Demetrio Morabito was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy in 1925 and, since he was very young, he began manufacturing primordial diving gear. At the beginning of 1940, he invents the spring speargun, then one with rubber band with rod with square section and, at the end of that decade, while studying engineering in Tuscany, he designs greatly appreciated innovative equipment. He engages collaborations with Egidio Cressi and Ludovico Mares, but he prefers to proceed on his own. In 1954 he moves to Milan where he establishes Mordem, name deriving by the first letters of his name. He improves his speargun with explosive cartridge, naming it Razzomare, suggested by the reaction push of its spear; now, it is an extremely wanted part by the collectors.
His products soon become famous like the ballast with screwed leads, fins with five channels, the mask with nose plus with external control in 1961.
In the meantime, sport federations ban both CO2 spearguns that those with explosive cartridge. So, Morabito designs the short but powerful Molac with water spring, based on the principle of hydraulic press. Other elastic, hydro-pneumatic, pneumatic spearguns follow. He was the promoter of diving shooting competitions. For this new discipline, he invents a special elastic gun names Elas, equipped with special viewfinder, handle and stabilizing disk.
For an extended period, he devotes almost exclusively to his shops; he rebegan manufacturing at the end of 1990. He presents some extravagant equipment, among them an oxygen rebreather characterized by his transparent canister and by a mouthpiece with automatic sealing.
A brilliant romantic of sea, he dies in Milano in 2005. During his extensive career of inventor and producer, Demetrio Morabito always found an obstacle in his difficult personality, the only hurdle that prevented Mordem to reach an international fame and the structure of other companies, born in pioneering times.
