Equipment

This blog post originally appeared on the Atomic Aquatics Blog site July 20, 2021.

Never one to turn his back on a good idea, for years, Dean Garraffa had been pitching “unrealistic” designs that seemed “excessive” and “over the top.” 

Sure, his concepts were harder to manufacture, but Garraffa knew that to achieve the superlative in dive equipment—no expense could be spared. 

An engineer by trade, he wasn’t interested in producing average or mundane products, and he’d often light up with inspiration when drafting and concepting his next revolutionary idea. 

So eventually, he grew tired of being stifled, and he and cofounder Doug Toth decided to strike out on their own with the mission of producing the world’s finest dive equipment. 

Then, in 1996, while driving home under a vivid sunset from a meeting to finalize the formation of their new company, Dean heard familiar song lyrics that would inspire his new company’s name: Atomic Aquatics.

“I went out walking under an Atomic sky,” the U2 song, “The Wanderer,” reverberated through the radio. “Where the ground won’t turn and the rain it burns like the tears when I said goodbye.”

25 Years of Atomic Aquatics

Fast forward 25 years, and Garraffa has built Atomic Aquatics into the international standard for elite dive gear and components. 

And now, on the cusp of the company’s 25th Anniversary, Garraffa and his cohort of master designers and engineers are releasing the Atomic Aquatics T25 limited-edition anniversary regulator. Representing 25 years of breakthroughs—and breaking the rules—the T25 is a highly evolved version of the company’s iconic T3 all-titanium regulator. 

In order to achieve radical durability, Dean and his team plated the T25’s machined body with a new, proprietary diamond-like hardness coating (DLC). The result is a “burnt titanium” that’s stunningly beautiful, ultra durable and 100% unique. 

In fact, with its rainbow-like burnt titanium finish, each T25 is highly exclusive, and no two regulators share the same appearance—something Garraffa is particularly proud of. 

With all that said, we wanted to touch base with Garraffa during this exciting time to get his take on the T25, what it took to produce and what the creative process means to him after 25 years.

6 Questions for Dean Garraffa

1.) WHAT WAS THE ORIGINAL INSPIRATION FOR THE T25? 

DG: Every product we design or work on must have a vision, goal and a purpose. Otherwise we won’t do it. We invented the Titanium regulator and 25 years later it is still the highest rated in diving. 

Also, inspiration comes from seeing new technologies that can directly improve an existing product, such as improved surface hardness of Titanium with a unique DLC finish.

2.) WHY A REGULATOR FOR THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY? 

DG: Well, Atomic Aquatics is highly recognized for our regulator line as our flagship product. Especially the all-Titanium T3 regulator.

Atomic Aquatics introduced the world’s only Titanium regulator in 1996. Then, in 1997, Atomic won every independent regulator review in every magazine around the world.

So it made sense to use the Titanium regulator to celebrate the brand’s success.

3.) HOW DOES THE T25 MAKE YOU FEEL? WHAT EMOTIONS DOES IT TRIGGER FOR YOU? 

DG: Well, the entire product development team at Huish outdoors got emotionally involved in this product. We had fun developing it!

These regulators are really different!  How do I feel personally? Well… when we built the first 50, I thought to myself, these look so good, I want to keep them all!

Each regulator is hand-built and color-matched, one at a time. Every regulator has a uniqueness and each regulator has the highest performance to match its good looks.

4.) AFTER 25 YEARS, HAS ATOMIC AQUATICS DONE WHAT YOU SET OUT TO DO?  

DG: Well, a big YES on that! Originally, my personal mission statement in 1996 was: “At Atomic Aquatics, we’re creating more than just a new regulator, we’re creating a whole new class of diving equipment for the diver who demands the ultimate gear.”

25 years later, every product has been—or was—top rated in their respective product category. 

5.) HOW DID YOU TEST THE T25? 

DG: Essentially, the T-25 starts with our foundational bedrock T3 regulator with a lot of expensive upgrades. But mostly, the all-machined Titanium parts we could never do before, including the yoke knob and Cover ring. These are BRUTALLY expensive parts to manufacture on a 5 axis CNC machine. No other Scuba company could get this past the management bean counters. 

As for the process, we always start with corrosion testing on every new finish we use. We have Chrome Plating, PVD (physical vapor deposition) Zirconium, Titanium, Nickel and so far, nothing compares in hardness to DLC “Diamond like Carbon.” 

In fact, DLC is so hard, we deposit DLC on our own machine shop drill bits and cutting tools, then cut the Titanium solid bar into component parts. After the titanium parts are machined, we then deposit the DLC back on the T-25 components. And by the way, DLC is also known for improving surface hardness, corrosion resistance and adding lubricity to moving parts.

6.) ON THIS 25TH ANNIVERSARY, WHAT DOES THE ACT OF PRODUCT CREATION MEAN TO YOU? 

DG: What does the act of product Creation mean? The opportunity to create new products is really “almost” as fun to me as diving with those new products! 

Often during a dive, I can’t help but delight in thinking that ALL of this dive gear was created, from scratch, from ideas and sketches.

So yes, it’s very satisfying to see an idea or product make it to the marketplace and have divers worldwide use the product to enhance their diving experience.

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