The New Scuba Wagon... 2016 350 Transit XLT

[The Chairman]

Way cool @Sam Miller III! Thanks for sharing. I know I'm not the first, and I hopefully won't be the last. ScubaBoard has enabled me to "fun" for work. As an aside, I recently got "Vanessa" stuck here on my 10.82 acres here in O'Brien, Fl. On trying to pull it out, part of the turbo ducts got pulled. I've been so concentrating on getting my workshop built, that I haven't had time to jack it up and find out what parts I needed. It looks like I'll only need some hoses.

 

[Sam Miller III]

@/francesea.
This post was intended to complement @THE Chairmans thread - Which was essentially defunct.
A contrast of when it began to the modem dive wagon-- Yes there has been some changes..

It is interesting that in my family I also has/had a Willis who lived in the west - some time I think we are more alike than different and probably somehow connected--- I would be honored if we were connected,

"The Baja" a place , an adventure, a destination of the 1940s and 1950s and even up to the 1960s is difficult to describe...I can only relate to you my recollection as a long term Bajaphile.
It was 1000 miles of dusty rutted roads devoid of directions, population, water and supplies, law and order and rules and regulations - it was the wild west of the modern era.
It always remanded me of Sir Robert Service's Poem The cremation of Sam MC Gee
Baja of old, like Sam Mc Gees Yukon, grabbed a hold of you in a tight grip of high adventure and wouldn't let go.

I (we) had two purposes, explore the unexplored and dive what had never been dove before for game. And we certainly explored and certainly got game.

As you traveled along what can a best be described as dusty cow paths it was not uncommon to travel for a several hours even as long as a day with out making contact with nothing more that an occasional coyote and a few road runners birds. On that rare occasion when you did meet up with another vehicle you would stop and chat about the road conditions both ways and always inquire if the other vehicle needed anything you could share.

I do recall a truck with a wrecked small airplane I met on a hill out side of El Rosario about 200 miles south of the border. As was the habit we only exchanged first names and after all these years the name has been erased from my memory which is as dusty as the roads of Baja .

I hope I haven't bored you or the readers. When I begin reminiscing about wonderful events of yesteryear that was my Baja experience but will never be experienced again in Baja it is difficult to stop.

Understand it is cold in your area-- stay warm

Sam

@Lorenoid
Mrs. Miller and I are Bibliophiles as well as Bajaphiles. We have a book case full of Baja books dating back to the 1800s,,,some day before our DOC (Day of Croaking) we should dispose of them via E bait
sdm

 

[mdb]

Myself, and another Marine, purchased a WW11 jeep and put rollover bars on and outfitted it
with stereo speakers.

It was our Baja buggy.

A stop at Hussong's on the way to La Bufadora and further south.

We once took the buggy across Lava rocks and hillsides, stopping only at small
houses at night where the dinner was served to only us four.

Now there is a highway south, no longer the Baja of those times.

Memories remain.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Hussong's
That was a divers hang out when Walter was alive and running it. Some time in the early 1960s he opened a Hussong's on the mainland where he was killed.

I have an article about Walter Hussong if I can locate it I will post --Some of the articles are lost other are difficult to find - I had 4 dedicated dive magazine columns and one dedicated diving news paper columns, (the worlds first) all before computers ( Yes we used typewriters ) If I can locate I will post -- stand by
SDM

 

[Sam Miller III]

By Gum I found it I actually located somethin in my file! Actually in the written but never published file- needs some cleaning -therefore the restriction at the end ..so here goes


HUSSONGS-

A SAGA OF THE UW SPORTS SHOP-DIVING-COLUMBIA- TREASURE-HISTORY


Johan Hussong immigrated from Germany and arrived in Ensenada via new York. He had four sons, John, Richard, Percy and Walter, and a daughter who's name has been lost by marriage. The sons had sons and named them after each others sons. Always get confusing trying to remember who belongs to whom.
However it was Johan Hussong the original immigrant who established the popular bar in Ensenada that bears his and his family's name.

It no secret to most "vintage" divers that Hussong's was once a divers hang out. In the 1950s & the early 1960s it was a place that was "Muy Tranquillo." The music was Strauss Viennese walzes played by a group of locals in the corner. The Maggies were huge, served with a glass and the container they were mixed in (at least to the divers) -a few sips and the Cantina was transformed into another time and another place.

Walter Hussong who (I think) was Percy's son was a very knowldgeable experienced pioneer diver and a darn good one. It was only natural that divers of the 1950s and early 1960s would stop in on the way south to check on conditions or on the way back to the states to report on the diving.

