Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century France

[Popgun Pete]

Back in the day "Skin Diver" magazine ran an article on reversing the fin straps in the wire frame buckles so that the projecting end of the strap was on the inside rather than on the outside. The objective being to remove a snagging hazard as otherwise those strap ends face forwards when you swim. It was easier said than done, but if you passed some nylon cord under and through the buckle frame between the strap and fin body then you could pull the triangle of fin strap mounting through and under the strap, then the band sat secured as it does with the strap ends going the other way. Wetting the fin helped in this strap mounting procedure as then the rubber slides somewhat easier on itself.

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks, Pete! OK, we're in the final straight now, so far as mid-20c French diving equipment manufacturing is concerned, and the focus will be on minor brands of fins. We'll begin with Crawl fins, named presumably after the swimming stroke.

Crawl Aquadynamic adjustable open-heel fins

So what can we glean from the images above? Firstly, that what we have here is a typical early fin, open-heeled and open-toed with an extended foot plate to protect the heel from pebbly Mediterranean beaches. Secondly, that the fins come embossed with "Marseille" but "Made in Italy", which reminds me of the marking of Cavalero Champion fins; even the heel pattern of the Champion fin below is similar:

I should add that fins were the only item in the Crawl repertoire, as the following speargun shows:

I haven't managed to trace any evidence of Crawl masks or snorkels, however.

 

[David Wilson]

The second minor French brand under the microsocope today is Piranha, named after the infamous toothy fish from South America.

Piranha closed heel fins (ribbed blade)

So an open-toed full-foot fin wqith a short but stiff blade reinforced by side rails and a central rib top and bottom. A distinctive feature is the depression in the top side of the blade with a corresponding convex surface on the base. No indication of origin except for "Made in France".

 

[David Wilson]

The other Piranha fin came with a smooth blade.

Piranha closed heel fins (smooth blade)

A rather different design from the ribbed-blade version, more reminiscent from the heel-tread pattern of Cavalero Champion fins. Otherwise typical open-toed full-foot fins of the period, narrower-fitting than the other Piranha model.

That's it for today. There will be a few more minor brands up for a closer look next time.

 

[Popgun Pete]

Thanks, Pete! OK, we're in the final straight now, so far as mid-20c French diving equipment manufacturing is concerned, and the focus will be on minor brands of fins. We'll begin with Crawl fins, named presumably after the swimming stroke.

Crawl Aquadynamic adjustable open-heel fins
View attachment 526768
View attachment 526769
View attachment 526770
View attachment 526771
So what can we glean from the images above? Firstly, that what we have here is a typical early fin, open-heeled and open-toed with an extended foot plate to protect the heel from pebbly Mediterranean beaches. Secondly, that the fins come embossed with "Marseille" but "Made in Italy", which reminds me of the marking of Cavalero Champion fins; even the heel pattern of the Champion fin below is similar:
View attachment 526775

I should add that fins were the only item in the Crawl repertoire, as the following speargun shows:
View attachment 526774

I haven't managed to trace any evidence of Crawl masks or snorkels, however.

The Crawl DDS speargun was a “universal gachette” system in terms of the spear tail notch and sear tooth arrangement used back then on French spearguns. Internally the trigger mechanism was a minimalist design with a dipping sear tooth arrangement where pushing the spear tail into the sear box drove the sear tooth downwards and then the biasing spring on the trigger drove the sear tooth back up again to latch. Flimsy is a work that comes to mind as these were budget-priced spearguns, not quite junk, but close. Not shown is the thin wire torsion spring that biases the sear lever tail downwards [which is a metal crucifix of a long bar (sear lever and end "tooth") with a stubby cross bar (the pivot pin) welded together] as it would not stay put for a photo!

In some ways one could applaud the sheer audacity in offering this almost toy-like construction to spearfishermen who little suspected what lay within the side panel that closed off the mechanism.

