Innovation In Recreational Scuba Diving?

[RJP]

On a somewhat related note, a FFM with wireless comm. unit offers the capability to converse underwater. And yet, for whatever reason, this advance has not caught on in a major way & transformed recreational diving. Cost, added care for the comm. unit, fact it hasn't already hit a critical mass in terms of market penetration, whatever the reason, there is a means whereby people can talk underwater...yet very few do.

Richard.

Obviously divers don't WANT to talk underwater... because if they did they'd buy FFM's. At minimum everyone would have decent sized slates with them and be writing each other notes throughout the dive. I think that the silence and solitude - even if you're with 11 other divers - is an important part of the diving experience. Add a FFM and you've fundamentally altered the dive experience in a negative way.

FFM's solve a problem that 99% of recreational diver's DON'T have.

In fact, at some level the lack of the ability to communicate is a benefit that most divers seem to enjoy. How many times have you heard - or been a part of - this conversation immediately after exiting the water...

• Me: "Dude, didn't you see me trying to get your attention?"
• You: "I saw you doing something but I wasn't sure what you were on about."
• Me: "There was a __________!" (Insert name of exotic fish, rare behavior, shark, etc)
• You: "No way! Really?!?"
• Me: "Yeah. That's why I was trying to get your attention."
• You: "Damn! I've never seen a _________." (Insert name of exotic fish, rare behavior, shark, etc)
• Other Diver: "Are you guys talking about the __________?" (Insert name of exotic fish, rare behavior, shark, etc)
• Me: "Yeah... did you guys see it?"
• Other Diver's Buddy: "It was so cool! I've never seen one that ________!" (Insert big, small, fast, large, etc)
• Me: "No kidding! Rich here missed it. I was trying to get his attention..."
• Other Diver: "Dude, I can't believe you missed it!"
• Captain: "Did I hear you guys say you saw a __________?"(Insert name of exotic fish, rare behavior, shark, etc)
• Me: "Yeah!"
• Captain: "Those are pretty rare, even here in ________." (Insert exotic location to which you'll never return.)
• Other Diver: "It was ________!" (Insert cool, awesome, exciting, life-changing, etc"
• Other Diver's Buddy: "You're not kidding! We'll probably never see something like that again."
• Me: "Rich, I can't believe you didn't see me trying to get your attention!"

With FFMs three people would have been deprived of one of diving's greatest pleasures... busting another diver's b@lls for having "missed the _______ on that dive in ________."

In fact if my buddy Dave happens along he can tell you the infamous "What manta?" story.

 

[boulderjohn]

We have enough folks killing themselves texting while driving. I can just see the increase in OOA and out of NDL because folks are texting and using their iphones rather than paying attention.

Home - iDive

The iDive has been around in different versions for years. I have never seen it used, but I am told that some people use it for entertainment while doing decompression dives. If you have 90 minutes to 2 hours of decompression stops to do in blue water, staring at your buddy for that entire time can get very old. Believe me.

Of course, this thread is about recreational sport diving, not decompression diving.

 

[DiveNav]

Well, if it were truly innovative it would feature a bluetooth or ANT+ connection to your computer or wireless-enabled SPG and provide pop-up messages on your phone screen.

The dive computer part is already happening. See this post

For the AI integration part ..... working on it. Hopefully by next DEMA

 

[drmwc]

Here my preferred way to combine the use of smart phones and diving:

I may not be the most innovative person in the world....

 

[Akimbo]

… FFM's solve a problem that 99% of recreational diver's DON'T have…

I think FFM acceptance is really more complex than that. Even without the added layer of complexity when things go wrong, people who don’t have strong watermanship skills “need” quick and simple access to breathing at the surface and off other regulators to be comfortable. Wireless communications piles-on another layer of “stuff” to deal with… all in a world where many divers want integrated weights, combined Octo/BC inflators, and console-mounted computers for simplicity.

Looking at artist renderings of the “future diver” is revealing. There is always a hydrodynamic cowling worn on the back and helmet with integrated lights, communications, and data. The suit fits like a painted-on 1mm wetsuit and the only other bit of gear to put on are fins. Experienced divers know that it isn’t practical due to Archimedes' principle and the laws of thermodynamics… but it is what we all wish we had.

In reality, we are going in the opposite direction. Just look at old videos of Mike Nelson of the Sea Hunt TV show gearing up. There is so much less crap than today, even though his cylinder harness used double D-rings on the chest and belly.

