UnderwaterTales - The Story of Easydive
Written by Stefano Sibona
Easydive, a history of Made in Italy. An entrepreneur who wanted to transfer his passion to everyone. With a promise of value: quality. Because an Easydive housing lasts forever.
Today I want to tell you a particular story, a story of a Made in Italy, which was born in Romagna, more precisely in Cervia. It is the story of a small but far-sighted entrepreneur, in love with diving and everything that can be seen underwater.
One who wanted to transfer his great passion to everyone, he wanted to show everyone, in every way, what he admired down there.
His name is Fabio Benvenuti and today he is the owner of Easydive.
That Caribbean vacation
But let’s take a few steps back and go back to 1991. Fabio was on holiday in the Caribbean. Precisely in the Dominican Republic where he attended his first diving course. The emotions of this new experience dissolved upon returning home. The cold and wet winter quickly erased the memories of the magical underwater world. That patent would stay in a drawer for a long time. And from there it would come out a few years later.
Meanwhile, Fabio worked as a clerk in a large sports shop in Cesena. He dealt with sales in various departments, but not in the underwater one. Meanwhile, he developed a healthy passion for video cameras and sports shooting.
That other vacation in the Red Sea
When he finally started going to a diving club he joined in for a vacation in the Red Sea. He wanted to take home some underwater video footage at all costs.
In that zone, his uncle has a small mechanical workshop. One of those with a bit of machinery for processing steel and aluminum. And he himself made a metal tube, in the shape of a cylinder. On one side a transparent glass and on the other a sort of lid. There was supposed to be Fabio’s video camera, the one that was supposed to collect his first underwater memories.
The test was carried out there, in the Red Sea. It worked, but it was very light, too. It was so positive that once Fabio tied it to his BCD, it floated and hovered like a bat above his hood throughout the dive. In order to film it, he had to retrieve it.
The scene could seem very embarrassing. But what matters is the result. And the result was fantastic. Videos of him went viral in the diving club. But above all, they also reached the customers of the sporting goods shop where Fabio worked.
And they started asking him to produce more.
There was someone else who started from a garage
Egidio Cressi, together with his friends Duilio Marcante and Dario Gonzatti, set off from a damp and unhealthy ground in Genoa. More than eighty years later, Cressi Sub is one of the most important manufacturers of underwater items.
In California, a young farsighted dreamer began, with his friend Steve Wozniak, to assemble personal computers in the garage at home. Thus, Steve Jobs founded Apple which today is the most capitalized company in the world.
In Cervia, Fabio Benvenuti also started in a garage. His uncle assisted him by helping and encouraging him. The first orders arrived and with them the first cameras flooded and paid off. From here, accompanied by a thousand difficulties and an irrepressible enthusiasm, he created his company, Easydive.
Easydive, today
I entered the shed that Fabio bought instead of taking home on a warm October morning. An October that was the extension of September and a long hot summer.
The first thing I wanted to do, as soon as I crossed the threshold of the showroom, was to go underwater. To illuminate the backdrop, recolor it and bring it back to all its splendor.
The housings and lights pushed me towards big purchases and big shots. At least I hoped so.
Easydive, your promise of value
Easydive is an entirely Made in Italy project, almost zero kilometer. Those who work with the lathe the large blocks of aluminum from which his housings are born are few steps away from him. Hence, here are those who supply the electronic components.
But Easydive is above all a promise. A pact with the market to produce innovative, quality, simple, robust and above all durable equipment.
The double seal in each water inlet, the electronic controls adaptable to all video cameras on the market are his trademark. The selection and quality of materials are his guarantees. The risks of flooding or humidity are thus reduced to a flicker. The block that constitutes the housing is unique and the push-button panel is external and totally electronically controlled.
La scocca in alluminio della custodia EasydiveLa scocca in alluminio della custodia Easydive
An Universal housing
An Easydive housing lasts forever. If you change camera or video camera, the diving suit and the hand control can be adapted to the new equipment. The software allows the use of any camera or video camera through an update card.
The illuminators also follow the same model. And they too are reprogrammable based on the development of technology.
Earlier we mentioned guarantees. Its guarantee is for life!
That smartphone housing
But my eyes were attracted to the smartphone housing, on the two housing models.
Fabio calls the first one entry level but, believe me, it offers incredible functions. It is called Diveshot and allows you to use all the potential that your phone can give. Including taking selfies. It is tested up to 60 meters deep.
The second is called Leo 3 Smart and it is my dream. The commands are standardized for any mobile and inserted in a sort of mouse on the side of the housing. The magnetic buttons, therefore, do not touch the display in any way and do not require gaskets of any kind.
An internal battery supplies power to the housing and phone.
His app, which can be downloaded and updated on Google Play and Apple Store, allows us to access all, absolutely all, of the video and photo functions of our smartphone. From the most obsolete to the latest generation. To date, 4.000 smartphone models can safely be taken underwater inside the Leo 3 Smart.
But that’s not all, because the application is compatible with all the other apps on your phone.
I think that during the decompression stops you can, not only watch a film but, even hypothesize to assemble a video or a photographic collage of our dive. To be ready to post it on social networks as soon as you get back on the boat.
And I believe that those of you who want to buy my book in digital version will be able to read a few chapters instead of getting bored in decompression.
“I don’t know if I’ve already convinced you. But I invite you to follow my stories and my contents. From today, the housing for my iPhone will be the best tool to tell you about.”
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