 

[David Wilson]

Let's move on to Star France. One of the lessons learnt when tracing the history of France's many early diving equiment manufacturing companies is that they tended to be the brainchild of pioneering divers with an inventive streak and a degree of business acumen. The man behind Star France was André Bonneau, who made his name in cave diving during the mid-1950s in the Pyrenean mountain range between France and Spain:

If you can read French, you will find plenty of coverage of Bonneau's exploits online, e.g. plongee souterraine - estramar 1951, Un pionnier...André BONNEAU - Le Scaphandrier and Le plongeur perdu de Font Estramar, des pionniers aux nouveaux explorateurs - Plongée Infos. I am going to concentrate here on his company Star France headquartered in the East Pyrenean city of Perpignan:

Star France's history spans the period between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s. Here is an ad from 1961:

Its focus is on Star France's neoprene wetsuits and its French distributorship for Spanish-made Nemrod diving equipment. Here is another ad from 1974:

Once again, wetsuits are highlighted. Note the firm's address, which was "26, rue de l'Avenir", translating to "26 Future Street"! We'll come to the fins illustrated in the 1974 ad later, but I'll just mention the Star France speargun in passing:

It's captioned by the Musée Dumas as "Modèle à air comprimé fabriqué à Béziers. Fusil pneumatique Star france invention Bonneau", which means "Compressed air model manufactured at Béziers. Star France pneumatic gun invented by Bonneau".

 

[David Wilson]

Star France manufactured open-heel and full-foot model swimming fins.

Open-heel Star France fins

Note how they come with an extended foot plate protecting the heel from stony Mediterranean beaches. When I look at pictures of these fins, I am inevitably reminded of the Sommap Halcyon military-style fins we reviewed earlier, not least because of the shape of the foot pockets and the blade tips:

 

[David Wilson]

Last fins for review today are Star France full-foots.

Star France Slide-Fin closed-heel fins

This fin shares a convex blade-tip design with the open-heel version and appears to be a lighter version of the latter.

That'e enough for today and for Star France. My next posting will cover a few more French fins and conclude the present thread about mid-20c French masks, snorkels and fins. I am minded to proceed thereafter to mid-20c basic equipment made in the Federal Republic of Germany.

 

[Popgun Pete]

Let's move on to Star France. One of the lessons learnt when tracing the history of France's many early diving equiment manufacturing companies is that they tended to be the brainchild of pioneering divers with an inventive streak and a degree of business acumen. The man behind Star France was André Bonneau, who made his name in cave diving during the mid-1950s in the Pyrenean mountain range between France and Spain:
View attachment 527375
View attachment 527376
If you can read French, you will find plenty of coverage of Bonneau's exploits online, e.g. plongee souterraine - estramar 1951, Un pionnier...André BONNEAU - Le Scaphandrier and Le plongeur perdu de Font Estramar, des pionniers aux nouveaux explorateurs - Plongée Infos. I am going to concentrate here on his company Star France headquartered in the East Pyrenean city of Perpignan:
View attachment 527377
Star France's history spans the period between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s. Here is an ad from 1961:
View attachment 527373
Its focus is on Star France's neoprene wetsuits and its French distributorship for Spanish-made Nemrod diving equipment. Here is another ad from 1974:
View attachment 527374
Once again, wetsuits are highlighted. Note the firm's address, which was "26, rue de l'Avenir", translating to "26 Future Street"! We'll come to the fins illustrated in the 1974 ad later, but I'll just mention the Star France speargun in passing:
View attachment 527378
It's captioned by the Musée Dumas as "Modèle à air comprimé fabriqué à Béziers. Fusil pneumatique Star france invention Bonneau", which means "Compressed air model manufactured at Béziers. Star France pneumatic gun invented by Bonneau".

That speargun is one of Rene Salles guns, Star is only the distributor. Rene Salles made the first mid-handle latching pneumatic spearguns where the trigger and sear lever were one and the same item and fitted as an outrigger trigger poking out one side of the gun. Earlier pneumatic guns were forward latching with a groove in the front end of the spear, the trigger operating a long pull rod that ran to the muzzle of the gun where the sear lever caught the annular shaft groove.

In the USA Rene's brother John Salles made and patented the very similar "Airmatic" pneumatic speargun, but unlike the Sallematic guns there was only one model as the US market was more interested in band.guns, and for a time carbon dioxide guns.

 

[Popgun Pete]

This is Rene Salles 1946 patent and a 1947 "Normale" model with the long handle with the forward projection which originally was intended to house a flashlight. This heavy gun was able to shoot an 11 mm diameter harpoon!