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Post by tomcatpc on Sept 10, 2017 15:26:57 GMT -8
Totally dig the Manta Ray on the fins! Mark
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Aug 25, 2020 6:33:56 GMT -8
Since JB has resurrected the thread "Odd masks", I thought I'd reciprocate by resurrecting the "Odd fins" thread to post an excerpt I recently chanced upon in the article "How to explore underwater playgrounds" in the June 1954 issue of "Popular Science": At the moment, I'm exploring American magazines with general practical content such as "Popular Science", "Popular Mechanics", "Boy's Life" etc from the 1950s and 1960s containing diving articles, and I'm astounded at the ingenuity displayed by the sport's pioneers when it came to making their own basic gear, presumably because the commercial products were unavailable or unaffordable or they took pride in their own workmanship. This is the first article I've come across with handy hints about how to create a pair of swim fins from scratch, using readily available household materials, in this case a pair of tennis shoes, a rubber car mat and a length of garden hose. Interesting usage of the word "flipper" as well to denote the fin blade only and not the entire fin. DRW
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Post by SeaRat on Aug 25, 2020 7:08:51 GMT -8
DRW,
When I was in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Korea, I made a set of fins out of wood. I don't have any photos of them, but they had a platform of wood for a shoe to be screwed/glued on, side ribs which went at an angle, and between a rubber "scoop" made out of inner tube rubber. I never got them into the water, but did get them made. I think I had to leave them in Korea when I went to Bermude on a permanent assignment. They looked like a larger version, painted black with black rubber, of the Churchill fins, but made of wood.
John
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Post by nikeajax on Aug 25, 2020 7:55:54 GMT -8
I've never even heard of... I wonder how many people made those? Nowadays floor mats only have a rubber-like backing and the facing made of woven yarn. I'd love to see someone decked out in a whole set of home made gear like that JB
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Post by james1979 on Aug 25, 2020 14:22:01 GMT -8
I'd love to see someone decked out in a whole set of home made gear like that JB I feel like you threw down a gauntlet there... And I'm tempted to pick it up! I feel I'm partway there already, with cuttingboard backplate, scratchbuilt wing, "Most of a Scuba" held together with home made pieces... I'll see what I can do!
James
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Post by nikeajax on Aug 25, 2020 14:37:26 GMT -8
I feel like you threw down a gauntlet there... And I'm tempted to pick it up! I feel I'm partway there already, with cuttingboard backplate, scratchbuilt wing, "Most of a Scuba" held together with home made pieces... I'll see what I can do! James Well you do know that they used to make some early DH's with military surplus oxygen regulators from aircraft--right? JB
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Post by nikeajax on Aug 25, 2020 15:33:35 GMT -8
Oh boy, you could go to a wrecking yard and find an old car-mat, and a thrift store for the deck-shoes Somewhere there's an image of two young men standing together in their own home made gear in the 1950's! Jus' sayin'... JB
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Post by SeaRat on Aug 25, 2020 20:05:44 GMT -8
I feel like you threw down a gauntlet there... And I'm tempted to pick it up! I feel I'm partway there already, with cuttingboard backplate, scratchbuilt wing, "Most of a Scuba" held together with home made pieces... I'll see what I can do! James Well you do know that they used to make some early DH's with military surplus oxygen regulators from aircraft--right? JB Let's not do that, JB and others. People died with those home-made Scuba rigs. John
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Feb 22, 2021 12:29:51 GMT -8
I thought I would resurrect this thread to report a recent discovery in the category of fin eccentricity. During the 1950s, P. B. Cow & Company was a manufacturer of seaside recreation inflatables operating under the Li-Lo brand name: Water sports proving a popular and lucrative activity worldwide in the first full decade of peacetime, the firm eventually expanded its range to include underwater swimming equipment, creating a short-lived budget dry suit in 1960 for the Australian market, where sea swimming was a popular pastime but coastal waters were sometimes a little on the cold side: But I am getting ahead of myself. In 1956, Cow and Co. was awarded British Patent 759,521 for an invention entitled "Swim-Fins". One of the patent paragraphs reads as follows: "A swim-fin according to the present invention comprises a generally triangular shaped, inflatable, flexible bag-like member having an inflation orifice adapted to receive sealing means, a pocket provided on the outer surface of said member and means for attaching said member to a foot or hand of a user." Here is the patent drawing: I chanced upon this patent many years ago, dismissing it as an example of a wild overengineered idea - a pair of inflatable swim fins - destined to remain on the drawing board and never entering production. But recently I came across one page in the Rex-Hevea underwater hunter's vademecum of 1958 to prove me wrong: So the inflatable fin design was actually manufactured and marketed by Cow & Co. in two sizes and two colours for children and young people. Note the bilingual Italian and English caption, however, relegating this product to the status of a toy. Its greatest selling point appears to have been its portability, always ready to be folded up and carried around in a pocket. I have never seen this unique fin billed elsewhere and suspect that the concept of inflatable fins failed to catch on with consumers. DRW
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Post by vance on Feb 22, 2021 16:01:44 GMT -8
I'd love to see someone decked out in a whole set of home made gear like that JB I feel like you threw down a gauntlet there... And I'm tempted to pick it up! I feel I'm partway there already, with cuttingboard backplate, scratchbuilt wing, "Most of a Scuba" held together with home made pieces... I'll see what I can do!
James
Oh, boy. Don't know how I missed this thread. When James feels the challenge, we're gunna see something kew. You can borrow my diluter conversion regulator, if I ever get it finished. Hook it up with the Nope-Page 3D printed mouthpiece! Huh. On second thought, the oxy diluter conversion feels like a cheat. It should be a home-made regulator, from scratch. Sorry to force this thread back around to regulators DRW! I'll stop.
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Post by nikeajax on Feb 23, 2021 8:53:11 GMT -8
DRW, those things look like a Royal pain the butox (pronounced beewtox), although they'd probably be outstanding for peak cardio Floppy and floaty... It reminds me of what my wife and I call "punishing the water": it's usually the guys who want to do a triathlon, slamming and smacking the water with their hands and arms as if hoping to punish the water for being so resistive to their will, SPLASH, SPLASH, GASP-PUFF, SPLASH, SPLASH, GASP-PUFF, SPLASH, SPLASH... After which they get out in fifteen minutes totally spent JB
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