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Raimondo Bucher (Gödöllő, March 15, 1912 - Rome, September 10, 2008) was an Italian freediver and scuba diver, pioneer of Italian and world diving and underwater photocinematography.

Biography
He was born to an Italian father on March 15, 1912 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but spent his youth in the Austrian part of the state, where he was able to practice many sports. In 1932 he entered the italian Regia Aeronautica by enrolling in the Bergamo air piloting school where he was the first of the course and in 1937 he became a flight and aerobatics instructor. In 1939 he was assigned to the hunting department and during the Second World War he participated in numerous war actions. After 8 September 1943, he joins the Allies in the war of liberation, after which he remains in service in the Air Force with the rank of Captain.

In 1937, his aviation students gave him a diving mask and a spring-loaded speargun. Bucher begins to make the first dives and to modify the equipments improving them. With Massimo D'Asta he perfects the maneuver of equalization with the noseclip inside the divemask, which immediately allows him to descend in apnea even at -25 meters.

In 1942 he recovered from a downed Stuka plane the camera on board Robot which, having the charge of the automatic film, is well suited to marine use. Soon he builds for it a diving suit and starts taking with it first underwater photos. Taking his cue from US aircraft landing gear seals, in 1945 he was the first to use o-ring seals for underwater housings. Later he commissioned the Magnaghi company of Naples to build the first Italian o-rings. In the following years he will design, build and successfully use numerous diving suits and underwater flashes for various cameras and film cameras.

In 1949 in Capri he descends in apnea to -29 meters in the presence of a commission and in 1950, accepting the challenge of the "Circolo Subacquei Napoletani" (Neapolitan Underwater Club), in the presence of the federal commissioners he descends to -30 meters and takes the 30m plate from the hands of the incredulous diver : this was the first official freediving world record. Furthermore, thanks to Commendatore Michele Lisi of the FIPS of Naples who made an underwater short film in black and white, it is also the first freediving record to be documented in cinematographic form.

In 1952, he set a new world record by free diving down to -39 meters. Folco Quilici and Bruno Vailati make a documentary about this event, but using footage taken at a later time. In the same year he participates, together with his wife Enza, Italian underwater hunting champion, in the National Underwater Expedition in the Red Sea from which the feature film "Sesto Continente" made by Bruno Vailati and directed by Folco Quilici will be taken. In 1956 he discovers the submerged Roman city of Baiae near in Pozzuoli while he flies over it with his P-51 plane.

Later he dedicated the rest of his life to diving enterprises: both exploration and dissemination or technical research and development. He has also worked together with Luciana Civico as a coral collector for many years in Sardinia, and because of this activity he has often operated at great depths: it is estimated that over 3000 dives were made between 80 and 115 meters depth, using compressed air scuba.

Even in his nineties, "Comandante Bucher" continued to practice air diving with his second wife, Luciana Civico (who holds two world records with scuba diving ).

Gilbert Doukan on Bucher

 * "... Recently, while I was traveling in Italy, I heard the presidents of various clubs refer casually to dives of sixty feet, as if they were everyday accomplishments. That remains to be seen! All the same the extraordinary performance of the Italian hunter Raimondo Bucher, a performance checked by the Federation de Peche Sportive, has brought the record for free diving in apnea to 129 feet, an almost unbelievable depth. It is hardly necessary to add that Bucher uses the little "trick" of the nose clip, which is retained in position even under the mask. The system has been adopted by most Italian divers. It was popularized in French diving circles by de Francesco and ourselves who, up until two years ago, ..."

Gilbert Doukan, "World beneath the waves", 1957

Contribution to diving
He has contributed significantly to the development of diving in various fields.


 * (1938) perfected the equalization technique with the noseclip inside the mask
 * (1942) begins to deal with underwater photocinematography
 * (1945) is the first to use o-rings for underwater housings
 * (1948) invents and builds an underwater weapon based on principle of missile
 * (1952) explores the underground path of the Bussento underground river (Morigerati, SA)
 * (1952-53) head of the sports group of the two national expeditions "Sixth Continent" in the Red Sea
 * (1955) invents and builds an underwater glider to facilitate exploration
 * (1956) discovers the sunken city of Baiae
 * (1957) designs modern diving equipment, such as the famous "Bucher Fins", according to the principles of bionics
 * (1958) transforms single-stage demand regulators into supply ones (subsequently called injection)
 * (1956-58) explores many submerged caves of Capri and Sardinia
 * (1967) designs two-stage regulators
 * collaborates with Auguste Piccard

Books

 * Raimondo Bucher, "I Segreti del Mare", Firenze, Centro Internazionale del Libro, 1959.
 * Raimondo Bucher, "L'immersione subacquea", Milano, Mondadori, 1967.
 * Raimondo Bucher, "Una vita in fondo al mare", Nardini, 1984, ISBN 9788840442402.
 * Raimondo Bucher, "La mia vita tra terra, cielo e mare", Formello, IRECO, 1999, ISBN 9788886253093.