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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 15, 2004 4:16:10 GMT -8
OK... HELP!!! Any one have a scan image of a "spearfisherman" suit ad? I tore through everything I had and can not find it now. Bill
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Post by SDM on Oct 16, 2004 6:08:33 GMT -8
HELP!!! Any one have a scan image of a "spearfisherman" suit ad? I tore through everything I had and can not find it now. Bill Suggest that you review pre-1960 SDMs. There is generally a picture of Brownie in a leggs & knees dry suit. Arthur Brown sold Spearfisherman to Pacific molded products (PMP) owned by Ken Norris, who in turn entered into a production markewting aggreement with Willard Voit (WF Voit Company) who eventually aquired Spearfisherman assets in total. Harry Vetter who has his picture in the back photo-section of the VSS was employeed by Ken Norris at PMP for a short time during this transition. I doubt if he can shed much light or provide a suit or suit material, but never the less You may want to contact him and pump and pump him for information. SDM 30
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Post by SDM on Oct 16, 2004 6:25:28 GMT -8
".....To branch off on Aquala for a bit, I myself have owned two suits from Aquala...." >>>ANS As you know the suit and the company began life in Los Angeles California, which at that time was the center of the universe for all forms of diving. The name is one of those acromyns AQUA = (water) LA = (Los Angeles.) Those Californians! who would have thunk it! AQUALA! "....Anyhow it will be sad to see a 50+ year old name bite the dust. I could be wrong, only time will tell. " ANS- Don't recall anyone being sad when Skin Diver Magazine closed its doors.-- Chuck Blakeslee was quite excited that the magazine he founded lasted over fifty years! SDM 30
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 17, 2004 17:59:12 GMT -8
So if anyone out there has an old skin diver mag with a spearfisherman ad in it I would be very happy if they could scan the ad and send me a jpg of it. Bill The old SDM's thatI have do not date back far enough
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 18, 2004 10:44:42 GMT -8
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 19, 2004 9:34:07 GMT -8
Thanks David! Every time I see that color Totes photo with the yellow ( golden tiger per there ad ) and red suit ( wonder what they called it? ) I wished It was possable to have them made that way! I'd even like to do a close copy of the logo on a few of them. I kinda doubt that the folks at Totes would care. Anyhow now that I'm all riled upover the lose of that one ad image I'm hunting for older SDMs on eBay to see what I can find out on the spearfisherman suit.
Bill
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 19, 2004 11:00:29 GMT -8
On the Totes history subject I have another interesting tid bit. This is my own personal history back in 1978 or there abouts. I did in fact have my hands on a brown Totes dry suit.. now I supose I could throw some bullet holes in that statement myself.The suit in question was without any logo or marking on it that would give away the maker. Also I did not have a copy of the Totes ad at that time either. Anyhow unlike the ads that show a tube or rail, this suit had a 6 inch wide rubber band waist seal. I only had one chance to use it in the water and I did not know what I was doing as far as sealing the suit. I just folded the jacket seal under and upward to seal against the trouser. Needless to say that this did not work real well. Had I known a little more, the outcome would have been much better. And on the better outcome subject I'll mention that I just did a dive a few hours ago with one of my reproduction suits. I used the rubber tube method as well as the waist band. It made for a perfect water tight seal. I started out dry, and ended the dive dry as well.
Bill
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 24, 2004 18:02:19 GMT -8
I'm sure there is a collection of folks out there with a collectionof old totes ad's. From what I can tell they sort of named there suits, the yellow one was the golden tiger, the green was called the tarzan in a British ad. Anyone seen name referances made to the brown and red ones they made? Bill
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Post by SeaRat on Oct 24, 2004 19:48:38 GMT -8
Not a Spearfisherman suit ad, Bill, but I managed to Google up a page with some Skin Diver Magazine covers from the 1960s and several suit ads: www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Village/3753/hhskin.htmlThere's a clickable thumbnail of a SMD Totes suit ad (haven't seen this one before) on the page, emphasising the warmth of the suit and announcing a short-sleeves version... Hope this helps. David There is a thumbnail there titled "Sport Frogmen." This photo is also in the book, Basic Scuba and is, in fact, author Fred Roberts. In the book, there is this quote: I would add that this appears to be an Aquala suit, with attached gloves on a home-made ring (something Fred was famous for). He is also using a Squale mask (USD). The doubles are actually single tanks which use a twin tank bar yolk, something I still have and use, manufactured probably by USD. John
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 25, 2004 1:48:15 GMT -8
>the green was called the tarzan in a British ad.<
Just a small correction here, Bill. The British ad reads: "a diver can wear as many sweaters underneath" the dark green model SKOOBA totes "as he wishes - or best of all a SUPER TARZAN as an undersuit, like the French navy."
