TO “AIR” IS HUMAN?

TRYING TO FORECAST where we’re going is made infinitely easier when we’re able to look back and see where we’ve been! More often than not it’s a fascinating exercise in hindsight, one that manages to reveal that where we are today is not necessarily where we thought or hoped we’d be when we dreamed – a decade or more ago – of what the future might hold. Recreational diving is no exception – as I discovered while flicking through the musty pages of my hoard of old diving magazines.

Reflecting the changes that have taken place in our approach to diving over the last half-century, many of those publications have become nothing more than vague memories. With small circulations and appealing to an equally small number of diving enthusiasts, much of the editorial emphasis was on the DIY adventure of diving. (One of them advised readers on how to make an underwater light by linking up four 1.5-volt dry cell batteries in series with a soldering iron. “Scrounge an old torch reflector and bulb holder and attach your wires to a six volt bulb. Shove the lot into a half-pound preserving jar and pack it tight with newspaper so the reflector is pressed against the bottom of the jar. Join up the two wires before you leap over the side. A night dive is worth wasting a set of batteries anyway.

We’ve come a long way since

the early days of nitrox