I have received an email from Recdive’s reader asking about the history of Scuba diving, but I was a bit busy with work that prohibits me from writing a post about the history. So, today I’m taking this opportunity over the weekend to bring you a brief history of this underwater activity.

Scuba is actually an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, although now it is widely accepted as a word itself. It is a form of underwater diving in which divers uses a set of equipment to breathe underwater for recreation or commercial purposes.

Before Scuba era, diving activities relied on air supplied from the surface through an air supply hose, which limits divers movement underwater. Scuba allows divers to carry their own air supply in a tank canister (usually in a form of compressed air), allowing greater freedom to divers.

Be it surface supplied or scuba diving, both allow divers to stay underwater much more longer than breath-holding techniques as used in skin diving. Divers usually moves underwater by usng fins attached to diver’s feet. Modern invention also helps divers to move faster with external propulsion that can come from underwater vehicle such as underwater scooter.

The first commercial scuba sets called Aqualung was developed by Emile Gagnan and Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Divers inhales compressed air from a tank and then exhaled into the water, and today’s diving gear are still based on this system.