Skin Diver Magazine Archieve

[SeaRat]

There is an archieve that anyone can access on-line of Skin Diver Magaszines forum 1954 to 2002. Take a look:

archive.org/details/pub_skin-diver

It doesn’t contain all the issues, but it makes for some great reading.

John

[cg43]

Hello John

Thank's for that link .
Up to now I read all the 1954 pub_skin diver and found some very interresting item's .
Disccusion's how deep to dive with Q2 rebreather's and Frederic Dumas 93m dive for example .
This had a great influence on me as a young diver reading in the year 1967 Cousteau's "The Silent World" .

Greetings Rainer

[DavidRitchieWilson]

Jan 14, 2024 18:51:39 GMT -8 SeaRat said:

There is an archieve that anyone can access on-line of Skin Diver Magaszines forum 1954 to 2002. Take a look:

archive.org/details/pub_skin-diver

It doesn’t contain all the issues, but it makes for some great reading.

John

Thanks for bringing this link to the attention of the forum, John. Some additional information:

• The December 1951 issue of Skin Diver magazine can be viewed at, or downloaded from, Skin Diver First Issue in PDF format.
• At Diving Magazines, the "Internet Wayback Machine" (archive.org) has another diving magazine collection. It contains past numbers from Skin Diver, Discover Diving, Diver, Dive Travel, Pacific Diver, Rodale's Scuba Diving, Scuba Diver, Scuba Times, Scubapro Diving & Snorkeling and Sport Diver.
• Some time ago, I read online that the excellent Skin Diving History website had access to all Skin Diver magazine issues from December 1951 to December 1954, whose publication could have resulted in scans of all numbers of that magazine becoming available to all in PDF form. I also understand that the website might have been reluctant to post scans of these issues because the then copyright holders objected. Sadly, the Skin Diving History site itself, which hosted many scans of vintage diving equipment ads, has now apparently allowed the skindivinghistory.com name to lapse and pass to a third party, which is a catastrophe for diving equipment historians if the original content has indeed gone for ever. To some extent, the Internet Wayback Machine has come to the rescue, but its "snapshots" of the site taken over the years do not include the vintage ads themselves.

DRW

[surflung]

Wow... Thanks a lot for that link. My Dad subscribed to Skin Diver back in the early 1960s and I remember how much fun it was to see all of the mail order ads. I just paged through the issue with "the lovely" Julie Adams on the cover. And inside a review of "Underwater City"... Which is a movie I've seen on the internet. Letters to the editor, directories of dive shops... What a great magazine.

Apparently the undoing of Skin Diver was the mail order ads. I remember reading somewhere that dive shops started boycotting SDM because the ads were undercutting them. I remember another magazine called DIVE that was mostly color photos and no mail order ads came out in the dive shops in the 1970s. I suppose the internet played a role in the further demise of SDM... But now HERE... The internet has given it all back to us!

[DavidRitchieWilson]

Skin Diver magazine content was also heavy on tropical tourism reports and light on diving equipment reviews during the later years. In other words, the periodical drifted into something approaching a glorified travel brochure.

To say the least, I was irritated by this trend because issues from earlier decades were relatively full of informative and well-researched "roundups" of masks, snorkels, fins and other underwater gear, each culminating in a table of quantitative and qualitative data. For me, these articles represented diving journalism at its very best. They included the following, which can all be viewed at the archive:

Boyd, F. 1980. Dive knife roundup. Skin Diver 29(1):63-64.

Cozens, G. 1980. Regulator roundup. Skin Diver 29(6):33-48.

Cozens, G. 1981a. Submersible pressure gauges. Skin Diver 30(3):49-58.

Cozens, G. 1981b. Shine on - an illuminating report on U/W handlights. Skin Diver 30(6):49-58.

Frey, H. 1967a. Thermal Protection. Skin Diver 16(10):53-55.

Frey, H. 1967b. Thermal protection: Part II, Skin Diver 16(11): 48-50, 68-69.

Hall, H. 1980. Speargun roundup. Skin Diver 29(7):33-44.

Hall, H. 1980a. Professional dive mask roundup. Skin Diver 29(2):59-70.

Hall, H. 1980b. Pro dive fin roundup. Skin Diver 29(3):47-58.

Hall, H. 1980c. Dry suit roundup. Skin Diver 29(12):33-42.

Lentz, H. 1967a. Masks-and what we should know about them. Skin Diver 16(2): 43-45, 61.

Lentz, T. 1967b. Fins: the swimming machines. Skin Diver 16(4): 18-20, 70.

Lentz, T. 1967c. The year of the spear. Skin Diver 16(6):30-33, 58-61.

Lentz, T. 1967d. Light up your world with underwater hand lights. Skin Diver 16(8):22-25.

Lentz, T. 1967e. The wet suit story. Part I. Skin Diver 16(9):68-70.

Lentz, T. 1967f. The diver's pipe. Skin Diver 16(11):20-23.

McKenney, J. 1973a. Professional type adjustable strap fins. Skin Diver 22(1):32-35.

