PSUBS Mission & History |
Our Mission
PSUBS.ORG was organized to promote and encourage the safe design, construction, and operation of personal submersibles. We define a personal submersible as any submarine vehicle, manned or un-manned, dry, semi-dry, or wet that is owned and operated by individuals or small private groups and clubs. In general, a personal submersible is any underwater vehicle that can be owned by a member of the general public, housed in their own garage, and does not require a floatilla of support ships or large support staff to operate. |
Our History
1996 - The roots of the PSUBS organization are based upon discussions on the rec.boats.building electronic newsgroup. Those early discussions did not fit within the charter of "surface boat" building, so they were discussed in private email between four primary participants. When those discussions became worthy of capture and archiving, the small group decided to create a website and employ the use of a listserver to keep track of the email addresses of participants. Additionally, they hoped these tools of communication would attract more people into the discussions. 1997 - In February 1997 the first archiving of PSUBS discussions began with a total of six people registered as participants on the mailing list. Two more people joined in April 1997, five people joined in May 1997, and by October 1997 there were 27 people registered on the mailing list. In October 1997, numerous participants donated $10.00 each so we could secure the official domain name PSUBS.ORG. 2007 - PSUBS LLC was formed to further the goals and charter of the original website, provide new avenues of services to participants, and strengthen our ability to continue providing the Internet's foremost information repository for personal submersibles. 2009 - PSUBS began offering formal memberships in order to provide a sense of ownership and comaradarie by participants as well as develop direction and structure for the organization to facilitate better recognition and position within the underwater community. Today - Since the founding of PSUBS.ORG in 1996, the mailing list and website have grown at an astounding rate that none of the original participants could have ever expected. Hundreds of people from around the world currently read the PSUBS mailing list, and tens of thousands worldwide visit the PSUBS.ORG website each month. The organization now holds annual conventions, the first occuring in 2002. Various PSUBS participants have been interviewed regarding their home-built submersibles by media outlets including the L.A. Times, Forbes Magazine, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Discovery Channel Animal Planet, WIRED NEWS online, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and the local press. |