Vintage Diving Photos

[Roger Thatt]

Does anyone have any information on this photo?

 

[JMBL]

Does anyone have any information on this photo?

None, except she's a lucky girl, allowed to play with her dad's toys !

Ok, I'm out.

 

[David Wilson]

I don't have the subject knowledge to comment on the regulator, but I've been obsessing all afternoon about the identity of the mask without coming to a definitive conclusion. I just wish I had one of those computer programs on CSI that could turn a fuzzy low-resolution image of a vehicle number plate into a crystal-clear high-resolution picture revealing the whole string of letters and numbers, because then I would be able to decypher the manufacturer's marks on the mask lens and solve the identification problem.

Rectangular diving masks were much rarer than oval masks during the vintage era, but they were known to provide a wider field of vision than oval masks, which is why Cousteau at one time equipped his divers with La Spirotechnique Aquarama masks to highlight their eyes on underwater films:

One French manufacturer, Edouard Godel, successor to Louis de Corlieu, the original modern inventor of swimming fins, specialised in rectangular diving masks with rounded corners like the one worn by the small girl:
Godel Cyclope

Godel Explor

However, the precise shape of the Godel masks isn't quite right. I'm trying to figure out whether this might be a "junior" underwater mask designed for the children's market and therefore an entry-level model without refinements such as a lens-retaining stainless-steel band with a top screw. Children's masks are often consigned to a different section of a diving equipment manufacturer's catalogue where they can be overlooked. I'll keep trying to find a plausible candidate for that mask.

 

[JMBL]

Once again, I'm discovering things about diving history in France, on an English written forum. I DO love the Internet for that !

Anyway, kudos to you David thank you once more for your tremendous work

 

[Goonzodiver]

Sofia Loren with an old italian rebreather (ARO Pirelli G 50), in the movie "Africa sotto i mari" (i.e. "Woman of the red sea, 1953 , 4 years before of "Boy on a dolphin")

 

[Pat Regan]

Ricou Browning kissing safety diver Patsy Boyette on the set of Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1953. And note the early PST "winebottle" tank. It's Aqua Lung Inc.; not USD. The Creature was filmed by the Florida folks.

More INFO: http://www.vulcaniasubmarine.com/RICOU.htm

Enjoy!

 

[happy-diver]

and Sofia could get away with using just the small counterlung

Ah the fifties, when hope flowed freely and America hadn't yet been shown to be wrong

 

[tech_diver]

Here's me and my dive buddy from the mid to late 1980s at Canyon Lake in Central Texas. The vest style BCD was a big upgrade for me at the time. You can also see my beloved Nikonos III rig.
My buddy had Sea Pearls vinyl coated weights and decades later I'd become the general manager of Sea Pearls. Time flies.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

DRW, the regulator is a Nemrod Snark III, a more modern one, perhaps a Snark III Silver (different, more modern mouthpiece). That would suggest a Nemrod mask too.

I have a nice Nemrod mask that is oval, but instead of a stainless band it had one of plastic. I say “had” because it broke, and he lens is now being held in by tape. I take it on trips for me to get into highly chlorinated pools, and I don’t worry about losing it either. But the skirt is of silicone, and so if I don’t loose it, it will last forever.

SeaRat

 

[Jeff Thomas]

Mid-70s....glad for BCs today!