Walter Hussong and Bill Hogan, LA Co Underwater Instructor who owned the Underwater Sports shop in Long Beach, California, were close friends who teamed up in 1956 to salvage what silver remained in the Columbia which was in 200 plus feet off water in or near the La Paz harbor. (To place this in perspective self contained (aka SCUBA) diving was only about five (5) years old in the US, equipment was rudimentary crude and dangerous use and certainly unknown in most all of Mexico and also most of the US)

Using US Government airplane WW11 surplus 1800 PSI 90's which they banded into double tanks they dove the Columbia every day for a month returning with nothing but the ships bell which Bill had located in the sand 50 feet from the wreck. BUT They "did not find the silver" = and "were poverty stricken from the expense of the trip."

With in a year of returning Bill managed to lease two large lots from the co owner of Skin Diver Magazine, the late Chuck Blakeslee at the base of the Belmont pier in Long Beach. He moved his small operation from second street and established a huge dive operation including one of the first SCUBA training pools in California and the US.

Bill constructed a special raised platform to display the Columbia's bell in a very prominent location in the very center of his shop for all customers and passers by to see and admire. One day he went to the back of the shop for a very few moments and when he returned the bell had disappeared. That was about 55 years ago and to this day the bell has never been recovered

HOWEVER,
There is an epilog to this tale..
He and hiswife divorced. Concurrently Bill lost the dive operation in the process to Jeannie. She remarried the late Clarke Ward, LA Co Underwater Instructor and also a member of the Long Beach Neptunes. They operated the Underwater Sports shop for several years, until they established a book store on Balboa island, where they lived out their lives

Sam "the Crook" Le cocq then acquired the UW Sports shop and changed the name to "Pacific Divers Supply"

Bill next established a "Divers Bar" called "Hogans" which he gave away more than he sold.

In the late 1960s early 1970s Bill teamed with John Gaffney, the founder of the National Association of Skin Diving Schools (NASDS) to write and publish NASDS's first basic diver training manual "Safe SCUBA." ( copies are still available in both hard cover and soft cover on the used book market

He packed up and moved to Costa Rica where he constructed a spacious lovely home near the base of the Arenal volcano, remarried, raised a daughter and lived the life of a gentleman farmer for most of the remainder of his years. I recall so vividly enjoying the very active Arenal volcano spew forth its sparks and hot ash while setting in the comfort of the downstairs recreation room and discussing times past.

He sold his Costa Rica holdings and returned to the US settling in Temecula, California to "dibble in real estate" until he departed for the big reef in the sky about 15 years ago--But--- He always maintained he "never found the treasure of the Columbia."

Walter on the other hand was living the good life in Ensenada. He was aways at the bar always avaliable to drop every thing if he recognized you to "talk diving."
However,
The good life caused Walter's demise- He opened another Hussongs bar on the mainland of Mexico and was shot and killed by a very irate husband.
--but Walter also maintained -- "never found the treasure of the Columbia."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a time when divers were divers and instructors were instructors not collectors of cards & certification who now dive but are not divers...a different time and a different place.
Hogan was an ex WW11 US Navy salvage diver and an LA Co Underwater Instructor. Bill was bibliophile and very interested in and had a degree in "Shakespeare literature" from the University of San Francisco. I spent many enjoyable lazy afternoons with Bill discussing and exchanging Shakespeare quotes.

Walter's training or experience was unknown--but he was an accomplished diver. Perhaps he acquired his expertise from Ruben Pena Gonzales who was the diver for the Ensenada harbor, had a successful dive shop and later produced SCUBA equipment for many US manufactures under the maquiladora program. (And became VERY wealthy)

Copyright Dr. Samuel Miller,111 & Dr. Samuel Miller, IV 2017 my not be reproduced in part or whole with out the express written permission and acknowledgement of the authors.

 

[The Chairman]

FWIW, this is now up for sale. Craigslist has offered me $26,000. I would probably have to remove everything which I don't want to do. So, make me a reasonable offer.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

FWIW, this is now up for sale. Craigslist has offered me $26,000. I would probably have to remove everything which I don't want to do. So, make me a reasonable offer.

If I was opening my dive center right now, I'd definitely buy it, screw the import duties. This would be such an awesome mobile dive support vehicle

 

[The Chairman]

If I was opening my dive center right now, I'd definitely buy it, screw the import duties. This would be such an awesome mobile dive support vehicle

Thanks for the accolades. She has served me well. Now that I live in Cave Country, I'm just a few minutes from the caves I love. Ergo, I don't need to carry a shop with me.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Thanks for the accolades. She has served me well. Now that I live in Cave Country, I'm just a few minutes from the caves I love. Ergo, I don't need to carry a shop with me.

The Greek islands can be very windy in summer, so being able to find a quiet spot out of the wind would be very handy.

 

[The Chairman]

As a caveat, I had an engine light come on about 4 months ago, which I traced to a clogged air filter. I did a major tune up on her with Spark plugs, coils, and a vac sensor.