Buddy diving just before and after the Second World War. After the invention of the "aqualung" by Cousteau and Gagnan, the first commercially underwater breathing apparatus became available for sale for sporting purposes in the late 1940s. As the new sport of scuba diving rapidly expanded through the 1950s, several sporting organisations—notably the YMCA—began programmes to train swimming enthusiasts in this new aquatic pastime, and began to codify what they believed were proper practises for this expanding sport. The YMCA considered the buddy system a useful corollary to the "never swim alone" rule of their swimming and lifesaving programmes. Cousteau himself independently
Philippe Cousteau Philippe Cousteau Philippe-Pierre Cousteau (30 December 1940 – 28 June 1979) was the second son of Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Simone Cousteau, a diver, sailor, pilot, photographer, author, director and cinematographer specializing in environmental issues, with a background in oceanography. Philippe Cousteau was proficient filming from the air, on land and underwater. He was the lead cinematographer for most of the Cousteau films during his lifetime; he was nominated for and won several awards. Born in Toulon, Philippe Cousteau first dived with an aqua-lung in 1945 when he was 4 years old. His father brought home a miniature version of the