For over 37 years A.P.Valves has led the way in diving - innovating, designing and manufacturing equipment of the highest quality. This was acknowledged recently when we were the only manufacturer in the world to have no less than three of our dive products voted into the Top 10 of Diver Magazine’s Top 25 “very best in current dive-gear” poll. We were proud to see the evergreen BUDDY Commando voted in at #3 - the only bcd to make the Top 10.

Since its foundation in 1969 the company has grown at a phenomenal rate, from a small family business to our current position as UK market leaders and selling in over 50 countries worldwide: supplying sport & professional divers, military, search & rescue and coastguards world-wide.

How have we achieved this?

Quite simply - we never make and sell anything
that we are not 100% happy to use as divers ourselves.

Today, every area of the factory from the design office to the boardroom, from the sales office to the shop floor is staffed with divers of all training backgrounds and experience.

This, combined with our manufacturing philosophy, ensures we are committed to design excellence and production quality.

In fact, this search for perfection was how it all began...

Back in 1969 the founders of the company - then keen sport divers - David & Angela Parker, saw that there was a need for a more effective emergency breathing system, and so, they set about inventing one. The result, the now famous A.P. Valve automatic mouthpiece, allowed divers to breathe easily from an air-inflated buoyancy jacket, providing air on demand in those critical first few seconds of an out-of-air emergency. It became a lifesaver, invaluable to generations of divers. The concept, so simple and reliable, has withstood the test of time and is present today in evolved forms in the Auto Air octo-inflator and the AP200 power inflator – available as options with the full range of BUDDY buoyancy jackets.

Designed and built by divers, for divers - the new BUDDY re::flex range of sport and technical BCDs continues that tradition of invention and innovation.

From tiny beginnings - literally, the garden shed - to leading international dive company renowned for manufacturing quality products, we maintain this reputation by continuing to produce almost every part in-house, giving us complete control over the whole process from initial idea, to design, tool-making, machining, molding, assembly, testing and quality control right through to the finished product and a friendly customer aftercare that is second-to-none.