OP
Check this vintage ad out...
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OP
I’m trying to figure out the year of the photo, does anyone know if this an aluminum or steel tank?
Oooh, my dad had those fins, only green. Them's the ones I learned on. They were the USSR knock-offs, @David Wilson may know what/when the originals were.
Sophia Loren in a publicity shot for Boy on a Dolphin from 1957?
Scuba starts at 51:50. But the skin diving scene at the beginning is worth a look. I imagine it was the inspiration for a certain visual in The Deep.
Scuba starts at 51:50. But the skin diving scene at the beginning is worth a look. I imagine it was the inspiration for a certain visual in The Deep.
Maybe it's Gina Lollobrigida instead of Ms. Loren?
Either way, they are either Churchill fins or a close knockoff.
David Wilson
Contributor
Model 1 fins were manufactured from the late 1950s to the late 1960s by Moscow Rubber Goods Plant No. 4, known as "Mosrezina", on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street in the capital of the then USSR.
The plant:
Mosrezina Model1 fins:
Contemporary Soviet descriptions:
1. These fins were the first models manufactured in the USSR. The fins are made of light, porous rubber, usually green. The fin has a straight and flexible blade with two ribs for reinforcement. The fins came in a 40-ish size. In later years, fin production focused on models sized 42-43.
2. The open-heel fin from the No. 4 rubber goods plant (‘Mosrezina’) is a soft, heavy type of fin. When the first fins of this type appeared, they were made of foam rubber and so they did not sink in the water. Subsequent batches of this fin were made of rubber with a specific gravity of a little more than one and so they sink. The elastic, smooth and flat fin blade operating area has thickened ribs only at the edges, which gently taper towards the tip. The fin blades have obliquely cut tips. Overall, the fin looks like a fishtail in shape. The heel strap forms an integral part of the body of the fin and is non-adjustable. One drawback is the uncomfortable shape of the foot pocket, subjecting the foot to undue pressure. The fin serves the purpose of low-speed swimming over long distances.
Provenance
Many countries imitated the original American Owen Churchill fins when their domestic industries introduced their own designs during the 1950s. My own opinion is that Mosrezina probably used the West German "Barakuda Original" fins as their model:
Sorry but I remember reading Philippe Dumas stating that during his time as a civil employee at GERS (sorry I can't give you the book's title, but I've no time to forage among my books), they used triple aluminum cylinders, which were never equaled, according to him.That was way before 1972.
Do you mean aluminum tanks were not marketed for civilians or in the US before that time ?
That is what I meant. I was only thinking of commercially available Scuba cylinders.
You are correct, the US Navy (and probably other Navy's) did have non-magnetic aluminum cylinders long before that.
In the US the introduction of aluminum cylinders to the civilian Scuba industry was in 1972 and I believe it was around the same time in Europe. I own a British aluminum cylinder that was first introduced that year. I remember seeing adds (both in the US and Europe) as a new innovation.
Added: We didn't have the Internet back then, so the flow of information was somewhat limited.
Thanks
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