PREVIOUS EARLY PIONEERS

Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI)

Significant Career Achievement and/or Industry Contribution

Starting in the basement of an Illinois house in 1966, PADI became the world’s largest recreational dive training agency with locations in more than 165 counties and territories.

RIICHI WATANABE, KANEZO OHGUSHI, AND KYUHACHI KATAOKA (JAPAN)

While the development of diving equipment has been fairly well documented in Western Europe, the innovations which appeared in other parts of the world remain less so. Japan, as an island nation, has obviously had a long and vital connection to the sea, and it is hardly surprising that they would begin to develop equipment and techniques for exploring beneath the waves.

DIMITRI REBIKOFF

Dimitri Rebikoff developed and manufactured the first portable electronic under water flash in 1947. He also developed and constructed the first underwater scooters (1952 the Torpille, and later the Pegasus) and first remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

DECIMA MAS

Decima MAS was the world's first underwater combat unit that used scuba equipment and also rode on manned torpedoes.

PAUL BERT

Paul Bert was a pioneer in the field of physiology researching oxygen toxicity and decompression sickness. His classical work, La Pression Barometrique, was published in 1878 and is the foundation of research into diving physiology.

TED ELDRED

Ted Eldred was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1920 and is a pioneer of scuba diving in Australia having invented Porpoise scuba gear.

MAURICE FENZY

Maurice Fenzy developed and manufactured the first production Buoyancy Compensator (BC) which became the standard safety vest design throughout the world.

MAX GENE NOHL

Max "Gene" Nohl, was a salvage diver, adventurer, and graduate of MIT. In the winter of 1937, this Milwaukee native tested the suit and pioneered a helium/oxygen breathing mixtures in a record breaking 420 ft. dive to the bottom of Lake Michigan.

HUGH BRADNER

Hugh Bradner was born in Nevada, in 1915. He received his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology in 1941 and went on to work with J. Robert Oppenhiemer in The Manhattan Project, developing the first atomic bomb.

LOUIS DE CORLIEU

Louis Marie de Corlieu was born in 1888 and at a very young age displayed a great interest in the ocean. He joined the French Navy, studied different themes of propulsion and saw service during World War I.

JOHN SCOTT HALDANE

John Scott Haldane was born in 1860 into an affluent Scottish family, Haldane spent his life in the research of respiratory physiology. He became famous for locking himself in sealed chambers breathing lethal cocktails of gasses while recording their effects on his body and mind.

LOUIS BOUTAN

Louis Marie Auguste Boutan was born on March 6,1859 in Versailles, France. He studied at Saint-Louis high school and graduated with degrees in literature and science. In 1879 he became an assistant at the University of Science in Paris and was deeply interested in naturalism.

BENOIT ROUQUAYROL AND AUGUSTE DENAYROUZE

Benoit Rouquayrol was born in Espalion, France on June 13,1826. He started his studies in Espalion, then followed on to college in Rodez, and then on to the School of Mines in Saint-Etienne. He later became a mining engineer at the private company Houilleres and Fonderies of Aveyron.

HENRY ALBERT FLEUSS

Henry Albert Fleuss was bom in Wiltshire, England in 1851. At the age of sixteen he went to sea, eventually becoming an officer with the P&O Company. Whilst watching divers recovering lost cargo in their heavy and cumbersome apparatus, Fleuss was inspired to find a way of making the diver independent of the surface and thus dispense with the heavy pump and the large crew of men needed to operate the apparatus.

YVES LE PRIEUR

Yves Le Prieur was bom on March 23,1885 and followed his father into the French navy. As an officer he served in Asia and used traditional deep sea diving equipment.

JOHN ERNEST AND GEORGE WILLIAMSON

The inductees for this new category of Early Pioneers are George and J. Ernest Williamson. In 1912, they modified an invention of their father's into an underwater viewing sphere for underwater film production.