To snork or not to snork, that is the question:

[Sam Miller III]

Every year for the past ten years I have been honored as the first presenter at the annual SLO (San Luis Obispo) Sheriffs UW S&R Dive conference.
My presentations are always historical based on a in-depth researched item or event in the very short history of recreational diving.

This year my subject was "Dive Manuals "
(Dr. Sam Miller III Dive Historian -- Published UW Photographer and Author
“Early Development of Recreational Training Manuals”)

The exposure to recreational diving in the US began in 1948 with the showing in movie houses all across the US of the late great Hans Hass B&W movie "Under the red Sea" and the late James Dougan's article about "Cousteau Divers" in a scientific magazine.

The first dive manual was printed in February 1949 in NYC .
This was the basis for the manuals produced by Rene Bussoz when he established Rene Sports in Westwood, California and became US Divers in 1952. In 1954 US Divers was sold to JYC and his investors and the original manual cover was changed with the picture of JYC & Emil Gagnon on the covers-theses were produced until around 1960

in 1954 the first two true recreational diving manuals appeared LA County's Diving Safety
and the late ER Crosses manual of the same name Diving safety.
In 1955 LA Co changed the name of their manuals to Underwater Recreation so as not to be in conflict with ERs. - Both manuals stressed learning Skin ( Snorkeling) and followed by the use of the Aqua Lung -- SCUBA was not in common use at that time

In 1957 Bernie Empleman et al produced a manual titled The Science of Skin and SCUBA diving which was changed in 1959 to The NEW Science of Skin and SCUBA diving. Note "Skin & SCUBA " diving .

These manuals served as the basis for manuals which followed which are too numerous to list ,. but were produced by individuals and most of the dive companies and training organizations to promote products or their agency.

La County's Recreational Diving and The New Science of Skin and SCUBA was and has been continually up dated and were/are possibly the two best sources of dive training at a particular time in history, They both stressed Skin ( aka Snorkeling / free diving ) as a component of complete dive training.

The last diving manuals of NAUI & PADI produced I the early 1980s stressed Skin (snorkeling ) followed by SCUBA training ..An interesting note - the1984 PADI dive manual was written by a NAUI instructor and assisted by several LA Co UW instructors.

Then around 1980 to 1985 Skin diving was becoming deemphasized do to very abbreviated dive instruction courses and a population poorly prepared and resistive of the expenditure of time and money for a complete diving course Therefore the students were only briefly introduced and were not taught to 'Snorkel" This as resulted in the current crop not having training in snorkeling or considering it a component of modern diving, What a shame!

Now it is possible to walk down a diving beach or set on a dive boat and identify the divers who were trained after the 1980s with the modern abbreviated courses by the lack of a snorkel on their mask and the requirement - no demand -- that they have a Qualified Dive Master to guide them and hold their hand on the first 100 dives- or forever during their generally short diving career

Interesting how equipment and training has changed..

Sam Miller,III

PS,, dive manuals are still cheap and readily available on the used book market, they offer a glimpse in the history of diving - equipment and training procedures at the particular time of their publication. sdm

 

[Marie13]

@TMHeimer yes, I snorkel laps - a mile at a time (or I do the bike).

 

[Doc]

I liked the Dr. Seuss lilt the prior poetic responses were taking.

On my sporadic, occasional and rarely SRO lecture series I often whip one of these out to show what I myself carry...

Get ‘em on eBay.

I do wake the audience back-up with the story of 11 hours adrift with a small group of increasingly closer friends, and how snorkels actually allowed us to drift off to sleep as we drifted away in the darkness.

Observing der schnorkel habits of us pre-1980 trained divers is hard as we’re are mostly dead so that’s not much of a representative sample.

 

[Ghost95]

Top 4 things that kill or injure new divers...

1. Dive Buddies
2. Dive Flags
3. Flip Flops
4. Snorkels.

Snorkels, dangerous things they are. But not quite as dangerous as wet flip flops on a wet deck while carrying two tanks.

 

[Mike1967]

2. Dive Flags

4. Snorkels.

Please explain?

 

[Ghost95]

In the

Please explain?

Northern gulf anyway. Dive flags tend to attract boats to a location directly over a divers head, because the dive flag marks where the reef, hence the snapper are located. Secondly dive flags are apparently often confused to be slalom markers for boaters to pass as close to and at as fast a speed as possible.

Snorkels. New divers aren't trained to snorkel any more, they are trained to breath off a tank. Water gets in their snorkel and they take a breath before clearing, because they cant find the purge button, start to choke, then panic. You'd be amazed how many divers don't understand the concept. If you've ever been in a dive shop and listened to how many people ask for "Dry" snorkels that they don't have to clear you'd be amazed.

 

[Mike1967]

Northern gulf anyway.

Not in my world.

New divers aren't trained to snorkel any more

Must have changed in the last year.

 

[Ghost95]

All in

Not in my world.

Must have changed in the last year.

fun man. All in fun.

 

[loosenit2]

New divers aren't trained to snorkel any more, they are trained to breath off a tank. .

My daughter did OW last year. She was not trained to snorkel in pure form (dive, swim underwater, ascend, clear snorkel). She was taught how to do a surface swim with a snorkel and transition between the snorkel and the regulator. In 1993 we were required to do pure snorkeling in pool session with no scuba equipment, but not required to do so in open water.

 

[Mike1967]

My daughter did OW last year. She was not trained to snorkel in pure form (dive, swim underwater, ascend, clear snorkel). She was taught how to do a surface swim with a snorkel and transition between the snorkel and the regulator. In 1993 we were required to do pure snorkeling in pool session with no scuba equipment, but not required to do so in open water.

Sounds like a crap instructor to me.