Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century France

[David Wilson]

Moving on now to Sommap's retro purge masks. First, the Panama.

Sommap Panama diving mask

Description: Retro style mask with a stainless-steel frame and a large single oval window offering good visibility. Comfortable and durable rubber construction adjusts to the contours of the face while providing a secure grip. Practical purge valve system with cover to discharge water from the mask with a single breath through the nose. Compensator finger wells for equalisation. Comfortable adjustable strap.

• Type: Single-lens oval-shaped mask with compensator and purge valve.
• Material: Black rubber skirt and headstrap; tempered safety-glass lens; stainless-steel frame with screw.
• Accreditation: Conforms to EU Directive 89/686/EEC — Personal Protective Equipment.

Note the two versions of this compensator-and-purge mask, one with a top screw and another without. Apart from the purge valve, the Panama closely resembles the Sommap Corail.

 

[David Wilson]

Sommap's other retro purge mask is the Supervisiomer.

Sommap Supervisiomer diving mask

Description: Retro style mask with a stainless-steel frame and a large single oval window offering great visibility.

• Type: Single-lens rectangular mask with compensator and purge valve.
• Material: Black rubber skirt and headstrap; tempered safety-glass lens; stainless-steel frame.
• Accreditation: Conforms to EU Directive 89/686/EEC — Personal Protective Equipment.

The very name "Supervisiomer" identifies the model as the purge-valve upgrade for the Visiomer and draws attention to the rounded rectangular lens claiming to offer the widest view.

That's it for the Sommap range of retro diving masks. We'll now turn to Sommap's foursome of retro snorkels and take a closer look at one of them.

 

[David Wilson]

On to Sommap's quartet of retro breathing tubes (above). These four models neatly illustrate the flexible-hose, the L-shaped, the Contour and the J-shaped snorkel varieties dating from the era between the 1950s and the mid-1970s. My mission today is to focus on the J-shaped Commando (far right).

Sommap Commando snorkel

Description: The Sommap Commando (English: Commando) snorkel resembles a letter “J” in shape and consists of a straight barrel with a 180°-angle “U”-bend at its lower end connected to a standard rubber mouthpiece (right). The length and internal diameter of the barrel are 44 cm and 2 cm respectively. J-shaped snorkels were among the earliest breathing tubes to be marketed. They first appeared in the early 1950s. A disadvantage of this design is that water tends to accumulate at the base of the U-bend, causing the snorkel to be harder to clear.The Commando has a high-visibility top and a durable connector for fastening the snorkel to a mask strap.

I'll leave it there for today and review the remaining three snorkels in a few days' time.

 

[David Wilson]

Back to Sommap's range of retro snorkels. We have already taken a closer look at the Commando J-shaped model and it is time to review the others. Let's start with the L-shaped "Clarinete" or "Clarinette".

Sommap Clarinette snorkel

Description: The Sommap Clarinette (English: Clarinet) snorkel resembles a letter “L” in shape and consists of a straight barrel with a right-angle bend at its lower end connected to a rubber mouthpiece. The barrel is 40 cm long with an internal diameter of 2.2 cm. The 90°-angle offset mouthpiece (above) enables the supply end to be connected to the barrel and the demand end to be retained comfortably in the mouth. An L-shaped snorkel “eliminates the usual depth of tubing below head level. The shallow draft reduces water drag – aids in expelling water – and reduces resistance to breathing.” An offset mouthpiece may rotate, facilitating adjustment to the most comfortable position. The Clarinette has a high-visibility top and a durable connector for fastening the snorkel to a mask strap.

Antecedents: L-shaped snorkels have been around since the early 1960s. The design remains popular with underwater hunters who prefer traditional equipment. The earliest commercial L-shaped breathing tube may have been the “Scuba Snorkel” (below), listed in the 1960 catalogue of the International Divers Corporation of Canada.