 

[widget]

And even if we wanted to be THAT narrow, why has no one invented a little tiny scuba unit (maybe a spare air on a belt with a first stage on it) that certified divers who have pools can play with? Would certainly expose more potential divers to the sport as they see their neighbors having fun in their backyard pool. Not saying it's a great idea... but it's certainly an obvious application of existing "existing design principles."

.

They have, its called a "Boom e Lung" was quite common about 10 years ago but never really made it into main stream scuba, probably because it was a fairly "agricultural" piece of equipment, I actually used one in Hong Kong once and my experience of it was rather "interesting" to say the least. I spent a few minutes looking for a web site but I could only find a picture, maybe some serious "googling" will find some better pictures.

---------- Post added November 26th, 2014 at 08:26 PM ----------

In reality, we are going in the opposite direction. Just look at old videos of Mike Nelson of the Sea Hunt TV show gearing up. There is so much less crap than today, even though his cylinder harness used double D-rings on the chest and belly.

I agree, although I have to say there has been a lot of new radical designs which simply fell by the way side. Up to about 10 years ago I used to enjoy going to Dema because there was always a new manufacturer with some innovative design, some in my opinion had potential, some of course were "just off the wall" but even those with potential never really made it into main stream sales simply because the scuba market is waaaaaaaaaaaaay to small to fund that kind of innovation.

I remember when the roll up snorkel first made its debut at Dema, it was a disaster, I know because I got one to test, it simply folded over and cut off all breathing in even the slightest current or smallest surface wave, but because the snorkel was a basic design some material application adjustments was all that was needed and .......well, today, they are as common as dirt.

 

[radtype]

I think the dive computer so far has been the biggest innovation so far. If in doubt ask a certified diver how to use their dive tables.

 

[Diver0001]

I'm struggling to come up with anything that has fundamentally changed recreational scuba diving since then... other than the introduction of professional instruction/certification. By "fundamentally" I mean something that has expanded the who, how, where, or when of recreational diving in a meaningful way.

I considered the following, but feel they are more "evolution-vs-revolution" improvements rather than true innovation:

Horsecollar BCD
Personal dive computers
Recreational nitrox

Since I started diving in 1984 I can think of a few innovations. Also, an innovation doesn't need to imply a complete paradigm shift. Any new idea or bit of gear that is an improvement over the old(er) way is an innovation.

To name a few:

- Trilaminate drysuits came out of prototype
- Dive lights that generate enough light, don't leak and aren't the size of a football
- Computers (in 1984 they were rare, expensive and had less than encouraging names like "bend-o-matic")
- Masks with prescription lenses. I don't recall seeing these back in the day. As I recall people took the lenses out of reading glasses and siliconed them into the mask.
- Underwater cameras, then affordable cameras, then affordable cameras that got small enough to be useful, then digital (video) cameras etc etc this trend will continue for some time.
- The octopus, which had been in use previously, was certainly not a standard in the early 80's but has since become virtually ubiquitous
- I think the blurring of technical and recreational lines has delivered some improvements as well. Familiarity with concepts like redundancy and more importantly, access to training related to more technical aspects. I think the average diver's knowledge about deco theory is probably better now than it was in 1984 and with the continued cross-fertilization between technical and recreational disciplines I see this trend continuing. In 1984 these worlds were worlds apart in terms of knowledge and skill sets.
- Dive travel
- The internet. This actually isn't a joke. I think people who want to become informed and/or connected can do so much more easily than they could have even dreamt of in 1984

Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head that all happened or reached the point of becoming standard in the last 30 years.

R..

 

[MaxBottomtime]

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[Eric Sedletzky]

In reality, we are going in the opposite direction. Just look at old videos of Mike Nelson of the Sea Hunt TV show gearing up. There is so much less crap than today, even though his cylinder harness used double D-rings on the chest and belly.

I have to agree.
Would the underwater fight scene in Thunderball be the same if all the divers were wearing poodle jackets, split fins, pretty colors, snorkels on their masks, and flailing/hand swimming vertically?
There was something about the sleekness and simplicity back then that when you saw a diver it just spelled "diver".
They were streamlined, fururistic looking, stealthy, mysterious, adventurous, daring, fearless, they had swagger, an attitude of "I'm a diver, what are you?". Maybe, just maybe, this had something to do with why the youth of that time was infected with the mystery and passion of diving.
I just don't see anything these days that's even close. Why would the youth of today want to be a diver? what's in it for them?
It seems like the thrill is gone (not for me), I'm just saying', Youth hasn't changed much, they are still young and invincable. Prove to them that diving is something way cool and they might pay attention, for a second. A second is about all the time you'll have.