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  1. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Portugal

    Today we move on to Spain's neighbour on the Iberian peninsula: Portugal. A much smaller country where there was one main diving equipment manufacturer: Simotal. Other producers existed, but so far as I am aware, their output was less extensive.
  2. David Wilson

    Drysuit snorkelling

    As a family activity, snorkelling has a long history. Back in the early 1950s, it was not undertaken wearing wetsuits, diving skins or rash vests for cold water protection but clad in the kind of drysuits illustrated in the picture above. Father of the family Bill Barada was an early American...
  3. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Spain: Other manufacturers

    I am reproducing the opening post of my Nemrod thread here: Six decades ago, Spain had numerous basic diving equipment manufacturers, many more indeed than the country has now, thanks not least to its Mediterranean coastline famous for its underwater fishing grounds attracting water sports...
  4. David Wilson

    Pauline Ady: Underwater and sky diving legend

    Rowena Kerr was not the only British female diving pioneer. Pauline Ady's underwater swimming exploits began even earlier than Kerr’s. She too managed to excel in the water while her main occupation was unrelated to sub-aqua pursuits. Pauline Ady was "a physiotherapist from Teddington who was a...
  5. David Wilson

    Rowena Kerr: a long-forgotten British (female) diving pioneer

    Mid-twentieth-century diving imagery too often portrays women in the role of wives and girlfriends patiently waiting at the water's edge while their menfolk strut their stuff in and under the water. Harder to find are pictures and stories about the female pioneers of skin and scuba diving all...
  6. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Spain: Nemrod

    Six decades ago, Spain had numerous basic diving equipment manufacturers, many more indeed than the country has now, thanks not least to its Mediterranean coastline famous for its underwater fishing grounds attracting water sports enthusiasts everywhere. A while ago I attempted to compile a...
  7. David Wilson

    Dottie Frazier: US Female Diving Pioneer

    The following obituary appeared in the 1 March 2022 issue of the "New York Times". Dottie Frazier, a Pioneer in Diving the Deep Seas, Dies at 99 Famed in the diving world, she is thought to be the first woman certified as a scuba instructor in the U.S. Dottie Frazier teaching a diving class in...
  8. David Wilson

    Great underwater lives: The Pulvénis brothers

    Great underwater lives: The Pulvénis brothers What possible connection could there be between an underwater swimmer’s breathing tube and the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family? The solution to this brainteaser lies in a conversation at the cinema between brothers Paul...
  9. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Italy: Other manufacturers

    So today we move on to masks, snorkels, snorkel-masks and fins made around the middle of the last century by Italian manufacturers other than Cressi, Mares and Pirelli. These perhaps less commonly known basic diving equipment producers included long-established makers of standard diving dress...
  10. David Wilson

    Danish Historical Diving Society journal 1997-2017 issues now online

    Several days ago, I chanced upon a twenty-year run of the Danish Historical Diving Society journal Dykkehistorisk Tidsskrift online at Dykkehistorisk Tidsskrift 1997 – 2017 – Dykkehistorisk Selskab. Available for free download are full-text documents, i.e. not just the usual front covers, with...
  11. David Wilson

    Maxime and Roland Forjot: Spearfishing pioneers and manufacturers

    Among the 250 diving-related questions asked and answered by Alain Perrier in his 250 réponses aux questions du plongeur curieux (Gerfaut, 2008) is No. 112: Who invented the diving mask in its current form? Here is his answer: This question cannot be answered with certainty because, apparently...
  12. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Italy: Mares and Pirelli

    Our previous thread focused on historical diving equipment manufactured by Cressi sub in Genoa, the capital of the northern Italian region of Liguria. We now follow the Mediterranean coast (see map above) to reach our next destination, which is the municipality of Rapallo in the Metropolitan...
  13. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Italy: Cressi

    Heading south now from Scandinavia, we cross the Alps to Italy (administrative map above), bathed by the Mediterranean Sea, which the Romans called "mare nostrum", Latin for "our sea", in ancient times. I have decided to break down my review of this country's early history of basic diving...
  14. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Sweden

    We now head north-east in Europe from the kingdom of Denmark to the kingdom of Sweden, which may be best known nowadays as the homeland of the teenage climate-change activist Greta Thunberg, the pop music supergroup ABBA and the fictional police officer Kurt Wallander. Famous historical...
  15. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Denmark

    In this thread, we're heading North to the kingdom of Denmark. Like Austria, Denmark probably conjures up a variety of images in the popular imagination such as the statue of the Little Mermaid in the Danish capital Copenhagen... ...bringing us in turn to Denmark's most famous writer Hans...
  16. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Austria

    Austria is the very essence of Mitteleuropa, a central European entity resurrected from the rump of the former Austro-Hungarian empire, whose territory later straddled the Iron Curtain separating the eastern bloc of socialist countries from the West European liberal democracies. In the aftermath...
  17. David Wilson

    Hand-crafted diving mask still in production

    I chanced upon the following today on a Philippine website: The picture is captioned thus: Specifications of AnoSaiyo Snorkel Diving Mask Goggles Handicrafted Hand Made Rubber Glass Fisherman Use Classic Brand: No Brand SKU: 263432495_PH-366885671 Model: AnoSaiyo Snorkel Diving Mask Goggles...
  18. David Wilson

    Basic gear from the mid-twentieth-century Federal Republic of Germany

    Time for a new thread about basic diving equipment desitgned and manufactured in Western Europe during the second half of the twentieth century. This country profile will focus on what was then the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), colloquially known as "West Germany" and with...
  19. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century France

    Time for a new thread and a return from the southern hemisphere to the countries of Western Europe. Having covered early basic diving equipment manufacturing in my homeland, we are now taking the ferry across the English Channel to la belle France. I spent the "year abroad" of my British...
  20. David Wilson

    Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Australia: Turnbull etc

    My attention has now turned to mid-20c diving equipment "down-under", in the sense of the world's antipodes and Australia in particular. And here I must declare a personal interest. My first diving mask was purchased in a North East England store during the late 1950s but manufactured in...
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