Jacques-Yves Cousteau, was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the Aqua-Lung, which assisted him in producing some of the first underwater documentaries.
Cousteau in 1972
Cousteau's Diving Saucer
Cousteau's submarine near Oceanographic Museum in Monaco
President Kennedy awards the National Geographic Society's Gold Medal to Jacques Cousteau, 1961
A scuba set, originally just scuba, is any breathing apparatus that is entirely carried by an underwater diver and provides the diver with breathing gas at the ambient pressure. Scuba is an anacronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Although strictly speaking the scuba set is only the diving equipment that is required for providing breathing gas to the diver, general usage includes the harness or rigging by which it is carried and those accessories which are integral parts of the harness and breathing apparatus assembly, such as a jacket or wing style buoyancy compensator and instruments mounted in a combined housing with the pressure gauge. In the looser sense, scuba set has been used to refer to all the diving equipment used by the scuba diver, though this would more commonly and accurately be termed scuba equipment or scuba gear. Scuba is overwhelmingly the most common underwater breathing system used by recreational divers and is also used in professional diving when it provides advantages, usually of mobility and range, over surface-supplied diving systems and is allowed by the relevant legislation and code of practice.
Diving with a recreational open-circuit scuba set
Classic twin-hose Cousteau-type aqualung
A single-hose regulator with 2nd stage, gauges, BC attachment, and dry suit hose mounted on a cylinder
Scuba harness with backplate and back mounted "wing" buoyancy compensator Regulator first stage Cylinder valve Shoulder straps Buoyancy compensator bladder Buoyancy compensator relief and lower manual dump valve DV/Regulator second stages (primary and “octopus”) Console (submersible pressure gauge, depth gauge & compass) Dry-suit inflator hose Backplate Buoyancy compensator inflator hose and inflation valve Buoyancy compensator mouthpiece and manual dump valve