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Post by bigdave on Jan 2, 2005 7:54:16 GMT -8
Nemrod & David, Not to let the cat out of the bag but in about 90 days ( give or take ) the USA and the rest of the world will see the introduction of a first in dry suits. In 2005 you will be able to purchase an unlined molded dry suit in two ply rubber. Many color options and sizes as well as customizable in size. ( thats right.. custom molded suit ) Neck , waist, chest and back entry as well as those nasty zippers. When the first suits go on the market it will be on eBay. Bill Customworks That is good news, though I was looking forward to the XL size suits. The suits won't go on the market here first? ;D ;D More seriously, good luck with the new products. Best wishes, and happy holidays! BD
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Post by cstmwrks on Jan 2, 2005 15:19:25 GMT -8
Bigdave, You never know! A special offer to all the forum members may be posted at about the same time they hit eBay. Bill
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Post by Aerial The Shamen on Feb 2, 2005 20:05:59 GMT -8
This is a "Pinguin" suit (means "penguin" in German) from the DDR (German Democratic Republic ). I think it was made until the end of this nation in 1989. I own the upper part of this suit (stank initially badly of petrol) but lack the trousers. Here is a text about some trouble I had with it: --- HELP!: I got stuck in zipless rubber drysuit! (DDR "Pinguin",like a Totes suit?) I had bought the top of a zipless 2 piece rubber (semi-)drysuit and just got stuck in it. I am really NOT into rubber bondage and this was definitely an experience of the absolutely unpleasant kind. The suit was the model "Pinguin" from the army of the DDR (German Democratic Republic), which was made from dual-sided rubberized fabric (similar like Aquala, but thinner) with seals made of black rubber sheeting. Top and trouser part were designed to be connected by 2 waist seals those could be rolled together. The top (shaped like a sweat shirt) has at its lower end 2 waist seals of black rubber sheeting (quite inelastic, resembles pond foil); one should be rolled together with the trousers seal while the 2nd sheet should cover it to prevent unrolling. (I think that a Zodiac NBC suit has a similar mechanism.) The wrists and neck seals are of the same inelastic material. Unfortunately I am missing the throusers (only the tops were sold on eBay). Initially the material stank horribly of chlorine and motor oil (butyl rubber), which made me almost faint after washing it first time, and the next night I was about to get an asthma attack from the chlorine of the drying suit in the bathroom, thus I hung it for several weeks out of the bathroom window (except during sunlight, held by ropes on a coat hanger and the mosquito mesh) to make the chemical odours vapour out. Now the smell has reduced by magnitudes and doesn't hurt anymore. Chlorine smell is only barely noticeable when unpacking it from its PE bag. Recently I now tried to wear the drysuit top. It fitted well and was fairly easy to slide into it, and also of the smell only the pleasant, vanilla-like latex scent stayed present after a minute. And unlike my expectation, by inverting the seals, I even managed to inflate(!) the top and it held the air astonishingly well regarding that the throusers are missing (although the thing tends to slide up when inflated to much). When inflated, it builds up some pressure and it is a quite fascinating experience to realize how the lightweight material interacts with my breath when I meditate in it. But when I tried to undon the thing, I got stuck with my elbow since the unstretchable suit top is too narrow to flex my sweaty arm to get it fully out of the sleeve. Thus my right arm stuck halfway in the sleeve and I couldn't move it down out of it, nor I couldn't pull my head out of the neck seal without suffocating due to the wrist seal needs to be pulled up first with both hands before pulling the head out. Finally (after >1h) as an emergency measure I went into the bath tub and filled the suit with warm water, which reduced the friction and finally permitted me to slowly work my arm down and out of the wrist seal. Once I was there, it was quite easy to get the 2nd arm out, lift the wrist seal up to neck hight and finally stretch the neck seal with both hands to safely pull my head out. -Am I really too stupid to undon this suit or is mine just too small? -Is there a fixed systematic algorithm how to get out of the thing or do I need to be Houdini (master of suspension escapes) to manage this? I am a yogi and normally consider myself quite elastic and can not imagine this to be really difficult. Or was the thing strictly designed for use with a second helper only? Has anybody an easy tip how to get the elbows out? REGARD: This is definitely not the well-hated heavy copper helmet drysuit of leather and canvas with thick rubber neckseal entry that was famous to be considered unescapeable without 2 or 4 strong helpers. The "Pinguin" suit is of very soft and lightweight (but barely stretchable) rubber coated fabric and only its seals are a bit less stretchable than modern latex seals. (I guess it's made from 1mm pond foil sheet rubber or the like - initially it smelled badly of butyl, but I guess that ye rubberists certainly regularly use such "black rubber" more than me.) -Has anybody the missing throusers for a DDR "Pinguin" suit for sale? (http://latexmindresearch.tripod.com)
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Feb 19, 2005 7:01:44 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 I guess we may now have a picture of a "Spearfisherman" suit, courtesy of Divinghistory.com and thanks to JES who brought our attention to the site in a separate thread. It's an ad on page 10 of the first issue of "Skin Diver" (December 1951) and can be viewed at: www.divinghistory.com/images/sdm-10.gifI wasn't quite expecting a short-sleeved, short-legged outfit. It resembles the "Spearfisherman" shorty suit shown in the pictures on pages 120-121 of my 1955 edition of Carrier's "Dive". I'd forgotten they were in that book. There are other ads in the magazine, which can be perused page by page at: www.divinghistory.com/first-sdm.htmThere's another suit ad at: www.divinghistory.com/images/sdm-12.gifCan anyone identify it?
