Skin Divers guide to Hawaii-1974and Handbook for skindivers

[onokai]

Just ran across these classics in my book collection.
The Hawaii guide is packed with photos and dive shop adds from that time
The other title(Handbook for skindivers by Ben Cropp) is loaded with photos as well and is a Jack Pollard sportscaster series-long out of print
You can still get a used copy of the Hawaii guide used it looks like.
This is when horse collars where king. Lots of 3 prong spear shots.

[DavidRitchieWilson]

When was your copy of Ben Cropp's Handbook for Skindivers published? I have a copy on my own diving bookshelves:

Front cover


Back cover


Editions page

According to www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50-18386/, the book went through 8 editions between 1962 and 1977. My 1977 copy is therefore the final edition.

I can't remember where I bought the book, but its many colour and monochrome photographs are certainly very impressive. Its Australian provenance is also a refreshing change from the usual North American and European Mediterranean contexts. I like a book to tell me about the equipment used in the era and place when and where the book was written and Cropp's book does mention the then Australian diving gear brands Turnbull and Torpedo but not enough to satisfy my curiosity about these makes. The following picture of a drysuited snorkelling New Zealander

possibly illustrates an Australian-made "Torpedo" drysuit, but there's no confirmation of the fact and it's equally possible that it's an American-made "Totes", which was imported to Australia. I'd like to build up more of an image of the Australian underwater equipment market up to the 1970s - my own first diving mask was a "Sea Raider" imported from Australia and it's hard to get data on the Australian Turnbull company.

This said, I regard the volume as an asset to my bookshelves and it packs in plenty of illustrated text, filling over 250 pages, about snorkelling as well as scuba diving.