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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Aug 14, 2019 22:47:33 GMT -8
Dang, the orange and yellow are cute! Huh! I wonder what else Oceanways had in 1956: perhaps "M's" and "S's" too? Were those "M's" and "S's", also copies of something else? JB I think you've identified an interesting new subject for research, JB. Interesting because the name "Oceanways" generates no results in the Early Manufacturers and Retailers section of the Skin Diving History Site, which contains hundreds of original diving equipment ads from the 1950s. So I would have to fall back on what is available online and in my records. I only have access to one older Oceanways catalogue and it's not all that old, the 1998 edition and it's incomplete because I compiled it from a series of eBay images. With hindsight, I should have bid for it. Anyway, here's the page with the Aquapros: You'll see not only a full-foot version of the blue fins (Aqua Professional) but also an adjustable open-heel version called the "Mini Divepro". During the 1990s I visited San Diego, where I snorkelled at La Jolla Cove and where I spotted the "Mini Divepros" when I explored a number of San Diegan sporting goods stores, so I have the evidence of my own eyes as well as the documentary evidence of the 1998 catalogue. The same 1998 Oceanways catalogue has pages dedicated to diving masks. Here's one with "vintage-style" rubber skirted masks: The Oceanways Pacific and the Oceanways Atlantic have the greatest interest for me here as they clearly represent a classic oval design. The Pacific remains on sale to this day: So that brings us back to the late 1990s, twenty years ago. The best source of information I have found so far about the company E. B. Industries Inc, which I know owned the Oceanways brand in 1994 because it's printed on my Aquapro fin box, can be found at XS Scuba, Inc. Acquires SeaDive/Oceanways: XS Scuba announces the acquisition of SeaDive/Oceanways from E.B. Industries effective June 1, 2016.After an amazing career spanning more than 50 years in the diving industry, E.B. (Noel) Brown has decided it is time to pass the torch at the young age of 90. Noel worked for several companies in the early days of the industry including Healthways, White Stag Watersports, and Ocean Dynamics. E.B. Industries was founded in 1983 focused on supplying snorkeling equipment to the sporting goods industry. The SeaDive brand was created in 1996 to focus on products designed for the professional dive market. This tells us that the company behind Oceanways "was founded in 1983 focused on supplying snorkeling equipment to the sporting goods industry." Now, the early 1980s was a time when rubber fin and mask manufacturing was beginning to be outsourced to countries in the Far East such as Malaysia and Taiwan. European diving equipment companies still manufacturing fins and masks back then narrowed their focus to composite thermoplastic fins and silicone masks. Oceanways branded snorkelling equipment appears to have bucked this trend towards outsourcing manufacture, producing their all-rubber Aquapros at the Pacific Molding plant in California: I'll leave it there for the moment. I'm going to try and compile a timeline for the Oceanways Aquapros, which are traceable to the early 1990s, while the image I posted earlier: dates their introduction to 1956. I have my own thoughts on this, but they are speculative at the moment and I'm going to seek further printed evidence on the Web before I commit my ideas to writing. Thanks, JB, for giving me an interesting line of enquiry to pursue! DRW
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Post by nikeajax on Aug 15, 2019 7:39:32 GMT -8
DRW, I'm glad that I've given you a new task in/for your passion! I've been geeking out on antique fishing gear: I believe the Pennell on the left is from 1914, and I just got a rod from 1907! JB
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Aug 18, 2019 2:10:15 GMT -8
Even as a non-fisherman, JB, I can see the fine workmanship in those reels! I'm ready now to submit a preliminary report on my dive into cyberspace to explore the origins of Oceanways Aqua Pro fins. The source above traces them back to 1956. However, the source below traces the "Oceanways" brand name back to 1982 at the earliest: I conclude from this evidence that the design of the Oceanways Aqua Pro fin may date back to the 1950s but the brand and model name "Oceanways Aqua Pro" came much later. The prototype of the Oceanways Aqua Pro was, of course, the world-famous Cressi Rondine fin, designed by Luigi Ferraro, the former World War II Italian combat swimmer who also came up with the Cressi Pinocchio mask. Here it is in Cressi's 1953 catalogue: And here's a Cressi Rondine publicity picture from 1954 showing a team of swimmers wearing the fins: Cressi Rondine fins arrived in the USA no later than 1955. The Carriers list these fins in the Healthways fins and sets section of appendix A of the 1955 edition of their opus Dive: The complete book of skin diving. On 17 March 1955, the Tampa Bay Times publishes Bill Jackson advertisement for Cressi Rondines on page 3: On 30 June 1955, the St Louis Globe-Democrat publishes “Healthways Water Sports Aids” Famous Barr advertisement with Cressi Rondine