Recently, the amount of people enjoying scuba diving has increased along with an increase in the popularity of the sports and the diversification of leisure. Further, a variety of disabled persons are also scuba diving.
However, the BCD for scuba diving is made on the basis of the normal use of a physically capable person. Consequently, this is inconvenient for a disabled individual using the BCD having the configuration.
For example, an oral inflator hose, a gauge, and an octopus are disposed at the left side of the body, while a regulator is disposed at the right side of the body. That is, the operating part is divided to the left and right sides.
However, it is difficult for people who may have problems on the lateral half of the body to operate the operating part that is divided into left and right sides of the jacket.
Further, according to the BCD in the related art, for intake and exhaust, the intake is made by operating a button and the exhaust is made by pushing an exhaust button, with an exhaust hose positioned upward, and discharging the air in the BCD or pulling an exhaust rope.
However, since the intake and exhaust are made by operating the buttons and the buttons for the intake and exhaust are commonly provided to the left side, people who have a weak grip, aged persons, people with paralyzed hands, people having problems with joints, and people who are disabled on the left side have difficulty in operating the desired buttons, which has an adverse effect on the intake and exhaust.
Further, the regulators in the related art extend outward from the tank at the back of the body, through a pressure-resistant hose and a first stage.
However, since the regulator extends from the tank at the back of the body, if the regulator is separated from the mouth, recovery is difficult (it is difficult to return the regulator because the regulator is pulled back behind the diver). Therefore, a very dangerous situation may occur, particularly, for divers whose hands are paralyzed, people paralyzed on the right side of the body, and divers who cannot freely move their arms.
The BCD in the related art has an airbag, substantially formed in an H-shape, at the rear side and maintains the balance and neutral buoyancy by adjusting the amount of air in the airbag and the amount of air in the lung.
For people who are paraplegic on a half of the body, it has been known that the buoyancy is large at the paralyzed side.
However, as the paralyzed half of the body moves upward (rises) in water, the air in the airbag also moves upward, that is, to the paralyzed side, such that the buoyancy at the paralyzed side increases and balance correspondingly changes.
In the related art, in order to this problem, a weight is added to the side where the buoyancy increases (the paralyzed side) to offset the increased buoyancy such that balance is recovered. However, according to this method, if the diver dives with heavy weights (overweight), this imposes a large burden on the diver.
Further, the BCD in the related art is commonly made from special nylon fiber.
However, it is difficult for a person to put on the BCD by oneself because the nylon fiber of the BDC in the related art is soft and the shape is not fixed.
Further, in the BCD according to the related art, an octopus is accommodated in a pocket or retained by an optional holder and a gauge may also be retained by a holder or hung down.
However, buying optional holders for the gauge and octopus may be a burden to diving lovers. On the other hand, when the gauge and the hose of the octopus are accommodated in the pocket of the BCD or hung down, a diver having problems on the arms may have difficulty in checking the amount of air in the tank through the gauge or handle the octopus in an emergency.
A user using a wheelchair may enter the sea, with sitting on his/her wheelchair without the equipment, such as the air tank, and then attach equipment with other's help on the surface of the water. This is because the tank interferes with the back of the wheelchair when the user is equipped with the BCD having a tank in the related art.
However, it is very difficult to attach and detach the equipment on the surface of the water while being shaken by the wave.
Diving is usually made by a group of two people (a pair). Further, when one of the pair loses consciousness due to a problem, the other rescues the person having a problem, basically facing the person.
If the person is unconscious, they should rise to the surface as fast as possible, in which the rescuer generally rise to the surface, holding the person (the rescued-person).
However, when rising while holding the unconscious person (rescued-person), both of the rescuer's hands are occupied, such that it is difficult for the rescuer to put air into his/her BCD or the BCD of the rescued-person, or make the BCD ready on the surface of water.
Further, in the BCD according to the related art, a pressure resistant hose that is connected extends from the back, that is, the end of the tank. Accordingly, it is difficult to handle the pressure resistant hose, such as in recovery and usual time.
As another related art, a technology that integrally attaches a hand expansion life jacket to a portion of a diving suit has been disclosed (see Patent Document 1).
However, the above-mentioned related art relates to a mechanism that generates buoyancy by filling with air, but cannot overcome the above problem, particularly various problems that appear when the disabled persons dive.
Patent Document: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-234489
The present invention has been proposed in consideration of the problems in the related art and an object of the present invention is to provide diving equipment that allows the disabled persons, aged persons, etc. to put on, take off, and easily do the desired operations by themselves.