The following snippet, copied from an Australian newspaper, appeared in an online magazine – Nekton – that I produced and edited for several years in the early 2000’s.

Today, given the widespread acceptance and use of CCR’s by recreational divers, it’s interesting to see how attitudes to this item of diving technology has changed in such a short space of time.

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On Tuesday, 6^th May 2003, the Victorian newspaper, The Geelong Advertiser reported the case of a rebreather diver charged with poaching abalone.

Captioned, ‘Gear has diver in hot water’ the article began with:

 “A re-breather has only two uses besides poaching abalone,” the magistrate told a 25-year-old diver yesterday.

 “One is for use in the drug trade and the other is if you are about to commit an act of terrorism.”

 The magistrate said such sophisticated diving equipment, which allowed a diver to stay underwater longer and produce few exhaust bubbles, was of no use to the normal recreational diver. ….’

Now we know how so many prominent underwater photographers and film-makers are able to afford those very expensive cameras?

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Categories: History

Tags: ADEX, Asian Dive Expo, deep wreck diving, dive plan, dive training, Global Underwater Explorers, mixed gas diving, OZTeK, PADI, rebreather diving, recreational diving, technical diving, tecnical diving, Underwater photography, wreck diving