The "Super Tarzan" is advertised elsewhere in the catalogue. It's a nylon-lined neoprene wetsuit made by Beuchat of Marseille, France, who patented not only Jetfins but also fin grips for closed-heel fins. The Super Tarzan wetsuit in the catalogue retailed for £44 1s. 9d, over three times the cost of the Skooba Totes in the same catalogue. I have a separate Beuchat catalogue in French from the mid 1960s which lists the Super Tarzan suit. No mention of Beuchat marketing drysuits there, though, Totes or otherwise.
Interesting idea, wearing a wetsuit underneath a drysuit to guarantee that a diver remained dry and warm. I wonder how widespread - and effective - such a practice was.
David
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 25, 2004 2:26:20 GMT -8
>I would add that this appears to be an Aquala suit< Indeed. Those distinctive circular patches are used on the "historical" suit that Aquala currently sells. There are images of vintage Aquala and Bel-Aqua suits online at www.goingunder.net/VGFS6.htm. I also have a copy of the Fred Roberts book. Figure 8-4 shows a Charles Stanley, in an Aquala suit, with a Raph West wearing a neck-entry suit. The latter resembles the "Seal Suit" pictured in Discount Divers' black and white photo gallery at www.discountdivers.com/photoGallery/oldbw/April23.1999.html. The 1955 edition of the Carrier book "Dive" lists the Seal Suit under US Divers Corporation "frogman suits". Curious that the same book doesn't mention Aquala when the Aquala site at www.aquala.com claims that the company has been making drysuits since the 1940s. David
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 25, 2004 3:20:23 GMT -8
>OK... HELP!!! Any one have a scan image of a "spearfisherman" suit ad?< In the 1954 edition of "Shallow Water Diving and Spearfishing" by Hilbert Schenck Jr and Henry Kendall (Cornell Maritime Press), Figure 58 shows a drysuited snorkeller. The same picture is online at www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Village/3753/F51.JPG. The book illustration caption reads: "Mr Woody Dimel of the Los Angeles Neptunes and a 58 pound stingray taken off Catalina Island. Mr Dimel, a skilled and enthusiastic fisherman, is wearing a front entry suit and a wide view mask by the Spearfisherman. The mask is equipped with a water purge device over the nose. The gun is a four strand Arbalete (Photo by Marx Scott). Could this be a suit made by The Spearfisherman? The trouble is that the sentence in the caption beginning "Mr Dimel..." is ambiguous. Does the Spearfisherman reference apply just to the mask or to the suit as well? Another problem is that the suit is very similar to the one in Figure 50, which is identified as the "Bel-Aqua front entry rubber suit". The book discusses a number of suits, including DESCO, Cousteau Constant Volume, Bel-Aqua and Pirelli, but not The Spearfisherman. David
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Oct 25, 2004 3:26:21 GMT -8
>Curious that the same book doesn't mention Aquala when the Aquala site at www.aquala.com claims that the company has been making drysuits since the 1940s.< I've just noticed the following: "Aquala (under the original names Bel-Aqua or Aqua-LA) was one of the original drysuit manufacturers. Its distinctive green color gave Frogmen their name! Aquala suits can be distinguished by the white diamond usually located on the upper arm of the suit." at www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Village/3753/hhfrog2.html. So Aquala and Bel-Aqua may be the same company. Can anybody confirm this is indeed the case? No mention of this fact in the history pages on the Aquala site at www.aquala.com. David
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Post by cstmwrks on Oct 25, 2004 17:40:02 GMT -8
OK.. I miss read the ad.. oh well, thought I was on to something with Totes having named there suits with differant colors. I know I did not imagine the spearfisherman ad.. just hope I run across it again.
Bill
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Post by cstmwrks on Nov 3, 2004 6:16:57 GMT -8
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