fins (page 11): Healthways Cressi Rondine fins with proprietary instep lock straps launched, as per Tampa Hardware advertisement in the 18 July 1956 issue of The Tampa Tribune (p. 11): To sum up. The Italian Cressi Rondine fin, which eventually led to the American Oceanways Aqua Pro fin, can be found in the Cressi 1953 catalogue, which can be viewed at Cressi 1953 Catalogue Page 24. Cressi Rondines were exported to the USA no later than 1955 and Healthways commissioned a special edition of the Cressi Rondine with a patented instep strap after the US company was appointed the American distributor of Cressi products. I'll leave it there for the moment and move on to the early 1960s in the development of the Oceanways Aqua Pro fin during my next posting. Hope this has been of some interest to others; it has certainly helped me to marshal my thoughts. DRW
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Post by tomcatpc on Aug 18, 2019 5:32:43 GMT -8
Dove mine three times again yesterday...love them! Not much else to say. Mark
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Post by nikeajax on Aug 18, 2019 7:45:56 GMT -8
DRW, thanks for all the research: I'm glad we have an archivist like you to help us with things like MFSW's; of course you know W's are wetsuits As a writer I appreciate little obscure/esoteric details like what you've provided that I can sprinkle into my tales to lend to more authenticity to them. Of course just knowing is fun too, because knowledge is power and you can never know when you can use odd bits like that! JB
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Aug 19, 2019 2:15:42 GMT -8
Thanks, JB, for the positive feedback. I'm fascinated too by the oddities and the small details that emerge when observing life or perusing written sources of information. When I've done presentations for teachers, I've always encouraged them to carry out research to support their practice, using the analogy of an oyster creating a pearl when it is irritated by a bit of grit. What I mean is that we should never shrug the matter off if any piece of received wisdom turns out to be wrong in our experience, and that such irritants should spur us on to investigate further and discover something new that may take the state of knowledge a tad further along the path of progress. Onwards and upwards now with the saga of Oceanways Aquapros. According to Oceanways Company Overview, "E. B. Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1982 and began operations in 1983. The original owners were Murray Elliott and Noel Brown. Key Company Personnel: Chairman & sole stockholder, Noel Brown has been associated with watersports companies in several positions since 1962." So Noel Brown, who founded Oceanways in 1982, started his association with watersports companies in 1962. As for the identity of these watersports companies, we have the following statement at XS Scuba, Inc. Acquires SeaDive/Oceanways when Brown relinguished control of Oceanways in 2016: "After an amazing career spanning more than 50 years in the diving industry, E.B. (Noel) Brown has decided it is time to pass the torch at the young age of 90. Noel worked for several companies in the early days of the industry including Healthways, White Stag Watersports, and Ocean Dynamics. E.B. Industries was founded in 1983 focused on supplying snorkeling equipment to the sporting goods industry." It doesn't take the mind of an Einstein to spot how the names of two of these companies, Healthways and Ocean Dynamics may have inspired his choice of the Oceanways brand name in the early 1980s. So Noel Brown worked at Healthways, White Stag Watersports and Ocean Dynamics from 1962 to 1982, when he incorporated Oceanways. Both Healthways and White Stag offered Cressi Rondine fins in their watersports ranges during the 1970s. On 22 August 1971, The Los Angeles Times published a Surprise Store advertisement for Healthways Cressi Rondine fins in blue rubber (page 320): On 23 May 1973, The Tampa Times publishes a Gold Triangle advertisement for White Stag Cressi Rondine fins (page 73): Brown, therefore, would presumably have known about the Cressi Rondine line during his employment at these companies. He would also have been familiar with their sale in sporting goods outlets as well as specialist dive stores and this would have stood him in good stead when he started out on his own as a supplier of snorkelling gear to sporting goods dealers from the early 1980s. We'll explore developments during that decade next time. DRW
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Aug 21, 2019 2:47:40 GMT -8
Time for another instalment in the history of the Oceanways Aquapro model fin. During the 1970s, the Cressi Rondine fin was carried by both Healthways and White Stag, where Noel Brown worked before founding his Oceanways watersports equipment company. I have spedulated that the brand name "Oceanways" may have come from a combination of the names of the "Healthways" and "Ocean Dynamics" companies, which employed Noel Brown, whose own "E. B. Industries Inc" company derived its title from the initials of Noel Brown's name. According to the "company overview" above, "E. B. Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1982 and began operations in 1983. The original owners were Murray Elliott and Noel Brown." So E.B. Industries began operations on supplying snorkelling equipment to the sporting goods industry using the Oceanways brand name in 1983. On 21 May 1983, The Los Angeles Times published a Sport Chalet advertisement on page 29 featuring the following Oceanways Pacific diving mask: On 21 June 1984, The Los Angeles Times publishes a Big Five Sporting Goods advertisement with the following Oceanways diving fins, dive mask and dive snorkel (page 198): On 7 June 1985, The Los Angeles Times publishes an Oshman’s advertisement with Oceanways silicone Pacific Dive Mask on page 64:
