Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century France

[Popgun Pete]

This is the lightened series of the gun, the built-in hand pump was eliminated in the short models, but the counter-weight remains which was the rear pump handle, although the counter-weight was somewhat lighter with the use of smaller diameter shafts which are not as heavy as the thicker shafts. These guns are all sinkers after the shot, but were more efficient than the spring guns which previously ruled the underwater world for spearfishing purposes until band rubber improved.

 

[Popgun Pete]

Here is the Salles advert translated into English.

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks, Pete!

Let's move on to another minor mid-twentieth-century French basic underwater swimming product brand: Spofra. Just fins this time and two models.

Spofra Ondine fin

The above courtesy of the fabulous Musée Dumas online diving museum at http://museedumas.fr/.

What we have here is what we have seen plenty of times already in this thread. An open-heel fin with an extended footplate to protect the heel on the pebbly Mediterranean beaches of southern France. It comes with an adjustable strap and a Cressi Rondine style toe opening for comfort. High side rails but no centre rib for additional blade reinforcement. Note the V-like pattern on the top of the blade, which is an element of the Spofra brand identity.

 

[David Wilson]

The second Spofra model is a full-foot fin.

Spofra Extra closed-heel fin

The above also courtesy of the Musée Dumas. Here are several more images from elsewhere:

I hope you noticed the Spofra branding of the V-shaped pattern on the blade. This model is clearly the full-foot counterpart of the Spofra Ondine in the previous post. The closed heel would again have helped with stony French Riviera beaches, while the toe opening provided a more comfortable fit.

Let's take a closer look at the inscriptions on the underside of the blade:

Starting from the bottom and working upwards, I am assuming that "Extra" is the name of this particular Spofra model. Then we have the fitting, EU 40-42 in European sizing and 6-8 in US or UK sizing. And finally, we have the brand name "SPOFRA" in its now familiar WordArt triangular styling, along with the company name, "Sporta-France" and the country of manufacture: "Made in France". "Spofra" itself is presumably an abbreviated form of "Sporta-France".

I've looked up Sporta-France online to find out more, which led me to a site at https://www.societe.com/societe/soc-sporta-france-a5-652053422.html revealing the company's address to be 38 RUE MILTON 75009 PARIS and its start-up date to be Christmas Day, 1965. No further details available.

We'll leave it there for a few days. There are a couple of further fin models to look at and then we'll proceed to another thread. Stay tuned!

 

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

This is the "Star" pneumatic speargun from France.

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks again, Pete, and to everybody who posted "likes". I expect this to be the last post in this thread, for the moment at least, because I've run out of mid-20c French masks, snorkels and fins to discuss. In my next thread about historical masks, snorkels and fins, we shall cross the Rhine to the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany as it was in the middle of the twentieth century, namely the West German state whose capital city was Bonn. We have already covered basic diving equipment designed and manufactured in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in an earlier thread that can be viewed at Basic gear from the former German Democratic Republic: East German masks and snorkels and at Basic gear from the former German Democratic Republic: East German fins.

Now for today's French offerings. A couple of fin models.

Palmes Hydro open-heel fins

I can't tell you who made these fins and I've included them here just because "palmes" is French for "fins". Whether "Hydro" is the model or brand name, I can't say. We also have the five interlocking Olympic rings on the top of the foot pocket, five being the number of continents in the world:

The numbers 39-42 represent the European fitting, but I haven't clue about the "1003". Perhaps a stock reference number. "Flottantes" tells us that the fins are positively buoyant.

The fins resemble many French period fins designed to be worn on pebbly Mediterranean beaches, so fitted with extended foot platforms to protect the heels. They have adjustable straps with twin buckles. As well as side rails, the blades have two centre ribs radiating from the toe area to the concave tips, reminiscent of Polish "Raja" models (below):

 

[David Wilson]

Today's second fin is dubbed "Long Blade" for obvious reasons and the only reason I include it here is that although little or nothing is known about its provenance, an example appears as an exhibit in the wonderful Musée Dumas French diving museum.

Long Blade closed-heel fins

The museum describes the fin as "Modélé superlong chaussante" (English: superlong full-foot design). If you like, read the caption for yourself at Enregistrement 243. If anybody does know anything about this closed-heel open-toed long-bladed fin, I'd like to hear as I'm interested in the history of all-rubber long-bladed freediving-style fins.

So that's it for the moment and possibly for this thread, which began on 5 December 2018 and has amassed at least 266 postings since then. I'll be back with a new thread in several days' time.

 

[Sam Miller III]

@David Wilson

There is a commonly used phrase in the US associated with base ball
"Say it isn't so, Joe"

The very modern updated diving version would be
"Say it isn't so David !"

Every day I wake up rather early - between 5:00 and 5:30 AM - go into my home office, turn on the computer and eagerly search for your post. Thus begins my day...

I have never been disappointed in reading your very interesting informative post - I am only disappointed when you do not post !

Sam Miller, 111

 

[David Wilson]

Thank you, Sam. It's nice to be appreciated and also to have time to research and to write now I'm more than a decade into retirement from full-time teaching. I promise you and everybody else that I still have plenty in reserve in the way of raw material from the middle of the last century and I am expecting the West German mask, snorkel and fin thread I am proposing to be a long one when I get it up and running here in the near future.

 

[Sam Miller III]

The question persists ….
"When are you producing a book or a CD of the history of Fins Mask and Snorkels ?"
Remember--I have Dibbs (American slang = first choice) on a "lavishly inscribed" copy...
and I am not choosey. Pamphlet, Book, or CD.
SAM