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Post by cstmwrks on Sept 20, 2004 11:47:52 GMT -8
Any one out there lurking with some knowlegde of when the SoLoMarx rubber co started making the famous ( or infamous ) Totes dry suit and when they stopped production?
Other than an old ad the only other referance that I have is from John Cayford's book "UNDERWATER WORK" published in 1959 and 1966. He lists the So-Lo Marx company in Loveland Ohio under an appendix for Rubber frogman suits.
Any input would be great!
Bill
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 2, 2004 3:19:54 GMT -8
I don't have an exact chronology, Bill, but I suspect the suit was discontinued before or at the end of the 1960s. I have a Submarine Products Ltd (Hexham, Northumberland, UK) brochure dating from the later 1960s with a whole page devoted to a "Dark Green model" of "Skooba totes - the world's finest dry suit". There's a photograph of a young lady modelling the suit, also wearing Espadon fins and holding a Panoramic mask and "silent V" snorkel. The 3-piece jumper type suit consisting of trousers with bootees attached, jumper top and hood, patch kit included, came to £12 6s. 3d! By the way, a while ago on the Web I discovered a picture of of two divers wearing red and yellow versions of the Skooba totes suit. The photograph is at: www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Lights/7840/related/dvr_c1.jpgDavid |
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 7, 2004 4:21:50 GMT -8
David,
Any chance you can scan the brochure? I would like to add it to my web site.
Bill
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 9, 2004 4:23:40 GMT -8
As far as I can tell Totes made them in red, yellow, green and brown. Some 30+ years ago I got to try a brown one in the ocean one time.
I'd love to reproduce these suits in original colors but that is WAY expensive. I'm lucky to get them done in basic black right now.
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 9, 2004 10:05:29 GMT -8
In the late 1960s I toyed with the idea of buying a Totes drysuit, but settled instead on a Typhoon lined wetsuit costing two and a half times as much (£30). The Totes seemed to have been available for a longer period than comparable suits in the UK. By the mid-1960s, British sheet-rubber suits such as the Lillywhites, Dunlop Aquafort and Heinke Delta were all off the market. For online pictures of these suits, see: www.angelfire.com/super2/scuba_pix/643.jpgLillywhites suit www.sharksclub.it/storia/geoffwalt.jpgDunlop Aquafort and Heinke Delta suits The next dry suit to come along was the neoprene Poseidon, which must have been the suit of choice for apprentice Michelin men, because their advertisements always displayed the garment grossly overinflated to show how airtight it was. Two web pages referring to the Totes suit... www.atlimp.com/icedive.htmgroups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=6vtdl2%24j7i%241%40supernews.comAccording to www.totes.com/about.htmlSoLo Marx was founded in 1923 and bought in 1961 by Chicago businessman Brad Philips, who renamed the company Totes Incorporated after its flagship product, rubber overshoes. David |
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Post by pearldiver on Oct 9, 2004 14:38:30 GMT -8
You forgot about the O'Neil drysuit in 1973 or so. It was meant for surfboarders, but we all bought one for diving. It was $200.00 and orally inflated into the chest. They were a shoulder entry. No boots, but you could buy boots that were separate. and there was no hood to buy with it. They were great suits. Then O'Neal stopped making them, I don't know why. That is when us guys and gals here all went to Poseidon drysuits, not the Parkway models, but the original kind. The O"Neal would not have been in the UK at all. The Poseidon's were a bit warmer as there was more air space in them. Those photos are neat.
