Rodale’s Scuba Diving

An Interview with Dennis Bulin

Dennis Bulin, a native of Wisconsin, started his diving career in 1970–-but unlike most future owners of successful diving companies, he started it by jumping out of an airplane! His skydiving activities soon took him to Zephyrhills, Florida, the home of a major skydiving center. He has logged more than 1200 parachute jumps (including jumping from the top of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley), has been a certified parachute instructor, and developed, manufactured, and tested parachute harness and container systems.

It wasn't until 1974 that he discovered another kind of diving, the underwater kind, and within a few years he was applying the expertise he had developed making skydiving equipment to the manufacture of SCUBA diving gear.

An entrepreneur and inventor by nature, he sought out ways to make diving equipment simpler and more comfortable. Zeagle Systems, the company he founded, began producing innovative weight integrated BC's in the early 1980's, when weight integration was not well accepted in the diving community. The success of Zeagle's patented Ripcord Weight Release System, Ranger BC, regulators, and other products has led Zeagle grow rapidly throughout the 1980s and 90s to become today a respected worldwide supplier and manufacture of a wide variety of diving equipment.

Dennis still dives--the water kind--whenever he can. In keeping with his philosophy of listening to and learning from his customers, he travels extensively, talking to divers around the country and the world to find out about their equipment needs. He's also extremely active in local community and church activities.

In spite of it's having grown to over 90 employees and 35,000 square feet of factory space in Zephyrhills, Zeagle is still very much a family affair for the Bulins, with Dennis's wife Audra, daughter Amanda, and son-in-law Scott all pitching in--and with grandson Asher (age 2) frequently offering advice.

RSD Extra: Can you tell us Zeagle's history and how you operate? Rumor has it that you started out as a skydiving company, not a SCUBA company.

Bulin: Yes, that's true. Zeagle originally grew out of my being a parachute instructor and my involvement with the development and manufacturing of parachute harness and container systems. But we moved pretty quickly to focus on SCUBA diving equipment, and since the early '80s we've been pretty much a SCUBA diving equipment company. We do apply a lot of the knowledge we gained making parachute gear to our SCUBA diving equipment, particularly how to engineer sewn products to be strong and reliable. And some of our product ideas, like the RipCord weight release system, came directly from skydiving gear.

RSD Extra: Divers who have been diving since then (the mid-80s) think of Zeagle as the company that popularized the weight integrated BC, don’t they?

Bulin: In a way, I guess we did. There were a couple of other integrated systems around before us, but they never caught on. Maybe because we came from another industry, we were more willing to innovate and persevere when we thought we were on the right path. We made weight integrated, back flotation BCDs in the early-80s, when most of the diving industry–and all of the major manufacturers–were dead set against them. We were told that back flotation would "float you on your face and kill you" more times than I'd like to remember. There was actually quite a bit of hostility towards integrated systems back then--some shops and instructors wouldn't allow them, that sort of thing. Remember, almost no other SCUBA manufacturer was making a weight integrated BCD until after our Ranger BC became so popular, in about 1995. But we knew that a properly designed and balanced integrated system would work extremely well and we had a very loyal customer base that kept growing year after year--and we hung in there. Now I can't think of a SCUBA manufacturer that doesn't make a back flotation, weight integrated BC system.

We've always worked hard to be good listeners. We listen to what divers from different environments have to say about what they want in equipment. The needs of a cold water drysuit diver are very different from the needs of a travel diver in the tropics. We take the needs we hear about from the field and try to think "outside the box" to come up with innovative solutions. And we keep working to improve what we've done. The Ranger BC has been around for what, seven years now, and we still come up with ways to make it better.

RSD Extra: What do you think the future will bring in terms of enhancing the scuba diving experience and gear?

Bulin: Well, my crystal ball is in the shop for repairs. Equipment trends are hard to predict. I'll give you an example: In 1993, a small group of divers who were doing some deeper dives– what we now call "technical" dives– requested a very heavy duty BC with special features. I remember we had quite a discussion as to whether we should even build it or not. We didn't think we'd sell very many. We called it the Tech, only sold it set up for double tanks, and assumed it would be a minor niche product. It sold surprisingly well, but mostly to recreational divers, who special ordered it set up for single tanks. We kept getting requests for a "more recreational" BC with the same heavy construction, stainless D-rings, and flexible sizing. We came out with the Ranger in 1994. At that time no one had made anything like it. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the Ranger spawned an entire market for heavy duty BC's with weight integration and back flotation. And it was completely unexpected. So take any predictions with a grain of salt. That said, we're working on smaller, lighter gear that is easier to use, with more integrated functions. We need equipment that is less complicated, easier to use, and works together better.

RSD Extra: How do you see diving changing?

Bulin: The last few years have seen a lot of change, from diving being a pretty homogenous activity to the growth of specialized areas of diving, like technical diving, nitrox, really exotic dive travel, photography and video, and, increasingly, family diving. I see a trend towards people doing these different sorts of diving, specializing in a particular type of diving. As a manufacturer this affects us, because these different sorts of diving can have different equipment needs.

RSD Extra: Is the Internet affecting equipment distribution and sales?

Bulin: It's affecting distribution and sales everywhere, and diving is no exception. But the local dive store will remain the backbone of our industry. Right now retailers are getting squeezed because traditionally, at least in the US, they have subsidized training and air fills through equipment sales. I don't think most divers realize what a good deal they get through their local store on these things. Efficient and professional retailers who provide outstanding service and win their customer's loyalty are going to be successful in the long term. The Internet has also made divers better informed about equipment, dive sites, and travel. Of course, there's a lot of misinformation on some of the newsgroups, so you have to be careful.

RSD Extra: What new products are you excited about?

Bulin: Well, hands down, the most exciting thing for us now are our new regulators. We spent two years doing a new design and built a new manufacturing facility. Our goal was to make regulators that equaled or surpassed the best performance available, but were more stable and reliable, especially in harsh conditions, like ice diving. We wanted them to keep their high performance longer with less attention from the diver. We're ecstatic with the feedback we've been getting from all kinds of divers. For the future, we're working on some very innovative approaches to integration of diving systems and some better ways to get information while you're diving.

RSD Extra: Do equipment sales vary geographically and how so?

Bulin: One thing that keeps coming home to us is that equipment needs vary a lot depending on the local environment. I try to spend a lot of time diving and visiting with divers from other areas. It's easy to get stuck in a warm water mindset if that's all you do. But the West, the Great Lakes, and East Coast have a lot of dedicated divers who enjoy diving in the conditions I moved to Florida to get away from. Seriously, the cold water areas are demanding for equipment, not just because of the additional weight and insulation required, but also because of specific local conditions, like the surf in California, the currents in the Pacific Northwest, or wreck diving in the Northeast. Building equipment that works for divers in different environments is one of the things that is most interesting to me.

RSD Extra: Where did the name Zeagle come from?

Bulin: We get asked that a lot. A few years ago we made up a story about Zeagle being named after the Archaeozeagleraptor, a prehistoric bird with both lungs and gills, that was equally at home in the air or water. We drew a picture of one and put in our catalog. The next year I had someone come up to me at the DEMA show me a Archaeozeagleraptor picture tattooed on his arm. A lot of people took the story seriously. So, for the record, the Archaeozeagleraptor was just a story, it didn't really exist. The truth is that I bought a small parachute equipment manufacturer called Eagle Systems, and we were located in Zephyrhills, Florida. I put a Z in front of Eagle and got Zeagle. Now I kind of regret choosing a name that starts with Z because whenever we have a product reviewed in Rodale's Scuba Diving we're always the last ones listed, way in the back!