During the 1960s, many diving equipment manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic embraced the “L” design, developing and marketing such models as the Beuchat “Tubalux”, the Cavalero “Tuba L”, the Dacor “Model LST”, the Spartan “EEL F” and the US Divers “Snork-L” (below)

The L-shaped snorkel design has proved popular in Russia. Here an early alloy-barrelled Soviet model:

and here a recent plastic-barrelled version made in the Russian city of Yaroslavl:

 

[David Wilson]

Now for the Annelle or Annelé, the flexible-hose model in the Sommap range of snorkels.

Sommap Annelé snorkel

Description: The Annelé (English: ringed) retro snorkel consists of a rigid barrel connected to a flexible corrugated rubber hose terminating in a mouthpiece. The barrel is 29 cm long, while the length and inner diameter of the hose are 20 cm and 2 cm respectively. When the “accordion” mouthpiece is out of use, it is designed to spring away from the face, enhancing comfort and freeing the swimmer’s hands, which would otherwise be deployed during removal of the snorkel from the mouth. This feature has proved popular in the past with scuba divers who found that a regular snorkel’s hard bend could catch on underwater obstacles or get in the way of the scuba mouthpiece.The Annelé has a high-visibility top and a durable connector for fastening the snorkel to a mask strap.

Antecedents: Scubapro founder Dick Bonin, who died in 2015, once claimed when interviewed “We brought out the first flexible snorkel. In Chicago, they used to sell surplus aircraft parts so I took a hose and put it on a snorkel tube, and I never forgot that. Swimaster priced it at $2.95 and everyone said we were out of our minds, but we sold them like crazy."
This flexible-hose snorkel was dubbed the Bello-flex (below), whose launch was in 1959.

The Bello-flex may well have been one of the earliest American snorkels to feature a flexible corrugated rubber hose ending in a mouthpiece that dropped out of the way when it was not in use. However, the Capewell Explorer Snorkel (below) with its corrugated rubber elbow leading into its mouthpiece unit may have a prior claim, as it first appeared in 1955.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the British 1956 underwater swimming catalogues of both Lillywhites and Cogswell and Harrison of Piccadilly in London list an “Abbey” brand snorkel with a “corrugated end in rubber” (below).

Since the late 1950s, flexible-hose snorkels have occasionally appeared in the product ranges of many diving gear manufacturers, e.g. Britmarine, Cavalero, Dacor, Healthways, Mares, Scubapro, Typhoon, US Divers, Voit and White Stag. Later snorkels of this kind improved airflow by providing the corrugated hose with a smooth interior.

 

[David Wilson]

Finally for today, the Sommap Lagon, which is the contour model in the traditional snorkel range.

Sommap Lagon snorkel

Description: The Sommap Lagon C (English: Lagoon) snorkel is contoured to fit the user’s facial profile and consists of a shorter and wider curved barrel connected to a rubber mouthpiece (left). The qualifier “C” in the snorkel’s name probably stands for “caoutchouc” (English: rubber). The Lagon C has a high visibility top and a durable connector for fastening the snorkel to a mask strap. The barrel is available in light blue, grey, yellow, black and green. A version rebadged as a Pro-Dive Large Bore Rubber Snorkel for the New Zealand market (below) has a black barrel.

Antecedents: Although a contoured snorkel was invented in the early 1960s, diving equipment manufacturers first pursued this breathing tube design in earnest during the 1970s.

In 1963, Dacor introduced its Model GST Wrap-Around Big Barrel Snorkel (above), as “the first major improvement in snorkel concept and design in many years.” The “Wrap Around” design “fits contour of head and minimises water resistance while diving.” The barrel’s shorter length and wider bore eased breathing and water clearance. By 1968, a patent was “pending.” US Patent 3603306 was granted in September 1971 to Dick Bonin of Scubapro for an improved snorkel “shaped and designed to fit closely to the face of the wearer whereby viscous drag is minimised.” The Scubapro Wrap Around Jet Snorkel (below), whose barrel also had a wider bore, carried these improvements into effect.

