Any Vintage Dive Magazine Lovers Out There?

[sfsalsero]

Well, over the years I've read a few entries from some of you like the great Dr. Sam Miller who have extensive dive magazine collections. However, I've mostly been lurking here on ScubaBoard for some time. That said, I'd love to connect with others who have significant collections or a love of dive magazine history. Whether you might be interested in trading, selling, or interested in just exchanging notes I would greatly like to connect.

My primary reason for collecting dive periodicals has been an insatiable appetite for reading the stories of yesteryear along with the appreciation for dive history and how it's evolved over the years. I find dive periodicals represent a great opportunity to observe the shifting baseline of the industry in greater detail than dive books, given the more frequent publishing cycles. I mostly enjoy the photography, as I find underwater photography history fascinating in and of itself. Anyhow, in no way am I in the same league as the many dive pioneers I have come to greatly admire however, my passion for dive and underwater photo history is something that while I'm in my 40's I think will carry forward for many more decades to come. My personal collection spans over 59 different global periodicals at last count with my personal favorites being Skin Diver Magazine (SDM), Alert Diver, Unterwasser, Canada Diver, Scuba Chrome, Ocean Realm, Underwater Photographer (Fred Roberts), the old BSOUP In Focus mags, and many others. Most expired publications I am missing a few issues here and there, while my biggest hope is to finally acquire my last 16 missing SDM issues.

More importantly, I would just like to hear more about the history behind the experiences in many of these older periodicals. Again, would love to connect with some of you and if you prefer to private message me please feel free to do so.

Thank you in advance for reading.

Sam

 

[David Wilson]

There are a couple of articles online that might be of interest to you if you enjoyed Skin Diver Magazine (SDM):
Chuck Blakeslee: Skin Diver Magazine Founder - History of SCUBA Diving
Chuck Blakeslee - HDS Speech, October 2002 - History of SCUBA Diving
Chuck Blakeslee co-founded SDM and his pieces above provide some interesting insights into the development of the magazine from its inception to 1963, when it was sold on.

You can download the whole first, December 1951, issue of SDM as a PDF document from:
https://web.archive.org/web/2015022...ebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/firstsdm.pdf

I wish other SDM issues were as readily available as scans for the benefit of everybody interested in the history of diving. I recently purchased the November 1956 issue of SDM because I have a research interest in early drysuits and this issue of the magazine is dedicated to "exposure suits." The articles are mainly devoted to a mid-1950s debate about whether diving dry or wet is best. The equipment ads make particularly good historical sources and are useful in creating timelines of certain items of gear that underwent modifications and price changes over their shelf lives.

As a Brit, my favourite magazine is the British Sub Aqua Club magazines Neptune and Triton. I subscribed to them between the mid and late 1960s and still have the magazines on my bookshelf. I later managed to buy several of the earlier issues. The ads again make interesting reading, providing timelines for UK diving equipment companies such as Heinke, Siebe Gorman and Typhoon.

---------- Post added February 23rd, 2015 at 09:37 AM ----------

 

[sfsalsero]

Response to David

Hi David,

Thank you for your response. Indeed I have read every article on the International Legends of Diving website many times, and have always enjoyed Dr. Sam Miller's articles in particular. As for the first SDM Issue, I have several of the reprints from the 50th year SDM anniversary issue where my understanding is that the only difference was the ad on the back cover page. Nice to see an original scanned, thank you for the site. I pulled out my bound 1956 set looking for the November issue you mentioned, and indeed hadn't realized before the entire list of articles were dedicated to exposure suits.



Interestingly enough I have never seen the Triton and Neptune magazines. What months/years were they in circulation? My British collection consists of 80's and/or late 70's editions Diver, Underwater Photography, In Focus, Subaqua Scene, Sport Diver, Fathoms, and even Scottish Diver magazines. You've now given me some new one's to look out for.

Thank you again for making a connection with me.

