of 1000 tires per day.

Over the years the hurricanes have broken the pile of tires up and there has been almost no coral growth.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11462066