Swimaster Bellowflex Snorkel

[boulderjohn]

Our dive shop has an annual sale in which people can offer their used equipment for sale on consignment. One person brought in a Swimaster Bellow-flex Snorkel in its original box. When he saw it, the shop owner decided that the owner could do better selling it elsewhere, and he held it out of the sale. Can anyone offer any information about this item? I could not find any information after a quick search.

 

[JohnnyC]

Might have better luck over on the Vintage Double Hose forum if you haven't tried there already.

 

[David Wilson]

Here's the snorkel (spelling: "Bello-Flex") in the Swimaster Skin Diving Equipment catalogue of 1962:


Its historical significance lies in it being the first snorkel to feature a flexible corrugated rubber hose ending in a mouthpiece that dropped out of the way when it was not in use, a feature popular with scuba divers who found that a regular snorkel's hard bend could catch on underwater obstacles or get in the way of the scuba mouthpiece.

The Bello-Flex also appeared earlier in the 1960 edition of the Divemaster Skin and Lung Diving Equipment catalogue, where it was described thus: "Swimaster Bello-Flex Snorkel. Designed for ultimate comfort with super-size, swivel action hose at "J"-bend, yellow rubber straight tube and comfortable mouthpiece. $2.95."

Here's Dick Bonin, the co-founder of Scubapro, explaining how he invented the Bello-Flex snorkel: "We brought out the first flexible snorkel. In Chicago, they used to sell surplus aircraft parts so I took a hose and put it on a snorkel tube, and I never forgot that. Swimaster priced it at $2.95 and everyone said we were out of our minds, but we sold them like crazy." Read the interview in full at Fathoms Online Magazine for underwater enthusiasts.

Swimaster was eventually sold to the Voit Rubber Company. In the early 1960s, both Voit (F5 Deluxe) and Scubapro (Hydroflex) included an improved non-collapsible version of the flexible-hose snorkel in their catalogues.

There's an International Legends of Diving biography entitled Dick Bonin: Founder of ScubaPro - History of SCUBA Diving, stating how "he (...) introduced the first flexible snorkel and other innovations." Those innovations included the first American spearguns and the first silicone-skirted diving mask, initially marketed as "hypo-allergenic" alternative eyewear then popularised by Jacqueline Bisset in the motion picture "The Deep" (1977), where she wore a translucent version to supply more light to her face.i, ntroduced the first flexible snorkel and other innovations.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Here's the second generation of that snorkel:





I used both as a kid, but did not like the original one as it folded up against my chin in river currents. I used the blue and white version for several years.


Here fisteries biologist Limons Osis is using this second generation snorkel during underwater survey work on clam beds in Yaquina Bay, Oregon in 1975.

SeaRat

 

[boulderjohn]

Thanks for the informative responses!