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 10, 2004 4:32:17 GMT -8
The drysuits I wrote about in my messages all predated the 1970s. According to www.dyk-brand.se/sidor/poseidon2.htmPoseidon was the first to develop a neoprene drysuit back in 1963. Unless anybody knows different, I believe every other drysuit then was made of sheet rubber, rubberised twill or something similar. I was interested to hear about the O'Neill costing $200. In the early days, drysuits were half the price of wetsuits. Suddenly, with the advent of neoprene drysuits, a price hike led to a reversal of the relative pricing of wet and dry suits. I seem to remember the same thing happening when fin materials changed from rubber to plastic. In the 1960s, plastic fins were meant for those who couldn't afford rubber fins. Now full foot rubber fins cost around $20, while plastic versions can cost two or three times as much. |
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Post by pearldiver on Oct 10, 2004 5:44:44 GMT -8
David, That is interesting information. If I recall correctly, Poseidon didn't sell in the US in the 60's or early 70's. I could be wrong. I was diving in Germany in 1978, and went to a dive shop in Munich. They had really nice wetsuits and dive gear. That was my first use of a Poseidon regulator. Of course the locals thought my depth guage that read in feet increments was different, and I brought my O'Neal drysuit with. The divers liked that also.  I"ll try to get a photo of this suit on here. They were called an O'Neal Supersuit. Smoothskin on the neck, arms and ankles. You could get blue and black, red and blue; That was about it on colors. SDM may know about these suits in CA and why they discontinued selling them or making them. Gayle  |
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 12, 2004 4:57:05 GMT -8
Aaah the flash backs all this gives me! Kinda forgot about the old posidon ads with the over inflated suit!
Anyhow some 5 years ago I not only visited the totes web site but I called and spoke to the CEO or the VP and asked them a few questions. Needless to say, company history is not a real requirment to get the top job there. I even asked if there was a chance all the old tooling used to make the Skooba Totes might still be jambed in some storage place. He was pretty sure it was all cut up and sold for scrap.
It would almost take finding an old employee of the company in Loveland, or there offspring to get the details I would like to find out about. Like how many suits they ever sold, when they started and stopped production.
Bill
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 12, 2004 10:22:07 GMT -8
Fascinating stuff, Bill! So sad to hear of a piece of diving history being reduced to scrap. I get the impression that there's little room for sentiment in business, but I'm a little surprised that a company billing itself as producing the world's finest drysuit should cease production while they were undercutting wetsuits and neoprene drysuits on price.
I remember writing to the Dunlop Company in the late 1960s to enquire about their Aquafort range, which included a sheet-rubber drysuit available with or without a stockinette lining. I got an answer which contained little more than a confirmation that the line had been discontinued. I received much the same response when I enquired of the Haffenden company about their Britmarine range of underwater equipment. When plastic fins first appeared, they stopped making their reasonably priced, comfortable rubber fins and starting making hard plastic versions with pockets stiff enough to cripple feet. They can't have benefited from the switch as they stopped production of underwater gear altogether shortly afterwards. Sometimes it's better to appreciate the tried and tested rather than leaping on to the same bandwagon as everybody else.
It's interesting how the Aquala company, which does have a sense of history, has survived over the decades, keeping to what it's good at. It seems to have changed hands a number of times, relocating from the west to the east coast and thence to the south of the USA, but their central mission has remained intact throughout.
I do hope that you manage to find an old Totes employee with a long memory, otherwise we'll never get to know the full story behind the Totes suit.
David
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Post by SDM on Oct 12, 2004 23:22:10 GMT -8
[quote =DavidRitchieWilson
Poseidon was the first to develop a neoprene drysuit back in 1963. Unless anybody knows different, I believe every other drysuit then was made of sheet rubber, rubberised twill or something similar.
FYI,
Fred Roberts use to wear a "Peche sport" wet/dry suit in the 1950s -to mid 1960s. The Peche sport was a very thick non pourous material with cuffs which were very tight so as to entrap the water and eliminate as much water circulation as possible.
All though the large diameter hoses were avaliable for regulators there was no means in which to introduce air into the suit. This was to arrive in the recreational diving world 10 years later with the neoprene air suit.
Most notable about Fred and his Peche sport suit was he was always cold. Never ever did I see him not shivering!
A picture of Fred in his Peche sport suit can be seen on the back cover of his book "Basic Scuba." A better picture can be seen in SDM when he was a personality of the month, probably 1960-1-2-3. It shows Fred hanging from the ladder of a boat holding a camera and wearing the suit.