McKenney, J. 1973b. Up to our snorkels in masks. Skin Diver 22(6):18-21.

McKenney, J. 1975. Inflatable dry suits. Skin Diver 24(10):26-31.

Murphy, G. 1980. Snorkel roundup. Skin Diver 29(9):37-48.

Parker, G. 1971. Fins. Skin Diver 20(1):10-11, 28-30.

Snyderman, M. 1980a. Dive glove roundup. Skin Diver 29(8):33-44.

Snyderman, M. 1980b. Horsecollar B.C. roundup. Skin Diver 29(10):33-44.

Snyderman, M. 1980c. B.C. roundup, Part II: 21 tank-mounted and wraparound compensators. Skin Diver 29(11):49-58.


DRW

[antique diver]

Jan 18, 2024 10:04:07 GMT -8 DavidRitchieWilson said:

Skin Diver magazine content was also heavy on tropical tourism reports and light on diving equipment reviews during the later years. In other words, the periodical drifted into something approaching a glorified travel brochure.

To say the least, I was irritated by this trend because issues from earlier decades were relatively full of informative and well-researched "roundups" of masks, snorkels, fins and other underwater gear, each culminating in a table of quantitative and qualitative data. For me, these articles represented diving journalism at its very best. They included the following, which can all be viewed at the archive:

Boyd, F. 1980. Dive knife roundup. Skin Diver 29(1):63-64.

Cozens, G. 1980. Regulator roundup. Skin Diver 29(6):33-48.

Cozens, G. 1981a. Submersible pressure gauges. Skin Diver 30(3):49-58.

Cozens, G. 1981b. Shine on - an illuminating report on U/W handlights. Skin Diver 30(6):49-58.

Frey, H. 1967a. Thermal Protection. Skin Diver 16(10):53-55.

Frey, H. 1967b. Thermal protection: Part II, Skin Diver 16(11): 48-50, 68-69.

Hall, H. 1980. Speargun roundup. Skin Diver 29(7):33-44.

Hall, H. 1980a. Professional dive mask roundup. Skin Diver 29(2):59-70.

Hall, H. 1980b. Pro dive fin roundup. Skin Diver 29(3):47-58.

Hall, H. 1980c. Dry suit roundup. Skin Diver 29(12):33-42.

Lentz, H. 1967a. Masks-and what we should know about them. Skin Diver 16(2): 43-45, 61.

Lentz, T. 1967b. Fins: the swimming machines. Skin Diver 16(4): 18-20, 70.

Lentz, T. 1967c. The year of the spear. Skin Diver 16(6):30-33, 58-61.

Lentz, T. 1967d. Light up your world with underwater hand lights. Skin Diver 16(8):22-25.

Lentz, T. 1967e. The wet suit story. Part I. Skin Diver 16(9):68-70.

Lentz, T. 1967f. The diver's pipe. Skin Diver 16(11):20-23.

McKenney, J. 1973a. Professional type adjustable strap fins. Skin Diver 22(1):32-35.

McKenney, J. 1973b. Up to our snorkels in masks. Skin Diver 22(6):18-21.

McKenney, J. 1975. Inflatable dry suits. Skin Diver 24(10):26-31.

Murphy, G. 1980. Snorkel roundup. Skin Diver 29(9):37-48.

Parker, G. 1971. Fins. Skin Diver 20(1):10-11, 28-30.

Snyderman, M. 1980a. Dive glove roundup. Skin Diver 29(8):33-44.

Snyderman, M. 1980b. Horsecollar B.C. roundup. Skin Diver 29(10):33-44.

Snyderman, M. 1980c. B.C. roundup, Part II: 21 tank-mounted and wraparound compensators. Skin Diver 29(11):49-58.


DRW

As a long time reader of Skin Diver, until its demise, I agree with your assessment. DEMA shows seem to have gone the same direction, sometimes more like travel shows with a little gear on the side. (DEMA used to be acronym for "Diving Manufacturers Association", but I think that quietly changed to something more inclusive. Can't recall the exact name just now... I must have enjoyed too much N₂ Narcosis in 66 years of diving. It was worth it.

_{Thanks for doing the research for the gear roundup list! I'll look some of those up in my old magazines.}

[SeaRat]

Antique Diver,

DEMA used to stand for "Diving Equipment Manufacturer's Association." I too lost interest when SDM started being a travel magazine to places I would not be going to. In the early days, they got a lot of information from the local dive clubs, and articles written by dive club participants. But the money was in dive travel, and that's where they went. You didn't see much an local diving in the latter days of SDM.

IMG_3311 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
A sculpin in the Clackamas River.

IMG_3305 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
This is the largescale sucker found in the Clackamas River, Oregon
coinformedangler.org/2020/04/06/largescale-suckers/

Stickleback in leaves by John Ratliff, on Flickr
3-spined Stickleback in the North Umpqua River.

You don't see much on freshwater diving, and the aquatic life that fascinated me for decades, in SDM.

John