Los Angeles County Diving Education film

[Sam Miller III]

The opening sequence was narrated by Col. John D Craig, LA Co UW Instructor. The sequence was obtained from Walt Disney productions at no cost to the underwater Instructors association (aka UIA)

John was a great story teller and the stories he told about his many UW adventures which spanned 7 decades

John wrote a book published in 1938 Tilted "Danger is my Business" (literary guild ,NYC & Simon & Schuster, NYC, 309 pages with photographs and second edition Garden City Publishing company Garden City NJ. 1941 309 pages with photographs. NO LCCC or ISBN numbers on books

John inscribed the first edition to me as follows "To Sam Miller , From one lousy diver to another, November 1, 1961"
(good gosh ! That was before @drbill graced diving !)

John Passed away August 31, 1997 age 95 in Phoenix Arizona and is interned at Rose Hills in Whittier. He was survived by his wife Millie and two daughters

His wife Millie was known for her "Sweat Baked Beans." The UIA on occasion had get to gathers - aka pot lucks. Millie's beans were always the hit of the gatherings. I was fortunate that she shared the recipe with me which are now the hit of our family gatherings

Those were the days - experienced by a few and will never be duplicated again on this earth

More to follow

Sam Miller, 111

 

[scubadada]

I distinctly remember Col Craig from watching episodes of Kingdom of the Sea when I was a kid

 

[drbill]

John inscribed the first edition to me as follows "To Sam Miller , From one lousy diver to another, November 1, 1961"
(good gosh ! That was before @drbill graced diving !)

Sam Miller, 111

Yep, I didn't do my first dive until a few months later

 

[Sam Miller III]

Hey ole man ...
I was under the impression you had to wait until God filled up the ocean !
( and created the Catalina dive park...)

Keep up the good work !

SAM

 

[EastEndDiver]

There was a TV program on when I was a kid "Danger is My Business" (during the stone age) was Col. Craig part of that?

I remember "Kingdom of the Sea"

 

[scubadada]

Hi @EastEndDiver

Yes, that was Col Craig also. I have memories of that show also

 

[EastEndDiver]

Scubadada thanks

This thread is bringing back lots of memories !!!

 

[JamesBon92007]

I guess they left out some of the exercises so they wouldn't scare people away

It's also funny how some things never change...

 

[Sam Miller III]

Re John D Craig

He was a Col. In the USAA during WW11 -In charge of a aerial photographic and won a number of medals and was wounded
We had a connection- I was a Captain USAF during Korean conflict

John was the photographic commander and flew on the disastrous WW11 Ploesti raid--
Where my cousin was shot down and later dies in a German POW camp.

He was wounded at the Remagen bridge head where the US forces crossed the Rhine river into Germany Received the Bronze Star
My Uncle was also tere as a combat engineer also received the Bronze Star

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He and Morgan "Clint" Degn published a book in 1965
Invitation to Skin and SCUBA diving
1965 -Underwater Technologies
LCCC # 65- 17109
Simon and Schuster, NYC
Hard cover with dust jacket
190 pages illustrated
Mine is inscribed by Craig and Degn
<<< Interesting all our board members only used the New Science of Skin and SCUBA to learn diving on their own- No mention of this book--- Why ?? >>>
~```````````````````````````````````````
Craig and Degn opened what was the first dive shop/UW Photo store or was it UW Photo/dive shop store ? in SoCal. It was too early in the market place -- equipment choices were limited and interest in UW photograph was very low - The shop only lasted about a year. (@MaxBottomtime !)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John retired and move from LA to Orange County then to Phoenix were he passed away.

Sam Miller, III

 

[boulderjohn]

@Sam Miller III, we could have very much used this video when you were researching the origins of instructional technique for our article on neutral buoyancy instruction.

For the information of others, I organized a group of instructors to write an article for the PADI Undersea Journal on teaching OW students while they are neutrally buoyant rather than anchored to the floor of the pool. We wondered how the practice began, and our group was privileged to have Sam and his encyclopedic knowledge of diving history as a part of the team. We concluded that the practice was a part of instruction from the beginning, since there was no means of achieving buoyancy through a BCD or even a wetsuit in the earliest days.

This video, showing students learning skills with no buoyancy help whatsoever while sitting on the bottom with the instructor kneeling in front of them, shows that nicely.

Of course, all the history stuff that we included in the original draft was lost on the cutting room floor, so it would not have mattered all that much.