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Scuba Diving Gear

Scuba diving gear is an essential aspect of diving. It lets you breath, see, move, and survive in an environment that is hostile to human life. The ocean is a paradox of sorts, on the one hand it is the origin of life according to some theories, and even discounting that, it is home to the overwhelming majority of life on this planet, both plant and animal. On the other hand, we can’t breathe air, and neither can any of the species we interact with most frequently.

This paradox has been one of the prime motivations in the urge to explore the ocean’s depths. The other is the thrill of the unknown. Satellites have mapped the entire surface of the planet from space, and we can zoom in to see close-ups of nearly anywhere with just the click of a mouse. Yet none of that technology has really impacted the veiled world of undersea exploration. Mankind has tried to pierce that veil since ancient times, attempting to do so both with ancient scuba diving gear, like bags filled with air; as well as with surface assisted diving techniques like diving bells.

Today we’ve gone a long way since the technique of strapping an oiled sheep’s bladder to our body in order to provide extra breathing air. We compress air to hundreds of times atmospheric pressure and carry it in a tank on our back. The simplest sets of scuba diving gear use open circuit diving, and even with those, a diver can remain underwater for an hour or more. More advanced sets use closed circuit breathing apparatuses, which recycle the unused oxygen we exhale. These are both better for delicate underwater environments (caves, shipwrecks), and for diving duration, as we only use a fraction of the oxygen in each breath.

 

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