How Diving Changed in the 1970s
A certified financial planner with a master of science in business management from Troy State University, Stuart Boxenbaum has served as president of the Statewide Financial Group since 1994. Outside of his professional pursuits, Stuart Boxenbaum has been a certified scuba diver for nearly 45 years.
Although scuba diving has been a relatively popular recreational activity since the 1940s, it wasn’t unified under a single educational and certifying organization until the birth of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) in 1966. PADI engendered a boom in the sport that precipitated a number of technical innovations in the 1970s.
These innovations included the introduction of purge valves on diving masks in the early 1970s. Purge valves allow divers to rid the mask of trapped water without breaking the seal around the face.
The buoyancy control device (BCD) also underwent significant changes during the 1970s. Before 1973, the horse collar style BCD (worn around the neck) was the only option for recreational divers. After many iterations of the BCD subsequently hit the market, the company Scubapro ultimately introduced the stabilizing jacket in 1977. This style of BCD continues to dominate today.
Also, in 1977, scuba training agencies united to mandate submersible pressure gauges as essential equipment. At the very end of the 1970s, female divers finally got some validation from equipment manufacturers as companies began to sell wet suits and other gear in women’s sizes for the very first time.
