What happened to Skin Diver Mag?

[Sam Miller III]

I was a subscriber from SDM's inception and have all the copies from Vol #1 issue #1, December 1951 bound in library bindings along with product catalogs and Underwater film festival programs. Only about 20 complete sets currently remain, my set is the only one with the catalogs and the film festival's programs.

The last sale of the first issue was $1200 Us dollars.

I was on the cover, had articles published and the very first guest editor of Skin Diver Magazine- the only person in the history of the magazine with all three honors

The following articles will possibly provide a little insight to the magazine and the founders


Skin Diver Magazine by Dr. Sam Miller - History of SCUBA Diving - 45k - similar pagesThe history of SCUBA and skin diving as presented by Dr. Sam Miller, an exclusive for Portage Quarry in Bowling Green, Ohio.

◦Chuck Blakeslee: Skin Diver Magazine Founder - History of SCUBA ...
History of Scuba Diving | Legends of Scuba Diving | Portage Quarry Recreation Club / FeaturedLegends / Chuck_Blakeslee_bio.htm - 40k - similar pagesCharles Blakeslee - The history of SCUBA and skin diving, an exclusive for the International Legends of Diving from Portage Quarry in Bowling Green, Ohio.

SDM

 

[MaxBottomtime]

There is a guy on Ebay who sells excellent condition ealy mags for .99
1diveguy | eBay

 

[Nemrod]

See, back in those times SCUBA was an adventure sport, now it is a relaxing hobby for sedentary and mostly overweight old people.

While I seem down on our younger generations, they are not entirely unfortunate. Some of them have taken various sports to levels that defy physics. I was happy to coast down a hill on my home made sidewalk surfboard (aka skate board) and now they drain pools and do barrel rolls. But I did make mine, not get it at Wally World. But still----. Too bad that SCUBA has become such a non-adventure, flatulant sport, that these kids are not attracted to it because we need that shot of adrenalin.

I was riding with my neighbor's two teenage sons. About mile 20 one of them announces that "it hurts" and I respond with HXXX yeah it hurts, it is supposed to. Then I came home and fell down the stairs in my cycling shoes and that hurt too. Just a different way. Some pain is good, some I can pass on.

I liked it when SCUBA was supposed to hurt, the good way. If you hurt in a bad way you was probably bent, ahhhh, walk it off.

Oh, yeah, back on topic, see old people get to wander on, yeah, the article, I think in about 1966ish, "The Valley of the Rays," holy cow, a secret valley in the Gulf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it is full of rays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

N

 

[Wookie]

See, back in those times SCUBA was an adventure sport, now it is a relaxing hobby for sedentary and mostly overweight old people.

While I seem down on our younger generations, they are not entirely unfortunate. Some of them have taken various sports to levels that defy physics. I was happy to coast down a hill on my home made sidewalk surfboard (aka skate board) and now they drain pools and do barrel rolls. But I did make mine, not get it at Wally World. But still----. Too bad that SCUBA has become such a non-adventure, flatulant sport, that these kids are not attracted to it because we need that shot of adrenalin.

I was riding with my neighbor's two teenage sons. About mile 20 one of them announces that "it hurts" and I respond with HXXX yeah it hurts, it is supposed to. Then I came home and fell down the stairs in my cycling shoes and that hurt too. Just a different way. Some pain is good, some I can pass on.

I liked it when SCUBA was supposed to hurt, the good way. If you hurt in a bad way you was probably bent, ahhhh, walk it off.

N

I was reading Uncle Pugs description of down currents and whirlpools and heavy current diving in the PAC NW thinking to myself "That would be some epic diving" The ultimate drift dive, if the boat could keep up with you. Then I thought of what my insurance company might make of it.... They take all of the fun out of it.

 

[Akimbo]

It sounds like almost everyone here stopped reading it 10-20 years before they went under. As I recall, the two competitors were even worse. If the anti-Nitrox and tech diving stories I heard are accurate, that's the polar opposite from the magazine I grew up with.

 

[flfishhead]

I give up, why would they have been anti-nitrox?

 

[Darkforeboding]

Yeah, the day came when I got an issue and thumbed completely through and didn't find a thing I wanted to read. Our local scuba club laughed at the way every dive resort was reviewed as having fantastic conditions, all year round! Didn't have to wait for the good season, pay your money now the diving is always good. Every piece of dive gear they reviewed was the greatest thing since bottled beer. And then...wonder of wonders...the very dive gear or resort in the article had a huge advertisement just a few pages over. I used to think that at least the photography was good until some competitors began cropping up with way better pictures.

DFB

 

[Akimbo]

I give up, why would they have been anti-nitrox?

Remember the context of the time. Nitrox decompression tables had not been around long enough to prove themselves and the industry's ability to reliably and safely make the mixes didn't exist. There was also no standardized training beyond maybe NOAA science divers.

Trimix, forget it. Military and commercial diving was all HeO2 so Trimix was a voodoo attempt at what the big boys were doing but on the cheap. The tables were based almost exclusively on untested algorithms that probably should work.

Hard to believe that Skin Diver Magazine extensively covered the Hanes Keller 1000' dive in the 1961 — which was really black magic at that point.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

The article here from PSDiver.com is an example of what a Skin Diver Magazine article was like in the 1950s. This article is from November 1959, and was reprinted in the November 2010 issue of PSDiver.com.

http://www.psdiver.com/images/PSDiverMonthlyIssue79-secure.pdf

Scroll down to the Chicago Mass Dive article, by Vern Pedersen. I bought Vern's Dacor Clipper regulator off E-Bay, and got a very once letter from his daughter, Verna Pedersen. She gave me this link to the SDM article.

I remember reading articles by local divers, such as Dick Anderson, about things like diving for gold and making a solid gold Rolex diving watch out of the nuggets he found.

SeaRat

PS, the Clipper regulator is now cleaned up and functioning well. I hope to put in into the water sometime after the first of the year.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I wrote Bonnie J. Cardone a personal letter (after she took the helm) expressing my concerns that Skin Diving magazine was becoming everything you all said in the 90's. No reply.