CLAIM: SKIN-Diver is also an acronym. True or False

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johnmckenzie

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An instructor we know vehemently claims that like the word S.C.U.B.A., "SKIN" as in skin diver is also an acronym. I cannot find anything about this searching the web. Can anyone confirm or refute this?

Thank you,
John
 
It is an acronym and I read something about this very recently. Just can't remember where... sorry.:confused4:
 
Back in the day when scuba divers and free-divers were called skin divers, skin stood for the stuff that encases our bodies. Still does.

---------- Post added September 29th, 2015 at 09:05 AM ----------

Ask the vehement instructor what it stands for and, more importantly, where he got his bogus info.

Or perhaps we should run a competition here on ScubaBoard to see what we can come up with.

The one found with Google is "Share Knowledge, Inspire, Nurture", but of course that doesn't fit the "as in skin diver" criterion.
 
I read somewhere that it was Navy. They would post on the daily bulletin board: For this class, Swim Kit Is Needed.
Personally, I think it's people making a backronym.


I agree. That 'Navy' acronym is absurd. Are we talking UDT here?
 
I read somewhere that it was Navy. They would post on the daily bulletin board: For this class, Swim Kit Is Needed.
Personally, I think it's people making a backronym.

I think so too. "Snorkels Pros and Cons" at http://www.alertdiver.com/snorkel has: Snorkel Trivia. Many people know that the term "skin" diving refers to snorkel gear, but few know its origins. When military personnel were required to bring mask, snorkel and fins to water sessions, the acronym SKIN was posted on the roster to stand for "swim kit is needed." No printed source is given to back up this claim, which makes me sceptical. I was given to understand that "skin diving" was a term used in the early years to distinguish "swim-diving" with mask and fins from walking on the seabed with a brass helmet, surface-supplied air, a heavy suit and lead boots. In early diving books, "skin diving" is sometimes used to refer to diving with scuba as well as with a snorkel. Some authors in the 1950s and 1960s were very precise about "skin diving" being breathhold diving, while other books with "skin diving" in the title had chapters about breathing equipment. "Freediving" was also used in the 1950s to refer to scuba diving as well as breathhold diving. The current exclusive use of "freediving" to refer to breathhold diving to considerable depths is relatively recent.
 
An instructor we know vehemently claims that like the word S.C.U.B.A., "SKIN" as in skin diver is also an acronym.

I have never heard of such a thing and I have a collection of old scuba texts on the shelf that I have spent some time in.
 
I think so too. "Snorkels Pros and Cons" at http://www.alertdiver.com/snorkel has: Snorkel Trivia. Many people know that the term "skin" diving refers to snorkel gear, but few know its origins. When military personnel were required to bring mask, snorkel and fins to water sessions, the acronym SKIN was posted on the roster to stand for "swim kit is needed." No printed source is given to back up this claim, which makes me sceptical.

Having been in the Navy and dealing with pages of acronyms, I believe it's bogus because it has more letters than necessary. If the alleged swim kit were to be needed it would just be SK, the assumption when the acronym was used that it would be needed.

I think someone is just making up a story to see if someone would believe it. Obviously, someone believed it and is passing it on.



Bob
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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