That's it for now. I'll resume in a few days' time with a look at the Sommap retro swim fin range.

 

[David Wilson]

Sommap is the sole remaining manufacturer of natural rubber swim fins in France. At one time, the company made two closed-heel fins of this type: the Esterel (top left) and the longer-bladed Argonis (centre left) with two ribs on top for reinforcement. Now the company only produces one closed-heel fin, the Esterel, and one open-heel fin, the Alcyon (bottom left), which is NATO approved for military use. Let's focus today on the Esterel. The fin appears to be named after the Massif de l'Estérel, a Mediterranean coastal mountain range in South-East France.

Sommap Esterel fin

The name and logo of the company are embossed on the top of the foot pocket in the latest release of the Esterel, while the name of the fin appears in uppercase letters on one side of the blade (below):

The size and the country of origin are embossed on the base of the fin (below).

The heel tread has a wavy-line pattern. The blade, which comes with a convex tip, is reinforced with two ribs on the underside only.

Previous versions of the Esterel came with the size and the model name with acute accent, Estérel, embossed on the foot pocket:

 

[David Wilson]

Next up, the Sommap Argonis fin, which ceased production a number of years ago. I have no supporting evidence, but my guess is that the name "Argonis" alludes to the Argonauts, a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War, around 1300 BC, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece.

Sommap Argonis fin

In the third image above, the Argonis is one of the exhibits at the Musée Dumas online diving museum, which provides further information in French about the fin at Enregistrement 239.

Here is a close-up of the Argonis logo:

While the Esterel is reinforced with ribs on the base of the blade, the Argonis came with ribs on the top of the blade, which was also longer than the Esterel's. In this respect, the Argonis resembles the GTX fin made by the Italian manufacturer Mares:

I'll leave it there for today, returning in a few days' time to take a look at the Sommap Alcyon military fin and an early Sommap fin that may have been a precursor of the Esterel.

 

[Sam Miller III]

David
A comment on the origin of the big barrel snorkel,,,

They first appeared in the American and possibly the European competitive events several years prior to their appearance in the commercial market .

I recall the first one I saw -- it was at a meet Dana point California attached to a friends mask - I was curious -- he explained it was a piece of 3/4 PVC plastic tubing. which had he had bent into shape which he had taped from top to the mouth piece with black electrical tape and had as was the standard of the serious diver of the era was securely taped to the mask creating a mask and snorkel as a single unit.

I almost immediately made one. I obtained some PVC cut it into about a foot and a half in length I filled with sand sealed the ends with PVC caps and began heating it with a cheap gas torch and bending a shaping it to the desired contour of my then youthful face.

When I had it shaped I cut off the ends to proper length. emptied the sand glued and taped a commercial mouth piece. I had made my own big Bore (as In bore of a shot gun ) Snorkel. I used it for a number of years until I replaced it with at US Divers model.

It should be noted that at one of the early NAUI/LA Co sponsored International conference on Underwater Education aka ICUE or IQ the great John Resick , a close personal friend and author of SCUBA Safe and Simple presented a paper on the snorkel which he strongly suggested all snorkel should be of the big bore types-- so big the student should be able to put their finger down its bore-- this was as Winston stated "the begging of the end" - of the long narrow tube snorkels.

Now recreational diving is populated with the modern individual who dives, but are not divers have never been exposed in training or have used a snorkel and are as confused as if it cane from outer space --

Thanks for all the good work - it is appreciated and certainly brings back memories

Sam Miller, 111
cc
@Akimbo
@Scuba Lawyer

CE @Marie13

 

[Akimbo]

he explained it was a piece of 3/4 PVC plastic tubing

For our readers outside the US: 3/4" Schedule 40 PVC pipe (the most common) has an inside diameter of 0.824"/21mm.