Sam

 

[David Wilson]

Interestingly enough I have never seen the Triton and Neptune magazines. What months/years were they in circulation? My British collection consists of 80's and/or late 70's editions Diver, Underwater Photography, In Focus, Subaqua Scene, Sport Diver, Fathoms, and even Scottish Diver magazines. You've now given me some new one's to look out for. Sam

Hi, Sam.
Pleased to make your acquaintance! According to the Australian Classic Diving Books site at
CLASSIC DIVING BOOKS - B.S.A.C. MANUAL
NEPTUNE Magazine was f[SIZE=-1]irst issued in September 1954 to members of the BSAC. It was replaced by TRITON Magazine in June 1956[/SIZE]. TRITON Magazine was [SIZE=-1]issued every two months to members, later it was changed to 12 issues per year. Triton in turn was replaced with DIVER magazine in March 1978.[/SIZE]

I have a complete run of Triton from December 1966 to August 1970, which I received while I was a member of my university sub-aqua club between autumn 1966 and summer 1970. Over the years I bought single earlier issues of the BSAC's magazine, namely Neptune January 1956 and Triton Sept/Oct 1963, March/April 1964, June 1964, August 1964, December 1964, August 1965, June 1966.

Otherwise your collection has a much greater variety of British diving magazines than mine does! By the way, have you come across "The London Diver" newsletter, first published May-June 1959? You can download the first eight 1959/1960 issues at
https://web.archive.org/web/20091015095640/http://www.londondiver.com/history/magazine/
They make interesting reading, considering that the BSAC's London branch is the oldest in the country.

David

 

[regulator bj]

Thanks sfsalsero/David Wilson for the interesting links, "Underwater World" (UK)monthly issued lasted only two years 1979-1980 before it was incorporated into the "Diver"(UK) Seem to recall in the UK there was a Diving newspaper which again was short lived!

 

[regulator bj]

 

[regulator bj]

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks for the images of the Dunlop and Typhoon drysuit ads, regulator bj!

I mostly enjoy the photography, as I find underwater photography history fascinating in and of itself. Anyhow, in no way am I in the same league as the many dive pioneers I have come to greatly admire however, my passion for dive and underwater photo history is something that while I'm in my 40's I think will carry forward for many more decades to come. Sam

Sam, here's a scan of an article entitled "Underwater photographic equipment" from Triton March/April 1964, pages 26-27:

 

[sfsalsero]

David,

Thank you for the B.S.A.C. link, I had never seen it before. The London Diver newsletter is very interesting as well. Hadn't read it before. I've got my weekend reading cut out for me now. Many thanks again for the resources. What other mags do you collect?

Sam

---------- Post added February 25th, 2015 at 12:29 AM ----------

Nice ads. Were these in the Underwater World edition you had mentioned? I jotted that one down as part of the Diver UK history too...thank you for this tidbit of information. Did you collect both years they were published? Any extras?

---------- Post added February 25th, 2015 at 12:32 AM ----------

I'm going to be studying this article for some time. Lots of great data and perspective here David. Thank you! BTW, I managed to locate a few Triton issues from a friend in Denmark, and am in the process of purchasing. I wouldn't have known about these if you hadn't of mentioned it. Thank you again.

 

[David Wilson]

David, Thank you for the B.S.A.C. link, I had never seen it before. The London Diver newsletter is very interesting as well. Hadn't read it before. I've got my weekend reading cut out for me now. Many thanks again for the resources.

A pleasure, Sam. Here's another useful source of historical information about diving:
Browse by Issuing Agency - Aquatic Commons
The page has links to the full run of Historical Diver, the official journal of the Historical Diving Societies of South East Asia Pacific, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Russia and the USA, complete issues in PDF format for free download.

What other mags do you collect? Sam

There were plenty of dive mags worldwide, even in the early 1960s, as this page from the September/October 1963 issue of Triton demonstrates:

As for my own collection of mags, it's fairly modest, although I do have a couple of hundred diving books in French, German and Italian as well as English. In addition to the issues of Neptune and Triton I've already mentioned in my previous messages, I have the following single issues of assorted other titles: Il Subacqueo (August-September 1977); Pacific Diver (May/June 1976); Poseidon (6/1974); Skin Diver (November 1956 and March 1976); Sub-Aqua (April 1976); Subaqua Scene (July 1985). The Italian Il Subacqueo and East German Poseidon mags were bought during summer visits to those countries in the 1970s.

David