Diving Technology: Then, Now and in the Future

[drrich2]

While I don't think it would be used a lot every dive, I'm thinking a dive computer with texting capability could be useful for some situations. Like when my buddy is trying to tell me a big green moray is under that coral head, and while I can tell he's making the eel signal, all I see is dark shadow. Or to help find each other in a buddy separation.

Of course, people texting will absent-mindedly damage the reef due to distraction-related poor buoyancy.

Richard.

 

[elmer fudd]

I've dove a variety of gear new and old now and I really don't think the technology has changed much at all. Except for dive computers and lights you're pretty much diving with the same technology that was available over 40 years ago.

Sure there have been lots of incremental improvements, but what strikes me about the change in diving isn't the gear or technology, but rather the philosophy. Back in 1970, they had BPW's, balanced piston regs, SPG's and pretty much everything else you would need today to put together a modern style scuba rig. They just didn't necessarily use that stuff or agree that it was worthwhile. A typical diver back then would have used no BC, no octo and no SPG.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Jet fins that really are ... imagine propulsion without the need to kick at all ... little scooters for the feet ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Ben Mazin markets these in SoCal. He used to sell pairs that attached close to the ankle.
Patriot 3 - Maritime Systems - Jetboots

 

[DiveNav]

I would like to have a pill of Solid Oxygen (and a way to breathe from it) instead of my tank.
I might be even be able to use it to power my termoregulating skin suit

No tank, no bulky wetsuit (drysuit), no weights .... I am a fish!

Alberto (aka eDiver)

 

[Rich Keller]

A rebreather with a sonic disruptor and a propulsion system built into it. The disruptor breaks down the water into oxygen you can breath and hydrogen to fuel the propulsion system.

 

[danvolker]

An affordable recreational version of a SEAL delivery vehicle. Let's all pile into our submersible diver taxi and drive down to the wreck.

I'd be happy with a Tow Sled 6 divers could sit in, with a fiber optic line that runs to the surface with the tow line.....and the "driver" of the tow sled can use a joystick and throttle/brake to make indications to the dive boat towing them, left-right---faster --slower---
This way, we could be pulled probably up to 6 or 7 mile per hour by the dive boat( given the James Bond style cockpit and protection of the tow sled) ....when divers reach the objective on the bottom....there are 2 choices...tow driver stays and has the tow boat pull the sled around the objective/wreck/reef slowly at .5 mph.....until divers are ready to get back on the sled-----or, driver can signal the dive boat that they don't need the sled any longer, and can send it up.....set it on drive straight and stable with elevator on climb to surface.....then it winched up on to a zodiac with the open rear end, and no bottom hull( just the zodiac tubes) where it is connected to the zodiac and becomes the hull.

---------- Post added June 8th, 2013 at 11:28 AM ----------

For the commercial guys, you would need to add an Umbilical attachment and a few thousand cu feet of tank storage to the sled..this commercial version of the sled could then disconnect from the tow line...So the sled could be ridden up with a simple buoyancy and elevator plane control to provide forward thrust until a depth where the divers prefer the great precision of separating from the sled to do their own deco stop and precise depth positions. Divers could connect or disconnect from umbilical at will.

 

[elmer fudd]

What I would really like would be a really good and affordable ROV. Preferably wireless.

 

[bygolly]

For the future:

100% thermally effective, but neutrally buoyant at any depth, dive suit. Imagine, the only ditchable lead you would need would be to sink your very light, high pressure cylinder.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I've been hearing about how rebreathers were going to be the next big thing in diving making open circuit obsolete. This was 20 years ago.
Open circuit's still around bigger than ever.
So are all the same regulators at least internally for the last 40 or more years with very little change.
A fin from 1965 is still the most popular fin on the market.
BP/W's are becoming bigger and bigger. They are not new. All they are is a regurgitated version of a back pack although squarer and way more uncomfortable than let's say a Voit Snug Pack or even an old blow molded plastic pack (those designs were the best) and they sandwich and air cell in there which modernizes it somewhat.
In wetsuits we've regressed. No longer can you get a suit made from Rubatex which was the best rubber ever made. The stuff these days crushes down to paper thin and after about 6 good deep dives is junk.
I suppose drysuit technology took over where wetsuits failed. But then there is a whole other layer of complexity, cost, moving parts, seals, maintenance, etc.
Steel tanks have improved significantly with the HP stuff available.

The one biggest change in diving that I see that really doesn't have much to do gear improvements or new technology, is the internet, social media and how it has blown open a once very tight and secretive industry.
This has also led to the fragmentation of the diving culture and now people are exposed to many different styles of diving. They can pick and choose the direction of their choice.

One thing I think would be cool would be a wetsuit material that doesn't compress and change buoyancy at depth and doesn't require as much or any weight to offset. I'm thinking some sort of gel filled balloons encased in the rubber instead of air pockets, and have them self heat under pressure somehow. The more pressure the more heat they develop.
I don't care for drysuits.

Maybe I'm thinking way too far into this, but why would an industry continue to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions into super high tech gadgetry for a dying sport?
Maybe instead of wishing for higher tech stuff and the "next big thing" maybe it's more prudent to try and rebuild the sport by improving training and trying to get people interested in diving again.
You have to have a base before you can have a market. Trying to create a market with higher tech toys isn't going to suddenly get new people off the street into diving. There has to be a separate primer.

 

[scubadada]

I was certified by the LACUU in 1970 and bought my 1st gear in 1972. I had a Scubapro MK5/R109, a SPG, a depth gauge, a steel 72, backpack with autoinflate vest, and a nice custom 7mm wetsuit. I did very well diving in California with this setup for quite a while and still dive the regulator today.

The most significant advances for me have been dive computers and recreational use of nitrox. I've been using both for more that a dozen years now. I'm still waiting for the next breakthroughs of similar magnitude.