Basic gear from mid-twentieth-century Italy: Mares and Pirelli

[David Wilson]

Final fin of the day is the Bleumarine, which appeared in the Mares Elton range of equipment:

The caption:
Professionally designed fins for youth. Features double "Mid-Rib," curved power blade, full foot pocket with open toe and twin compounded rubber for both comfort and strength, New Non-marking orange colour. NON-FLOATING... ORANGE. Sizes 1-3, 3-5, 5-7.
A closer look:

It also came in black:

 

[David Wilson]

Like certain other models, the Bluemarine lived to fight another day after Mares dropped its all-rubber fins and clambered on to that thermoplastic elastomer foot pocket and plastic blade bandwagon. The fin moulds eventually went east to re-enter service with NİLSAN - NİLSAN NİL DENİZ KAUÇUK SAN. VE TİC.A.Ş, a rubber company operating in the Turkish city of Istanbul. The NİLSAN fins were distributed by Adalılar Kauçuk. A few online retailers in Turkey stock the product.

The Turkish-moulded fins came with a choice of full-length or cut-down blades. Because of their availability in very small sizes, the fins were exported for a while to Germany and Poland, where they were used by infant children learning to swim during pool sessions under parental supervision.

And that's all for today and all I have to post about Mares masks, snorkels and fins. Next time we'll move on to Pirelli, famed perhaps most as a tyre manufacturer but remembered fondly too as a maker of consumer goods including underwater swimming equipment. Back at the weekend, stay safe and keep well in the meantime.

 

[ginti]

This thread is so wonderful I just would like to have more free time right now, to read it all...

Many thanks @David Wilson for all your effort!

 

[jale]

Never thought that reading a thread about fins, I would learn from an English man that a song sung in French by an ex Miss Egypt was originaly written by an Italian man inspired by a painting from a Belarusian painter

 

[Sifossifoco]

Lyrics:
Pienso que un sueno parecido no volvera mas
Y me pintaba las manos y la cara de azul
Y me improviso el viento rapido me llevo
Y me hizo a volar en el cielo infinito
Volare, oh, oh
Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh
Nel blu dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassu
Y volando, volando feliz
Yo me encuentro mas alto
Mas alto que el sol
Y mienstras que el mundo
Se aleja despacio de mi
Una musica dulce
Se ha tocada solo para mi
Volare, oh, oh
Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh
Nel blu dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassu
Pienso que un sueno parecido no volvera mas
Y me pintaba las manos y la cara de azul
Y me improviso el viento rapido me llevo
Y me hizo a volar en el cielo infinito
Volare, oh, oh
Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh
Nel blu dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassu

Just a little imperfection: that is the Spanish translation, not the original Italian Volare. The Italian version goes more or less like this:

Penso che un sogno cosi' non ritorni mai piu',
Mi dipingevo le mani e la faccia di blu.
Poi d'improvviso venivo dal vento rapito,
E incominciavo a volare nel cielo infinito.

Volare, oh oh,
Cantare, oh oh oh oh.
Nel blu dipinto di blu,
Felice di stare lassu'.

E volavo volavo felice
Piu' in alto del sole ed ancora piu' su
Mentre il mondo pian piano spariva
Lontano laggiu'.
Una musica dolce suonava soltanto per me.

Volare, oh oh
Cantare, oh oh oh oh.
Nel blu dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassu'.

Ma tutti I sogni nell'alba svaniscon perche'
Quando tramonta la luna li porta con se'.
Ma io continuo a sognare negli occhi tuoi belli
Che sono blu come un cielo trapunto di stelle...

Volare, oh oh
Cantare, oh oh oh oh.
Nel blu degli occhi tuoi blu
Felice di stare quaggiu'.

E continuo a volare felice
Piu' in alto del sole ed ancora piu' su
Mentre il mondo pian piano scompare
Negli occhi tuoi blu
La tua voce e' una musica dolce che suona per me...
Volare, oh oh
Cantare, oh oh oh oh.
Nel blu degli occhi tuoi blu
Felice di stare quaggiu'.
Nel blu degli occhi tuoi blu
Felice di stare quaggiu'.

As for the Vola fins, i had a pair myself, a very long time ago, during my first adventures in the sea. They were good fins for the time. I am not sure if the translation of their name should be the third person of the verb, or rather the imperative "Fly!", Which is also Vola, in Italian.
Thanks for this thread, I am really enjoying reading everything you post.

 

[Sifossifoco]

Also, going back to the name Vola, it occurred to me that Italians often use the verb Volare with reference to speed rather than flying. If they tell somebody 'Vola!" (Fly!) they mainly mean 'go as as fast as possible'. The Vola fins were probably named that way to underline the speed of movement achievable.

 

[lowwall]

Seeing the word "Volare" immediately brings to mind the Plymouth Volare of the 1970s which was usually advertised using the song. Here's a version, sorry for the poor quality.


As an aside, the Volare was a very poorly made car. Too many corners were cut in the design to save costs and then it was rushed into production without adequate testing. The result was an unprecedented number of expensive recalls which led to Chrysler having to beg the US government for a bailout. The joke became that "volare" was Italian for "recall" or "lemon".

 

[JMBL]

Never thought that reading a thread about fins, I would learn from an English man that a song sung in French by an ex Miss Egypt was originaly written by an Italian man inspired by a painting from a Belarusian painter

That's why reading this thread is soooo good !

 

[Popgun Pete]

Black rubber fins are the non-floaters and the coloured ones float, that is why you see the same fins offered in two colour variations. Floating fins lack carbon black which strengthens the rubber compound and are usually not as durable as their black counterparts.

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks, Pete, and thanks to everybody else for their appreciation of all contributions to this thread.
Time to move on to the second company in the title of this thread: Pirelli. Although this Italian rubber goods manufacturer is probably best known for its electric cables, vehicle tyres and saucy calendar, the firm has been responsible for a very wide spectrum of products during its one and a half centuries of existence. As the video above provides a potted company history, I shall limit my own account of its general development to a sentence or two here.

The firm was founded in 1872 by Giovanni Battista Pirelli in the Northern Italian city of Milan:

The company is still headquartered there:

As a basic diving equipment manufacturer, Pirelli was primarily active during the middle decades of the twentieth century with products spanning the recreational and professional sectors of the industry. This from the May 1949 issue of the Pirelli Revista d'informazione e di tecnica magazine:

An article about the wonders of underwater fishing illustrated with pictures of Robert Rossellini in the water with a speargun, his wife Ingrid Bergman donning a diving mask and a male model showcasing a rebreather, full-face mask, snorkel and swim fins. What more could a diving historian want? I haven't yet got round to having the two images processed by an online optical character reader, let alone translating the resulting text into passable English.