Military and working divers used rebreathers and helmets first. Recreational scuba begins when the Aqua-Lung and later storefront agencies made a holiday course possible.
The history is a regulator, then a storefront, then a reef under pressure.
Timeline
- Aqua-Lung
Cousteau and Gagnan demonstrate the CG45 demand regulator.
- The Silent World
A Palme d’Or film sells looking-under as a public dream.
- PADI founded
A US storefront model that later goes global.
- SSI founded
Another mass-training brand.
- Computers
Dive computers move from novelty to default.
- Nitrox mainstream
Recreational enriched-air courses spread.
- Liveaboard boom
Red Sea, Raja and Maldives weeks become a product.
- eLearning
Classroom hours shrink; the ocean does not.
Eras
- 1943–1966 — Inventors and clubs — Cousteau, navies, amateur federations.
- 1966–1990 — Storefront agencies — PADI and SSI scale the holiday course.
- 1990–2010 — Computer and travel — Nitrox, liveaboards, digital cameras.
- 2010–now — Mass and bleaching — More divers, hotter reefs, tighter parks.
Milestones
- CG45 regulator — The breath that made sport diving possible.
- PADI Open Water — The world’s most common entry card.
- Dive computer — Changed how no-stop time is felt.
- Project AWARE — Agency education that is still not a park law.
Recreational scuba is a 1943 regulator wearing a 1966 storefront. The reef is older than both.