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Post by cstmwrks on Feb 19, 2005 19:16:26 GMT -8
David, I took a peek at the web pages, none of it looks like the ad I had a scan image of. It was a full length suit. PNUYTEN has mentioned that he may have some info stashed in his shop some place but it has not been way high on his list of things to do. Bill
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Feb 20, 2005 2:04:02 GMT -8
Bill:
I had another look at the Carrier book ("Dive", 1955 edition) and its Figure 70F demonstrating "steps in putting on one type of 'shorty' suit (Courtesy The Spearfisherman Company)" does indeed illustrate a different suit. The one in the "Skin Diver" ad doesn't have a visible front-entry chute and the hood looks like a loose fit.
The Carrier book shows a "shorty suit manufactured by the Spearfisherman Company, using the liquid dip method. This suit features a wide-mouthed chute, enabling the diver to put it on and take it off unassisted". The text goes on to explain each step in dressing and undressing. In the pictures, the sealed-off chute is clearly visible at the front.
As for suit length, the book continues: "Most manufacturers of rubber diving suits put out a long suit, usually built to cover the feet also, and a short-sleeved, short-legged 'mid-season' suit. These latter suits are somewhat less expensive than full suits and allow greater freedom in the water. However, the tight seals around the legs and arms may restrict circulation to some extent, especially when heaving undergarments are worn, and they are not suitable for really cold water."
Is there any chance the Spearfisherman suit you remember was a long-armed, long-legged version of the suit with the front chute illustrated in the Carrier book?
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Post by cstmwrks on Feb 20, 2005 11:31:51 GMT -8
David, I do not have the 1955 edition of dive to be able to look at the images. The spearfisherman ads with the shorty version do not look like the suit ad I had the image of. And as you remember I made referance to it as the "kingfisher" and not the "spearfisherman". You called me on that point of order and due to my inability to find that ad image I often wonder if it was a genuine spearfisherman ad or not. I described the image in reasonable detail with attention to the knobs located on the side of the hood. Enter PNUYTEN, who gives great detail of the reason for those knobs and credits it to a spearfisherman design. To this day I have not spotted an ad that looks even close to the suit in the image I lost track of. I have done three searches of my jpg files looking for that one image. Still no luck.
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Post by martinchgo on Feb 26, 2005 13:32:36 GMT -8
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alexallison2000yahoocouk
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Post by alexallison2000yahoocouk on Feb 28, 2005 6:12:21 GMT -8
Solo Marx made marvellous rubber suits and waders, in the mid 1980's. Do they make them at this time.
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Post by cstmwrks on Feb 28, 2005 18:15:05 GMT -8
David, Sorry I missed one of your questions in the last post. The ad did in fact show the full length suit. Very clear that it was front entry chute. It drives me nuts when I think about it too long!! Ihave NO idea what happend to that scan image.
As for the auction.. I would say it was a TOTES "golden tiger" as they called there yellow dry suit. Great image in the ad by the way. It gives one last clue for how they molded the hood design.
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Post by cstmwrks on Apr 26, 2005 5:52:02 GMT -8
OK so I know this is dredging up an old dead horse but....... From what I have found from old ads, the Totes were made in green, brown, yellow and red, correct? Never any in black. Anybody have any other input?
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Apr 14, 2007 9:10:20 GMT -8
Apologies for resurrecting a two-and-a-half year old discussion, but the topic of vintage drysuits has recently been revisited on another thread. >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?< We might be nearer an answer to one of the original poster Bill's questions. The Skin Diving History website to which I drew people's attention earlier, has a collection of Skooba Totes advertisements. The first at www.skindivinghistory.com/mfg_retailers/s/Skooba_Totes/01.htmlannounced a 60 day introductory 2 for the price of 1 offer for the suit, then called the "Skooba Skin". The offer's expiry date was July 15, 1958, so the original offer must have been made in mid-May 1958 or thereabouts. The question when the suit was discontinued is a harder nut to crack as manufacturers are understandably reluctant to announce the discontinuation of old lines, preferring to focus on new products. In the case of the Totes company, the firm never made another diving product after ceasing manufacture of the Skooba Totes line, probably in the mid to late 1960s. Bill also suggested that The Spearfisherman company made a full-length suit. The period advertisements on the Skin Diving History site indeed prove this to be the case: www.skindivinghistory.com/mfg_retailers/s/Spearfisherman/index.htmlThe first Spearfisherman's suits were front-entry "shorties", but later models, both short and full suits, sported "Ascot pleated" neck entry, allowing the suit to be donned without assistance in a matter of seconds.
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Post by Seahuntjerry on Apr 14, 2007 21:14:24 GMT -8
Hi the unisuit came out around the middle 70's I owned many, now use A DUI nordic. Kemp's cow
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Apr 15, 2007 10:52:50 GMT -8
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Post by cstmwrks on Apr 18, 2007 5:39:01 GMT -8
David, That was a treasure of finds! Not only does it give me a better idea of the birth of the totes but you did in fact find the ad for the spearfisherman suit. Forth up from the bottom and on the left, note the little knobs at the ear location on the hood. Just what I had describbed in some long ago post here.
Well I'll sell two of my hydroglove suits for the price of one at the 34.95 price, so long as you pay in pre 1965 junk silver coins!
Bill
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