March 1997

Vol. 12, No. 3     What's this?

DEMA: BOBS, Yes; No Bubbles, No

from the March, 1997 issue of Undercurrent  

Once again resorts, live-aboards, travel wholesalers, and equipment manufacturers presented their wares to scuba retailers at the annual Diving Equipment Marketing Association (DEMA) show. What was new this year at Orlando? Not a lot. Atomic Aquatics, a company started by two former Scubapro designers, introduced its titanium regulator. Its ultralight second stage, some innovative design features, and a claim that annual overhauls are no longer necessary make this a reg I'd like to test dive. Suunto was showing its watch-sized Spyder -- a full-function dive computer that doubles as a wrist watch. Bellaqua featured BOB, a kind of 12-volt-battery-powered underwater Moped that scoots you along the reef with your head high and dry inside a clear acrylic dome.

However, the biggest hype of the show was rebreathers. Are we ready for a unit that allows us to rebreathe the same air instead of blowing bubbles? Are manufacturers really producing them? Ready or not, many manufacturers were touting no-bubble technology, so we asked tech-diving guru Michael Menduno to sort it all out for us in next month's issue.

Footnote: Surf Expo, running concurrently next door to DEMA, made the dive industry look conservative -- an adjective that had not crossed my mind before. The late Marjorie Banks, who led the campaign "No Bimbos in Advertising," would have been appalled.

J. Q.