History of scuba diving the high number of recreational scuba accidents. this started with informal training and led to the creation of training and certification agencies. BS-AC was formed in 1953, CMAS in 1959, NAUI in 1960 and PADI in 1966. The sport of scuba diving had its roots among the multitude of small enthusiastic snorkelling and spearfishing clubs in the decades just before and after the Second World War. After the invention of the "aqualung" by Cousteau and Gagnan, the first commercially marketed underwater breathing apparatus became available for sale for sporting purposes in the late 1940s. In 1951, Jim Auxie Jr and
Scuba set of 1918), and Commandant le Prieur's hand-controlled regulator in France (as of 1926); see Timeline of diving technology. This system consists of one or more diving cylinders containing breathing gas at high pressure, typically , connected to a diving regulator. The demand regulator supplies the diver with as much gas as needed at the ambient pressure. This type of breathing set is sometimes called an "aqualung". The word "Aqua-Lung", which first appeared in the Cousteau-Gagnan patent, is a trademark, currently owned by Aqua Lung/La Spirotechnique. This is the first type of diving demand valve to come into general use, and