Issue #4|MIX
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it. This is the century to be pro-active about the future!"
Alan C. Kay, Stanford Computer Forum 1987
aquaCORPS #4 MIX was published in January 1992 just before the "Enriched Air Nitrox Workshop" chaired by Dr. RW Bill Hamilton that was held just prior to the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA) show in Houston, Texas. The goal of the workshop, which was organized by aquaCORPS and the Scuba Diving Resources Group, was to bring together industry stakeholders to address concerns about nitrox use, and equipment compatibility and filling protocols. As a result of holding the workshop, DEMA allowed nitrox training agencies and vendors to attend the show.
The MIX issue focused on the adoption of mix gas diving technology by sport divers, and included an interview with cave explorer Sheck Exley. It was also the first issue of aquaCORPS that included the tagline, "The Journal for Technical Diving", a moniker coined by aquaCORPS founder & publisher Michael Menduno, and first used in 1991.
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Issue #5| BENT
"[Shit Happens] He smoothed down his lapel. "I always wear this pin at decompression meetings.” Dr. R. W. Bill Hamilton, NAUI ICUE 9OCT92."
aquaCORPS #5 BENT was published in January 1993 in conjunction with the first technical diving conference, dubbed, tek.93, held just before the annual DEMA show in Orlando, Florida. The issue focused on decompression illness (DCI) and presented the latest thinking on the theory, classification, treatment, and human factors associated with DCI. It featured the work of some of the leading researchers in the field including; Carl Edmunds, T.J. R. Francis, RW Hamilton, Jennifer Hunt, Phillip James, CJ Lambertson, Surgical Capt. Pearson, Capt. Ed Thalmann, Richard Vann, and John Zumrick. At the time, DCI could easily be characterized as the "sexually transmitted disease (STD)" of sport diving. Like STDs, the affliction struck divers engaged in an activity that was fundamental to their nature. What's more there was a disproportionate fear and stigma surrounding DCI suggestive of a “moral disease," and a surprising lack of understanding regarding the disorder on the part of divers and the industry as a whole. We were concerned that we were likely to see more cases of DCI, as tech diving grew and divers continued to push our underwater envelope, by diving deeper and longer.
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Issue #6| COMPUTING
aquaCORPS#6 COMPUTING was published in June 1993 following aquaCORPS’ first technical diving conference, dubbed tek.93, held in Orlando, Florida in January of that year. The issue focused on dive computing and included interviews with nitrox computer developers Randy Bohrer (Bridge), Kevin Gurr (ACE), Paul Heinmiller (Phoenix), an interview with Karl Huggins (EDGE), and a story about commercial decompression software developed by decompression engineer, JP Imbert. There was also a review by Dr. Bill Hamilton and John Crea, of four desktop decompression programs that had recently been launched in the tech diving market. The cover of the issue shows a visualization of decompression risk that was rendered by David Story on a high-end Silicon Graphics workstation. In June 1993 there were no trimix diving computers. Instead, divers had to rely on pre-printed decompression tables such as the “Key West Consortium Tables,” generated by Hamilton and his DCAP program, or compute their own tables using one of the recently released desktop decompression software programs. COMPUTING went on to envision the future of dive computing with discussions of virtual and augmented reality systems, using computers to visualize decompression risk, and provided a tekkies’ guide to the newly emerging cyberspace and its implication for diving. At the time, DCI could easily be characterized as the "sexually transmitted disease (STD)" of sport diving. Like STDs, the affliction struck divers engaged in an activity that was fundamental to their nature. What's more there was a disproportionate fear and stigma surrounding DCI suggestive of a “moral disease," and a surprising lack of understanding regarding the disorder on the part of divers and the industry as a whole. We were concerned that we were likely to see more cases of DCI, as tech diving grew and divers continued to push our underwater envelope, by diving deeper and longer.
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Issue #7|C2
"Like so many devices which at the time of their of their invention were considered too revolutionary, there was but little demand for diving apparatus of this type for many years, Although my company has been making large numbers of breathing apparatus on this principle for work in poisonous atmospheres in mines, fire brigades, chemical works, gas works etc., the demand for its application to the diving dress was comparably small until the exigencies of war brought it into use and proved its value."
Robert H. Davis, Deep Diving and Submarine Operations 1951
aquaCORPS #7 C2 (Closed Circuit) was published in December 1993 just prior to the 1994 tek.Conference and DEMA show held in New Orleans, LA. The issue focused on rebreather technology, and we planned it as a primer in anticipation of aquaCORPS Rebreather Forum, scheduled to be held in Key West, FL that coming May. At the time, there was only a few dozen rebreather in the hands of sport divers including Cis-Lunar Development Laboratories MK-4 developed by Dr. Bill Stone, Steam Machine Prism prototypes developed by Peter Readey, French explorer Olivier Isler’s redundant semi-closed rebreather, and a number of modified Carleton Mk 15s. Rebreather training was still in its infancy.
It would be another year before Draegerwerk AG released its semi-closed Atlantis rebreather, aimed at recreational divers, and more than three years before Martin Parker, managing director of UK-based AP Diving would launch the “Buddy Inspiration,” the first production closed-circuit rebreathers for sport divers. Even so, it was clear in December 1993, that rebreathers were going to pay an important role in technical diving.
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