David Wilson
Contributor
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 university modern languages degree course in central France in the late 1960s, a few months after the "May Events", the mini French revolution of 1968 leading a year later to the end of Charles de Gaulle's presidency. What is happening now in France with the "gilets jaunes" (yellow vests):
echoes what occurred there some fifty years previously:
French geographers often call their country a hexagon:
Three of the sides are bounded by seas: The English Channel, which translates into French as "La Manche" (The Sleeve), towards the North West; The Atlantic to the West; and the Mediterranean towards the South West. The Mediterranean is the French underwater swimmer's principal theatre of operation and many of the country's earliest diving equipment manufacturers founded their businesses in the Midi (French Riviera) bordering the long inland sea, where they had spent their leisure hours during World War II spearfishing to supplement their meagre food supplies. Here is another map of France showing the location of the principal towns and cities:
There were many diving equipment producers in France during the post-war pioneer decades. Two surviving French manufacturers in or near the Mediterranean port of Marseilles still offer traditional oval rubber-skirted diving masks: Beuchat (website: https://www.beuchat-diving.com/) and Sommap (website: http://www.sommap.com/ catalogue: http://www.sommap.com/upload/catalogue/catalogue-2019-sommap-light.pdf) . Sommap also continues to produce not only traditional snorkels with rubber mouthpieces, but also two traditional models of rubber fins. We'll eventually get to these two companies in this thread. The initial focus here, however, will be on early French diving equipment manufacturers who left their mark on the history of underwater swimming gear in France in the mid-twentieth century but were no longer around to witness the advent of the new millennium.
echoes what occurred there some fifty years previously:
French geographers often call their country a hexagon:
Three of the sides are bounded by seas: The English Channel, which translates into French as "La Manche" (The Sleeve), towards the North West; The Atlantic to the West; and the Mediterranean towards the South West. The Mediterranean is the French underwater swimmer's principal theatre of operation and many of the country's earliest diving equipment manufacturers founded their businesses in the Midi (French Riviera) bordering the long inland sea, where they had spent their leisure hours during World War II spearfishing to supplement their meagre food supplies. Here is another map of France showing the location of the principal towns and cities:
There were many diving equipment producers in France during the post-war pioneer decades. Two surviving French manufacturers in or near the Mediterranean port of Marseilles still offer traditional oval rubber-skirted diving masks: Beuchat (website: https://www.beuchat-diving.com/) and Sommap (website: http://www.sommap.com/ catalogue: http://www.sommap.com/upload/catalogue/catalogue-2019-sommap-light.pdf) . Sommap also continues to produce not only traditional snorkels with rubber mouthpieces, but also two traditional models of rubber fins. We'll eventually get to these two companies in this thread. The initial focus here, however, will be on early French diving equipment manufacturers who left their mark on the history of underwater swimming gear in France in the mid-twentieth century but were no longer around to witness the advent of the new millennium.