Kurt Kucera

Scuba Diver, Car Enthusiast, Outdoorsman

The Best Holiday Gifts for Scuba Divers

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The holidays are around the corner. Therefore, people need to start preparing gifts for scuba diving enthusiasts on their gift list. The gift a person will give to a scuba diver friend will depend on their budget.

Choosing the best holiday gift for scuba divers can be challenging, especially for people who aren’t enthusiastic about scuba diving. Moreover, they are many gifts for scuba divers. Therefore choosing the best one can be confusing. People can find these gifts at local dive shops or online. Here are the best holiday gifts for scuba divers.

Ocean-Themed Jewelry

Scuba divers love the ocean. They enjoy scuba diving and taking photos or videos of marine life. Ocean-themed jewelry such as earrings, bracelets, and necklaces reminds them of ocean life.

If a scuba diver prefers to wear a wet suit instead of a suit, handmade bracelet cuffs with marine life designs can be a good holiday gift for them. Masks, diving helmet cufflinks, and snorkels are also great holiday gifts for a scuba diver.

T-Shirts or Hats

Scuba divers don’t always spend all their time underwater. When they are not Scuba diving, they are probably basking on the beach. Hats help protect their head from sunlight rays, which can be harmful. When people buy PADI gear hats, they somehow help keep plastic out of the ocean. It is because they use recycled plastic to make hats.

A t-shirt is yet another gift a scuba diver would love to receive. Before buying a t-shirt, it is advisable to ask the scuba diver which dive shop they prefer. The t-shirt can have phrases such as “I work well under pressure.”

Books about Sea Creatures and Scuba Diving

Before sending a holiday gift to a scuba diving enthusiast, the sender should consider the diver’s interests. If they enjoy reading books about sea creatures and scuba diving, then such books are the best holiday gifts.

For instance, National Geographic books inspire individuals to love and protect the underwater world. Books about scuba diving can also help them become better scuba divers and safe places to do it.

Scuba Diving Gadgets and Accessories

Thanks to technology, there are several gadgets that individuals can give to scuba divers. It includes a dive torch, GPS devices, underwater cameras, etc.

The above are some holiday gifts for scuba divers. The gifts should be unique and fit their budget range.

A Short History of Scuba Diving

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A Short History of Scuba Diving

The first known instances of people breathing stored air under water can actually be found on the walls of caves. Cave paintings can be found depicting people using goat bladders to breath under water. Of course, there were many steps along the way the took us from goat bladders to today’s Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

The demand valve was the starting point for the scuba regulator we know today. Benoît Rouquayrol, a frenchman, first concepted and patented the demand valve back in 1860. It was initially developed for people to use when entering an area where it was difficult or unsafe to breath, such as a smoke filled room or a poisonous mine. The demand valve wasn’t thought to be used underwater until Rouquayrol met French Navy Lieutenant Auguste Denayrouze. Together, they designed a “regulator” for divers to use underwater with surface-supplied air. It was their regulator that inspired the diving rigs in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, published in 1870.

More than 80 years later, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan created the first scuba system.

Compressed air cylinder systems had been developed prior to 1943, but Cousteau and Gagnan’s design was the first free flowed or hand controlled. In 1943, the Aqua Lung system was the first to successfully use a demand valve to deliver a diver compressed air from a cylinder. The single-stage, double-hosed “scuba-set” placed the demand valve and exhaust valve behind the head, able to deliver high-pressure stored air at a pressure divers could breathe.

This was an amazing innovation at the time. For the first time ever, divers could swim without having a direct connection to the surface.

In 1951, E.R. Cross invented the “Sport Diver,” thought of today as the first modern two-stage, single-hose regulator. Although at about the same time in Australia, Ted Eldred designed a similar system called the “Porpoise,” which leads many to debate who deserves the real credit.

Companies everywhere started to independently produce single-hose scuba regulators.

In 1958, engineers from Sherwood Manufacturing modified the piston regulator for underwater. Several other manufacturers adopted the piston design over the other widely used diaphragm design.

Then in 1985, Sam Le Cocq, in partnership with Sportsways, made the “Waterlung,” the first popular single-hose regulator.

Today, materials and size of scuba regulators differ from brand to brand, but the mechanics are actually surprisingly similar to the regulators made some 60 years ago.

Diving bells, hard hat, and surface supplied air laid the foundation for the equipment recreational scuba divers use today. Scuba diving couldn’t exist today without the regulator or self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (where “scuba” get’s it’s name) and compressed air.