divEr 56
THE
TECHNICAL
DIVING
REVOLUTION
MICHAEL
MENDUNOis the
US diver who
coined the term
‘technical diving’.
In the last of his three-part
retrospective on the
emergence of technical
diving, he looks back to when
tekkies were clamouring to
Pt 3 ’bring on the ‘breathers!’T
HERE WAS TREMENDOUSinterest in rebreathers
during the early days of tech diving. They were
viewed as the ultimate in self-contained diving
technology, because they could greatly extend bottom times
independent of depth, while providing near-optimal
decompression in a small package.
Not to mention their major cool factor.
There was no doubt in anyone’s minds that rebreathers
were the future of tech diving, and likely self-contained
diving as well. Of course, at the time we didn’t realise how
much discipline and attentiveness was required for
rebreather diving versus open-circuit scuba; the technology
was not readily available.
We began reporting on rebreathers in June 1990 in our
second issue of aquaCorpsand published one or more
articles on the technology in most subsequent issues.
In January 1993, we devoted an entire issue, the
aquaCorps C2(closed-circuit) issue, featuring a Rolling
Stone-style interview with Bill Stone and others with Stuart
Clough, Greg Stanton and rebreather designer and engineer
Tracy Robinette, principal of Divematics Inc.
There were articles by many of the early movers and
shakers in the rebreather community such as Walter Stark,
Bob Cranston, Olivier Isler, Rob Palmer and John Zumrick,
along with a piece on O^2 management by Dr Richard Vann.
There was even a reprint of a 1969 Skin Divermagazine
article by Larry Cushman on the Submarine Systems
prototype rebreather, which featured a cryogenic scrubber
to remove the CO 2.
We also featured several rebreather sessions at the tek93
conference. It was clear at the time that there were many
myths and misunderstandings surrounding the use of
rebreathers, which was not surprising.
Few divers in the sport-diving community owned a
rebreather, other than people such as film-makers Howard
Hall and Bob Cranston and a few explorers and vendors.S
O WE DECIDEDto do something about that. I teamed
up with Robinette, who had built the ShadowPac
rebreather in the 1970s, and we organised the first
Rebreather Forum, held in Key West, Florida, in May 1994.
The forum featured special guests Dr Ed Thalmann,
the US Navy’s diving physiology guru who oversaw the
development of the Navy’s mixed-gas decompression
tables, and inventor Alan Krasberg, who could arguably
be considered the grandfather of mixed-gas closed-circuit
rebreathers.
That first forum had 90 attendees, including five
rebreather manufacturers, numerous training agencies
and representatives from sport, military, and commercial-
diving communities.
As a special treat, we got to tour the US Army’s SpecialdivErNEt.com