Sea Hunt

[David Wilson]

>I don't think Barada "invented" it, I was told that it was a European product that he imported. If that's not the case, I'd love to know the real story.<

Having done some research on historical dry suits, I've written some short monographs about some of them which are now posted on the links page of Bill Sewell's Hydroglove website at:

http://www.hydroglove.com

I don't have time to produce a lengthy response now, but there were indeed European drysuits around in the early 1950s, notably the Italian-made Pirelli suit, which was imported to the US. There were a number of American-made suits at the time, though, e.g. The Spearfisherman frogman suit and the US Divers Seal Suit, both of which were advertised in the first edition of Skin Diver magazine in 1951. If you have a copy of the 1955 edition of "Dive" by the Carriers you'll find those and others (e.g. Healthways) listed in the appendix.

What made Barada's suit different was that it was made of two-ply material, the outer layer made chemically resistant to the damaging effects of sunshine. The basic design is still in production at Aquala (formerly Bel-Aqua); see "historical suit" at

http://www.aquala.com/

 

[Sam Miller III]

the guy that played Lloyd Bridges standin long with "Jaws" from 007 gave a talk...he was quite interesting...anyone recall his name?[/QUOTE]
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Ricou Browning....he retired to Florida

 

[Sam Miller III]

>I don't think Barada "invented" it, I was told that it was a European product that he imported. If that's not the case, I'd love to know the real story.<

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I published an article 20 years ago on the plastic suit, wet suit and the dry suit. Can't recall the name of the artices or where they were published.

Yes there were many many suits on the market in the 1950s all left overs from WW11, Impossible to swim with--see Underwater swimmer panel report of 1951 (?)

Bill developed the idea of the swimmable wet suits about 1947-8. They were originially made from rubber baby sheets--the first few suit were failures until he obtained the extra strong rubber. He sold the patterns for $1.00 and the necessary supplies for a few dollars more. By purchasing the pattern the buyer was also intitled to membership into the Nepunes diving club which Bill founded.

He might have imported the material for the commerical abalone suits...

So ever told you, told you wrong!

I knew Bill & Harriet well. I was, as was my son, a member of the Neptunes.

Enough said,
sdm

 

[Thalassamania]

Bill Barada made significant contributions to diving, that’s well known. I’m guessing that his specific contribution to the dry suit was combining his knowledge of a new material with an existing design (Pirelli?).

With all due respect, the idea of the swimmable wet suit is usually credited to Dr. Hugh Bradner (of U.C. Berkeley and later Scripps Institution of Oceanography), who, in 1951, while working with the navy had the insight that a thin layer of trapped water could act as an insulator. It was Dr. Willard Bascom who suggested Rubatex neoprene as a material.

Bari Bradner, daughter of Hugh Bradner in 1953 wearing a neoprene wetsuit designed by her father. Note the double hose reg, Glasses in the MOF<G> and the open heel fins without boots.

References:

1. Rainey, Carolyn; Wet Suit Pursuit: Hugh Bradner's Development of the First Wet Suit; Archives of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography; University of California, San Diego; La Jolla, CA 92093-0219; November 1998; SIO Reference Number 98-16
2. Hanauer, Eric; Scientific Diving at Scripps; Oceanography 16:3, The Oceanography Society, Rockville MD.

 

[Luis H]

That is a great picture! Those glasses are something else...

 

[David Wilson]

This is what Bill Barada wrote in his chapter "Cold Water Diving: Rubber suits keep you warm" (Underwater: the skindiver's manual, Trend books, 1955):

"In efforts to beat the cold water, the shivering fraternity tried every method from diet to lard oil. We emulated the diets of Eskimos with raw fish and blubber. We rubbed our bodies with lard oil, and some even tried oil of wintergreen (which burned like sin) so the water would feel warm at first. We wore long woolen underwear, and tried soaking it in oil. Nothing had much effect and we still sat shivering around a fire. This was the situation until around 1947, when Navy Frogman Suits were released to surplus stores.

These Navy suits were scarce and difficult to find. Navy demolition team swimmers advised us against them as they were too heavy, leaked and were so tight that they tired you quickly. However, Pet Pucio, Woody Dimel and Ralph Davis of the Los Angeles Neptune Club, liberated one. We then bought some rubber hospital sheeting and set about making ourselves a frogman suit.

The first suit I made was in cooperation with Garth Quinn, the most enthusiastic skin diver I have ever known. We tried several methods before we finally figured out which one worked. I roped my wife, Harriet, into the chore and, using her knowledge of sewing, we cluttered up our living room floor for two weeks until the suits were completed. This first suit was made from a pattern of a monkey costume which I had found in a department store. From the results, I would never recommend that anyone else use the same method."

Barada does devote the last three paragraphs of his chapter to wet suits, but only to list their main properties. The chapter is almost entirely devoted to dry suits and more particularly ways of making them at home with rubber sheeting and a pattern. The 1955 edition of the Carriers' book "Dive" lists a "make a suit kit" among the offerings of the Bel-Aqua Water Sports Co with which Barada was associated. I have a Bel Aqua Catalogue of 1958 which illustrates the front-entry suit ("America's most popular rubber suit"), a model closely resembling the suit worn by Barada in a photograph in his 1955 book. The 1958 catalogue doesn't mention a suit kit, though.

David

 

[Thalassamania]

I just want to get the history straight. Cleary Bradner and Bascom get credit for the wet suit.

It's not clear to me what we should be crediting Barada with. He's only claiming to have repatterened a "Navy Frogman Suit" using "rubber hospital sheets" (rather inventive) and later a monkey costume pattern.

 

[uspap]

I haven't checked this thread in a couple of days. (due to diving) The topic has sure taken a hard left turn.

 

[David Wilson]

>It's not clear to me what we should be crediting Barada with. <

Barada's early home-made suits represented just the first stage in the development of the sports diver's drysuit. In his later designs for the Bel-Aqua Water Sports Company, tougher, two-ply materials were used, making the dry suit less susceptible to the deleterious effects of sunlight and a better proposition for diving in low temperatures. Bel-Aqua's catalogue floats the idea of a wetsuit being worn under a drysuit to maximise the advantages of each and records that "more Bel-Aqua suits are in use (in 1958) in the United States than all other brands combined".

 

[Thalassamania]

Sounds good to me, thanks for the information, I really appreciate it.