Paris ( CNN ) -- Dressed in a wet suit , air tanks strapped to his back , poised to head overboard is an image of Jacques Cousteau most people would recognize . It was a routine the French explorer and conservationist repeated over and over again , hundreds , perhaps thousands of times over his long and adventure-filled life . But less known was that Cousteau was an inventive genius . `` I remember most that he was enchanted with ideas ... He was almost like a little child , but he was the most creative and imaginative person I 've ever met , '' says Susan Schiefelbein , a close collaborator with Cousteau for more than two decades who also helped him write his autobiography . `` He made connections that other people were slow to make . A scientist who would be involved and have a passion in his work could go to Cousteau and say ' A , B ' and Cousteau could skip to ' Q ' and understand immediately the intermediary steps , '' she said . The Frenchman practically invented scuba diving when he developed the regulator valve that made possible breathing air from tanks underwater . Apart from his scuba equipment , which he called an `` aqua lung , '' Cousteau was perhaps best known for his underwater photography . His stunning documentaries produced for television and cinema had their origins in the adventurer 's childhood curiosity . `` He was fascinated by film from the time he was a little child -- he actually pinched chemicals from his grandfather 's pharmacy and taught himself how to develop films and he made movies of himself and his friends , '' Schiefelbein said . Cousteau 's original ambitions were to forge a naval and aviation career , attending the naval academy in Brest . But a serious car accident in which he broke both his arms ended any dreams of becoming a pilot . `` He was strengthening himself by swimming and he became a naval explorer kind of by default , '' Schiefelbein says . If he came to diving by accident , it was a fortunate accident indeed . It led Cousteau to a lifelong search to find out what lies beneath the surface of the world 's oceans . Cousteau 's endless curiosity led him to explore ever more remote , ever deeper waters . But he needed something to help withstand high water pressures and capable of maneuvering silently like a diver without disturbing the aquatic life around it . Submarines could n't work because of the turbulence and danger of their propellers . Nothing like he had in mind existed , so Cousteau invented it . `` He had the idea for it at lunch . He pulled out a saucer from under a coffee cup and then put another one on top and he said 'something like this , ' and in two weeks he had scientists working on the idea , '' Schiefelbein said . With the help of Jean Mollard from the French Center for Undersea Research , Cousteau created the `` diving saucer , '' or the SP-350 as it was formally known -- a two-man submarine which could dive to depths of 350 meters for several hours at a time . He very often insisted on testing his new devices and techniques himself , frequently risking his own life in the process . `` Here was a man who took these devices down enormous depths , not having any idea of what would happen and he had to find out for himself . So it was really trial and error in a very dangerous sense . And he always survived , '' Schiefelbein said . But the French explorer 's vision was not limited to the world of diving . He saw the need to take on broader issues especially those concerning the environment and the seas . In the 1960s , he campaigned to stop underwater dumping of nuclear waste in the Mediterranean Sea and helped restrict commercial whaling in the 1980s , doing his bit to protect the world he so enjoyed exploring . `` If somebody said : 'what do you expect to see at the bottom of the Romanche Trench ? ' -- which they were the first to photograph -- he would say : 'If I knew what I expected to see why would I go ? Why would I even look ? ' So it was 'allez voir , ' '' Schiefelbein says . `` Allez voir '' ( `` go see '' ) was advice that Cousteau himself followed right until the end .
Jacques Cousteau allied an inventive side to his exploring and photography skills . Cousteau collaborator , Susan Smith remembers the Frenchman 's contributions to marine exploration . He helped design the ` ` diving saucer '' which helped further knowledge of ocean depths . Explorer also campaigned to stop nuclear waste being dumped in the Mediterranean Sea in 1960s .