Solo diving II. In the late 1940s, after the invention of the Aqua-lung by Cousteau and Gagnan, the first retail underwater breathing apparatus for sport was commercially marketed. As the sport expanded through the 1950s, several sporting organisations – notably the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) – began scuba training programmes for swimming enthusiasts, thus began the codification of what was believed to be proper practices for the expanding amateur sport of scuba diving. The buddy system was thought to be a useful corollary to the "never swim alone" edicts of the YMCA swimming and lifesaving programmes. Cousteau independently implemented a buddy
Vintage scuba Vintage scuba Vintage scuba is a reference to the art of scuba diving using vintage-style gear, which is generally defined at this time as equipment dating from 1975 and earlier, and to that equipment. The most striking and well recognized example of vintage scuba gear is the twin-hose or double hose regulator, a popular style of regulator since Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnan pioneered the first such design, the C45 Scaphandre Autonome, which was marketed in the USA (along with a tank and harness) as the Aqua-Lung. At present, there is a renewed interest in the care and use of