Pirelli also made two suits the Speza (the Italian naval base- home of Decima mas) and Pesca Spugne (Sponge.) They were constructed of a special rubber fabric interposed between to layers of cotton fabric .
The were marketed for a short time with in the US in 1961 with limited sucess. Once agin the missing was the air hose to the suit.
Upon the introduction of the large air hoses for BCs the Scuba Pro models could be dissasembled and reattatched to a wet suit, which many did. This was used for increasing bouyancy in case or an emergency, such as lifing a large object or to increase bouyancy with a large fish.
SDM
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Post by SDM on Oct 12, 2004 23:37:24 GMT -8
[quote author=pearldiver
"You forgot about the O'Neil drysuit in 1973 or so. It was meant for surfboarders, but we all bought one for diving. It was $200.00 and orally inflated into the chest. "
The Oneil suits were specificly developed and intended to be used for surfing. The area they are made in, Santa Cruz, has very cold water year round requiring some sort of thermal protection, and a dry air suit would be the answer.
I cannot comment on why they stopped production of this suit.
Please bear in mind that there is a difference in surfing suits and scuba suits and free diving (spearfishing) suits
The surf suits are traditionaly cut very loose, especially for arm movement to allow for scratching. They often have reinforced, knees, seats and occasionally elbows.
The scuba suit is cut tight almost form fitting.
The free diving suit it cut even tighter to restrict any and all movement of water in and through the suit.
SDM
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 13, 2004 5:18:36 GMT -8
To branch off on Aquala for a bit, I myself have owned two suits from Aquala.They were made back in the days ( 1980 )when they were located in Carthage NC. I've forgotten names but I think Megan was the daughter who answered the phone most of the time. And yes, that company has been sold and resold many times. As a customer I was offered a shot at buying the company.
75% of the purchase price was just to buy the name.
Needless to say I did not take up the offer. I did find out some less than pleasant things about the dry suit industry in general. A quote from a former Aquala Company owner " it's a strange bussiness" did not realy clue me in as to what he meant.
Later I kinda figured out that the comment was about the customer motavation for buying aquala dry suits. Sadly I doubt Aquala will handle being sold off to many more times before it fades into oblivion. I make that statement based on getting Aquala suits to be repaired being sent to me rather then them. Also the craftmanship has declined as I have seen suits made by the new owners... it is just not the same. I also note that you seldom if ever get anyone on the phone. I never got a call back either. I see there suits new on ebay going unsold. Though they do sell sometimes.
Anyhow it will be sad to see a 50+ year old name bite the dust. I could be wrong, only time will tell.
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 14, 2004 13:26:49 GMT -8
Bill
Very interesting stuff about Aquala.
On your website, you list a number of early manufacturers of drysuits, namely Pirelli, Dunlop, Bel-Aqua, Totes, Kingfisher, Aquala. To Dunlop I would add the UK brands Heinke, Lillywhites and Typhoon.
My 1955 edition of Carrier's "Dive" has an appendix listing American sources then of dry diving suits, including Healthways (Carib suit), Fenjohn (Seal suit), US Divers (frogman suit), Sea Net (suit) and The Spearfisherman (all-weather frogman suit).
I've never heard of Kingfisher. Do you have any information about the suits that company made?
David
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 14, 2004 17:51:40 GMT -8
David,
OK you may have me on the kingfisher.. I gotta do some looking as I only have one scan that has the info. It may very well be the spearfisherman suit that you speak of. My memory of is that it was a seamless dipped latex suit with a front entry chute. It looked like there were little "knobs" molded in the hood around the ear area. Not big enough to be an ear pocket but some kind of eardum protection? As in you felt these little knobs "pop" inward that would be a hint that you needed to accent / blow air in the suit or risk blowing an eardrum. I have no idea, am just guessing as nothing was in the text about such a feature.
Bill
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I"ll try to get a photo of this suit on here. They were called an O'Neal Supersuit. Smoothskin on the neck, arms and ankles. You could get blue and black, red and blue; That was about it on colors. SDM may know about these suits in CA and why they discontinued selling them or making them. 
