The Biggest Problem
The biggest problem with the At-Pac, however, was not one of design, but of distribution. Watergill decided that, for all intents and purposes, only NASDS stores (remember them?) could be At-Pac dealers. That meant that if you weren’t an NASDS store (or of a similar mind set), you not only couldn’t offer your customers At-Pacs, there was nothing else comparable you could give them.
Put yourself in the position of an early 1970s dive retailer whose customers are asking about this radical new product that looks as though it could revolutionize diving. Do you admit you can’t get these new BCs — or do you succumb to temptation? You know: “You don’t want one of those. They’re dangerous. If you’re unconscious, they’ll float you face down and kill you.”
Bear in mind, the prevalent BC design in those days — the so-called “horse collar” — was patterned after the safety vests you find under airline seats. Never mind that these BCs did a lousy job of helping divers control buoyancy; the psychological factor behind their design was powerful.
Horse-collar BCs had their own built-in danger — yet few people acknowledged it. This stemmed from the fact you could successfully ditch your tank and weight belt, yet still remain attached to your regulator through the low-pressure inflator hose. There was at least one fatality in San Diego in which a diver entangled in kelp did just that. His body was found floating six feet off the bottom, still tethered to the tank by the BC inflation hose.
After Scubapro introduced the first jacket-style BC in 1977, followed by the Seatec Bluefin in 1979 and SeaQuest ADV in 1985, back-inflation BCs for recreational divers were largely forgotten. Then along came technical diving…
::: TOP ::: SUBSCRIBE ::: CONTACT US ::: ABOUT US :::