*(
I started to write this reply after getting off the phone with Ted...He has apparently already joined the conversation, but I still wanted to share what I gathered from my conversation with him)
I just called Zero Gravity in hopes of getting Ted's personal email address so I could inform him of the interest his projects have generated on DeeperBlue. It so happened that he picked up the phone, and in the short but engrossing conversation I had with him it became clear that his project is one of the most groundbreaking underwater efforts ever conceived.
First of all, here's a new image of his fully-functional "Lunocet", perhaps the most complex, powerful and efficient monofin ever developed:
He recounted an anecdote where he and some researchers were diving with whale sharks. Most of the researchers were either snorkeling or on scuba, and because the whale sharks were swimming the researchers had to keep returning to the boat and getting dropped off ahead of the whale sharks. Ted allowed a friend of his to borrow his
Lunocet. The
Lunocet was so effective that it allowed his friend to swim
faster than the whale sharks, and he was able to swim with them for hours.
Ciamillo's
SubHuman Project is even grander. It is first worth looking into the history of Ted's underwater interests and projects. He began as a scuba diver, then got into freediving. He now expresses an annoyance of all the hassle involved in scuba diving, and prefers freediving. He is most interested in the discipline of dynamic apnea because it involves underwater propulsion the most. Ted is driven by the goal to realize the fastest and most efficient
human-powered underwater designs. A few years ago he escorted Tanya Streeter to a competition, in hopes of allowing her to use the
Lunocet to set a new dynamic WR. It was damaged in transport, however, preventing the diving world from getting to behold his creation.
In the 90s Ted developed the "
K-10 Hydrospeeder", a DPV. Unfortunately, due to the relatively small size of the diving industry (compared to, say, the cycling industry which has offered his
Zero Gravity Brakes tremendous success), the business venture sunk. Ciamillo acknowledges that the freediving industry is even smaller, so why pursue producing the
Lunocet? He envisions that the
Lunocet could be successfully marketed to all water enthusiasts some day, if he can develop interest in it and the
activity of freediving in general. He made the analogy of what Jacques Cousteau did for scuba diving...Maybe the
Lunocet could be the next great underwater innovation, due to its novel reliance on biomimetic propulsion principles?
Like what Cousteau did to gather the fascination of the world and thereby catapult the activity of scuba diving, Ted is attempting to do the same with freediving, through the
SubHuman Project. He has designed a
human-powered submarine which relies on biomimetic propulsion. Among other planned expeditions, this Fall he will cross the Atlantic Ocean in the sub (in an estimated 30 - 40 days). An interesting feature of the submarine is that
the cockpit will be completely filled with water; Ted will rely on a snorkel or regulator to breathe through the majority of his voyage. Thus, he will truly be
diving across the Atlantic. Ted hopes that such a fascinating effort will draw the attention of the world and convince everyone that his biomimetic propulsion idea really works. This will hopefully draw his audience's attention to the
Lunocet, and make it financially-practical to produce.
Admirably, Ciamillo is not on a selfish mission to promote only his one-of-a-kind products or be the first to cross the Atlantic in such an interesting fashion. Throughout his expedition across the Atlantic he will be engaged in various research projects, such as studying the nocturnal feeding patterns of megafauna and bioluminescent plankton. Ciamillo is truly a steward of the ocean.
Why hadn't we heard yet of such a tremendous development related so closely to our own passion? Perhaps Ciamillo wants to keep it under wraps until he knows the project will succeed. The official launch of the
SubHuman Project is supposed to occur on August 15, 2007. Shortly afterward he will embark on his trans-Atlantic expedition. Ted shared the website for the SubHuman Project (
Subhuman Project) with me, yet seemed hesitant about allowing me to share it elsewhere just yet. Understandably, he wants everyone to be greeted by a complete website. He said to go ahead and tell the DeeperBlue community they could have a sneak peek, though. Judging by how professional and content-loaded the website is already, I'd say it looks like he's right on schedule.