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Aug 21, 2019 3:00:06 GMT -8
So much for the first half of the 1980s. There was more of the same in the second half and the Cressi Rondine lookalike that was the Oceanways Aqua Pro was conspicuous by its absence then too. On 30 April 1986, The Los Angeles Times published an Oshman’s advertisement with Oceanways Mini Coral Dive Mask and Oceanways Flex Snorkel on page 44: On 4 June 1986, The Los Angeles Times published an Oshman’s advertisement with Oceanways Aqua Pro Mask and new Oceanways Flex Snorkel on page 100: On 18 July 1986, The Los Angeles Times published an Oshman’s advertisement with Oceanways Full View mask on page 44:
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Post by nikeajax on Aug 21, 2019 7:02:59 GMT -8
DRW, again, thanks for the detective work! I have a silicone now honey colored wrap around mask that I use as my go-to mask that I'm thinking is an Oceanways. I like it because I don't have to think about it at all and I get my required peripheral-vision that I need in a mask.
I like your theory about the name stemming from Healthways: and like HW, OW presents us with high quality products that are in an affordable price range.
JB
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Aug 28, 2019 7:26:52 GMT -8
So taking the Oceanways timeline beyond 1986: 1987: Oceanways Caribbean mask1994: First Big 5 ad for Oceanways Aqua Pro fins (Hanford Sentinel)1996: Another, clearer Big 5 ad for Oceanways Aquapros showing "swallow" featureAlso 1996: The SeaDive brand created by E. B. Industries to focus on products designed for the professional dive market. 1998: Pages from that year's Oceanways catalogue:2012 Company address: E. B. Industries, Inc., A Noel Brown Company, 7619 Somerset Blvd., Paramount, CA 90723-4129 2016: SeaDive/Oceanways brands pass to XS Scuba:XS Scuba announces the acquisition of SeaDive/Oceanways from E.B. Industries effective June 1, 2016.After an amazing career spanning more than 50 years in the diving industry, E.B. (Noel) Brown has decided it is time to pass the torch at the young age of 90. Noel worked for several companies in the early days of the industry including Healthways, White Stag Watersports, and Ocean Dynamics. E.B. Industries was founded in 1983 focused on supplying snorkeling equipment to the sporting goods industry. The SeaDive brand was created in 1996 to focus on products designed for the professional dive market. So there's a timeline of sorts for Oceanways and its parent company E. B. Industries. As for Oceanways Aquapros, the line is more tenuous. Sporting goods dealer ads for these fins seem to appear first in 1994. Before then, the original Cressi Rondine design remains in production, thanks mainly to Cressi itself, then to Healthways and White Stag. There's a two-decade gap between White Stag Rondines in 1973 and Oceanways Aquapros in 1994. DRW
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Post by nikeajax on Aug 28, 2019 8:00:05 GMT -8
DRW, where the heck do ya find those adverts? As for tenuous: yes, that's a very good adjective/descriptor! Again, thanks for the detective work Sam Spade... JB
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Aug 28, 2019 8:58:51 GMT -8
Thanks for the positive feedback, JB! The ads come from the archives at Newspapers.com. It's a subscription only site with a good search engine and the ability to download cuttings as JPGs or PDFs. I've found the site invaluable when I was researching the history of vintage drysuits and it enabled me to to conduct a search on the word "snorkel" that led me to conclude that its first use to denote a swimmer's breathing tube was in a Hawaii newspaper ad in 1950.
As for the Oceanways research, newspaper ads would have been the only viable source of information because the company sold its products through sporting goods dealers rather than local dive stores. I'm not convinced that Oceanways goods would have been advertised in the regular scuba diving press.
DRW
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Post by nikeajax on Aug 28, 2019 9:15:01 GMT -8
Dang, I gotta look into that: I'm working on a series of books that begins August 1962, but this third book is in December, but will bleed over into '63. I can only get so far with Wikipedia's breakdown of the year: I love throwing in esoteric bits of history!
JB
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Post by tomcatpc on Aug 31, 2019 6:37:39 GMT -8
I'm sort of disappointed that Cressi no longer makes the Rondine fins. They still make the Pinocchio Mask, which I have. I'd love to have a "complete set" with a new made pair of Rondine fins. Mark
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