The word Scuba is actually an acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
Modern scuba diving gear consists of one or more gas tanks strapped to the divers back, connected to an air hose and an invention called the demand regulator. The demand regulator controls the flow of air, so that the air pressure within the diver's lungs equals the pressure of the water.
1942-43 Jacques-Yves Cousteau (a French naval lieutenant) enters the history of scuba with Emile Gagnan (an engineer for Air Liquide, a Parisian natural gas company) work together to redesign a car regulator that will automatically provide compressed air to a diver on his slightest intake of breath
They test the first Aqua-Lung and start selling these units.
1950 Despite the technical success of the aqua lung, it has yet to catch on in the U.S. So far only 10 aqua lung units have been shipped to the U.S. because, the distributor tells Cousteau, "the deep sea dive market is saturated." (That must rank amongst to biggest 'bloopers' of all time let alone in the history of scuba diving...
for in the 1990’s an estimated 500,000 new scuba divers are certified in the USA
1971 - Scubapro introduces the Stabilization Jacket. BC. This allows the diver to adjust his buoyancy.
1960's As accident rates for scuba divers climb, the first national training agencies are formed to train and certify divers; NAUI is formed in 1960, PADI in 1966.
Sodwana Bay is considered to be among the premier dive sites of the world, it is home to the southern most tropical coral reefs on the planet which are further south than the Great Barrier Reef. The reef has an incredibly dense coral cover and wide diversity of fish, crustaceans and more with over 1200 species having been recorded in the area.
Conditions range from idyllic to challenging depending on the wind and the current. The sites vary in depth between 10 meters and depths only suited to technical deep divers. The shallowest siting of a coelacanth took place in Sodwana at a depth of just over 100m.
The reef's at Sodwana Bay are named by the distance they are from the launch site, Jesser Point.
At the entrance gate tell the security you are going to the Scuba Center. Please do the cache between the hours of 0800 to 1600 even though it is available outside these hours.
The scuba center is aware of the cache if you are really stuck they will help.