Scuba Pioneer

[Mantaray95616]

To be more accurate my first dive was using an Aqua-lung. The acronym S.C.U.B.A was not coined still some years later.

The Scottish Sub-Aqua Club founded in Glasgow, Scotland chartered a 40 seater bus at various intervals to transort members and their families to dive locations on the Ayrshire coast and occasionally to the east coas,t mostly south of Edinburgh. These were family outings and divers had to pre-book their dives (there were a limited number of tanks and regulators available). Non-divers picnicked, snorkeled, overturned rocks in tidal pools or just enjoyed the sea air. It was an all day affair.

I can't remember the exact date, but my first open water dive was a shore dive in 1955 at Turnberry, Scotland close to the famous golf course.

 

[The Chairman]

I can't remember the exact date, but my first open water dive was a shore dive in 1955 at Turnberry, Scotland close to the famous golf course.

Exposure suit? Single pane mask? Duck fins? What did that gear look like?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Too bad Sam Miller is no longer with us
This would have been a great meeting.

@Mantaray95616 I’m truly honored by your history.

 

[Akimbo]

To be more accurate my first dive was using an Aqua-lung. The acronym S.C.U.B.A was not coined still some years later.

Small correction: The S.C.U.B.A. acronym was coined as early as the 1940s in the US but many of the rebreather papers were classified at the time. As a result, S.C.U.B.A., later SCUBA, and now Scuba didn't come to define our sport until many years later.

We mostly called it "Skin Diving" in the US in the 1950s and 60s. That is what dive shops were listed under in the Yellow Pages and in popular media. Skin Diver Magazine was the leading dive publication for decades.

See this thread:

World War II
The prospect of war increased EDU's focus on support for combat swimmers. The units that would become the UDT or Underwater Demolition Team had not been formed yet. Christian Lambertsen designed a series of pure Oxygen rebreathers starting in 1940 as a medical student. He named them Laru for Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit which became a standard for the UDT and SEALs for decades.

Lambertson coined the acronym
SCUBA in 1952* to describe all
Self-Contained Underwater
Breathing Apparatus​

* some accounts indicate that Lambertson used the term in the 1940s... either way, he is universally credited.

You might find our History forum, Diving History: Tales from the Abyss, interesting.

 

[The Chairman]

You might find our History forum, Diving History: Tales from the Abyss, interesting.

I look forward to hearing your version of the facts. AKA the UK version!

 

[Mantaray95616]

It was a long time ago but as far as I remember:

I saved up my pocket money and was able to buy a two-piece dry suit under which I would wear a heavy knit fisherman's sweater and long johns. The top and bottom halves had 24 inch skirts which were tightly rolled together and secured by a cummerbund (waistband). the bottom half had built-in feet and the top halve had rubber seals at the wrist and neck. The suit was vented of air before a dive by submerging completely and holding one arm out of the water and cracking open the wrist seal. This was normally done after you had waded out to swimming depth and ready to switch to compressed air.

My dive outfit was a Siebe Gorman twin hose regulator attached to a 40 cubic steel tank rated at 2,000 psi.

My fins, I guess were "Duck Fins". The term didn't exist at that time. The fins were open heeled, secured by an adjustable strap and about half the length of many of today's fins.

My mask was a single pane enclosing my nose. If it became necessary for ear-clearing, the mask was pulled up, nose pinched, nose blown and mask replaced.

Strait open-ended snorkels haven't changed that much over the years except for comfort. The original snorkels were rigid from top to mouthpiece

My weight belt was home made from an aircraft quick-release seat belt threaded with a number of lead weights. The dive club had a number of moulds which were made available to members to pour their own.

I proudly wore a Siebe Gorman diver's knife in its brass sheath attached to my weight belt.

Due to scarcity, only the dive leader wore a depth guage. Dives seldom exceeded 50ft.

I don't remember wearing gloves.

I don't think I have missed anything.

The only other item of note (but not till many dives later) was a homemade speargun designed and built by my father. It was rubber powered and had a lever action to increase the tension beyond the manual pull range.

Evetually my first dry suit was replaced by a chest-entry suit which was sealed by a double set of zippers (inner and oute) which pulled two rubber flanges together to form a watertight seal. This suit did have a venting valve

 

[Mantaray95616]

Small correction: The S.C.U.B.A. acronym was coined as early as the 1940s in the US but many of the rebreather papers were classified at the time. As a result, S.C.U.B.A., later SCUBA, and now Scuba didn't come to define our sport until many years later.

We mostly called it "Skin Diving" in the US in the 1950s and 60s. That is what dive shops were listed under in the Yellow Pages and in popular media. Skin Diver Magazine was the leading dive publication for decades.

See this thread:



You might find our History forum, Diving History: Tales from the Abyss, interesting.

Skin Diving wasn't a term used much in the UK. Certainly not around me. I guess in the UK the term Aqualunger was common. The uninformed often called us "frogmen"

By the time I moved to North America in 1966 the term scuba diver was in common use and I did not make the connection to skin diver. I initially associated skin diving with free diving i.e without breathng apparatus. I did subscribe to Skin Diver magazine. Thanks for correcting me,

 

[Akimbo]

Skin Diving wasn't a term used much in the UK.

That makes sense. Recreational diving in the US naturally began in warmer water, mainly Southern California and Florida after WW2. For all practical purposes, there was no thermal protection, thus diving in bare skin.

I think it is fair to say that the genesis of our sport was in the Mediterranean in the 1930s with mostly French and Italian spearfisherman. Probably the best written history in English on this era is The Compleat Goggler by Guy Gilpatric published in in 1957.

 

[Mantaray95616]

That makes sense. Recreational diving in the US naturally began in warmer water, mainly Southern California and Florida after WW2. For all practical purposes, there was no thermal protection, thus diving in bare skin.

I think it is fair to say that the genesis of our sport was in the Mediterranean in the 1930s with mostly French and Italian spearfisherman. Probably the best written history in English on this era is The Compleat Goggler by Guy Gilpatric published in in 1957.

Yes I remember following the exploits of Hans Hass