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In The Name Of Our Aqualung, Amen.

The Aqualung. Every major religion begins counting years from a significant event in their history.

Christians begin counting years at the birth of Jesus, Jews begin counting years from the Exodus and Muslims begin counting years from Muhammad’s journey to Mecca.

But for us devout divers, our calendar begins in 1943 with the invention of the Aqualung.

So in this, the year 65 AA (Anno Aqualung), I will tell you how one small invention rescued our people from the surface and returned us to the water from whence we came.

In the name of our Aqualung, amen.

Emile Gagnan & Captain Jacques Cousteau

It all started in the common year of 1943 when the French engineer Emile Gagnan and Captain Jacques Cousteau created a system that could take a tank of highly compressed air and break it down to a pressure that everyday mortals could breathe underwater.

The Aqualung had only one stage (unlike the two-staged regulators available today). That first stage, in a manner that can only be described as miraculous, broke down the immense pressure in the tank and fed it to the pious diver via large rubber tubes. And life was breathed into the diver under the water; and it was good.

Aqualung Flaws

However, all was not perfect in the early days of diving.

The Aqua lung, newly created, had its flaws. Because there was only one stage to break down pressure, the Aqualung performed poorly at various depths. It was hard to breathe in shallow water and wasted precious air in deeper water.

The devout divers held up their hands and asked, “Is their anyway that we can breathe easy in both shallow water and stop wasting air in deep water? Please, give us a sign.”

So they asked, and so too did they receive.

In the common year of 1948 a man called Rene Bussoz acquired the rights to sell the Aqualung in North America and in 1952 he launched a company called US Divers. Then in 1958, the company came to be known as Aqualung America.

Along the way, a two-staged regulator was designed that not only broke down the immense pressure of the air tank to about 135 pounds per square inch (PSI) (10 bar), it broke the pressure down to an ambient pressure so divers could breath comfortably at any depth.

The divers saw this was good and they rejoiced.

Aqua-Lung

The company Aqua-Lung is still in existence today in the land of California.

Jacques Cousteau served as the abbot (chairman) of the company for several years prior to his passing in 1997.

The company’s logo remains the sacred image of the original Aqualung, to this day serving as a reminder to all believers of the miracles that were performed one beautiful and fateful day in 1943.

Thanks to the adventurous spirits of our saints Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau we have seen wonders that no one before us has been fortunate enough to experience.

And we saw it was very, very, good and rejoiced.

In the name of our Aqualung, amen.

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