A Spearfishing Equipment History Thread

[Bill McIntyre]

DRW, you’re absolutely correct. That was a Perrelli dry suit that the diver wore. I’ve always made the connection between what seemed like inner tube rubber and the fact that Perreli stil makes tires so I must have had a brain fart when I called it Cressi. As I recall the suit had a big overlap between the jacket and bottom and they were rolled together to make a seal.

I think the gun must have been a Mignon. It was the only one of its type I ever saw.

 

[popgun pete]

We used to take the ping pong ball caged snorkels, which had a vinyl tube, and pull the cage off and throw the entire top assembly away. Then we stuck the J curved top end in boiling water and straightened it out to make a long snorkel. They were great for when long swells were rolling through as they generally kept the water out. Contrary to popular belief they were not hard to breathe through and easy to clear. As a later refinement we put a few rings of red tape on the upper tube so we could spot each other looking along the surface, although the tape usually fell off as water got to the adhesive. The mouthpieces tended to crack, we used red brown or black rubber ones which were sold as spares. Some of these snorkels had red vinyl mouthpieces, they went in the bin after being replaced with the rubber version.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Thats a great idea about modifying the caged snorkels. Unfortunately my friends and I weren't smart enough to think of it.

However, I do spray the ends with day glo orange paint if they don't already come with something like that. It seems that many do.

 

[popgun pete]

Snorkel full face masks were really for underwater sightseeing rather than spearfishing. I remember seeing a big bucket sized one in green rubber with twin alloy big bore tubes and swinging valve caps that pivoted to close the snorkels when a wave came through. It sat for months in the store as it was super expensive, super heavy and unable to be pulled off in a hurry. No one with any experience swimming around rock outcrops and reefs with waves surging through would use such a device, in many cases they were the result of land lubber thinking as to what a diver would need. The valves usually did not work properly and you risked having a bucket of water strapped to your head which, designed not be dislodged by wave action, was too hard to remove when you were in real trouble.

As is also the case now, those full face snorkel masks were not for submerging, they were for keeping water out when a wave swept through. When heading out into wave action water tends to keep out, but when you have waves coming in from behind you they can tip water down the snorkel. On some days with wind, tides and a short chop you can have waves going both ways coming in from either direction, the "ins and outs" as we used to refer to it. On such days snorkel valves have no hope of working properly.

 

[DRW]

Snorkel full face masks were really for underwater sightseeing rather than spearfishing. I remember seeing a big bucket sized one in green rubber with twin alloy big bore tubes and swinging valve caps that pivoted to close the snorkels when a wave came through.

Any chance the snorkel-mask you describe was an Australian-made Turnbull "Ocean Survey" (above)?

Catalogue description: In green rubber, this is a full-face mask fitted with a iarge round heavy safety glass lens, and is designed to completely cover the nose and mouth. It features a wide head-strap, twin anodised aluminium snorkel tubes with ball valve assemblies securely held in a head harness. All metal parts are rust-proof, and the mask is designed primarily for swimmers who do not wish to dive, but to observe all underwater activities.

Right colour, right material. The mask illustrated, however, is fitted with "ball-in-a-cage" shut-off valves, not the hinge-operated "Gamma" ones Cressi supplied with their iconic Medusa G2 snorkel-masks (below):

 

[popgun pete]

The snorkels were more to the sides and there were no ping pong ball valves visible, I think it was European and possibly German. It was very solid looking with a heavy and deep reinforced rib skirt and swimming with it would have been like looking out of a glass bottom bucket. Back in those days it was probably a sample as it was in Myer department store which had a sports section. There were no dive shops back then and dive gear was very limited and exotic.

 

[DRW]

The snorkels were more to the sides and there were no ping pong ball valves visible, I think it was European and possibly German. It was very solid looking with a heavy and deep reinforced rib skirt and swimming with it would have been like looking out of a glass bottom bucket. Back in those days it was probably a sample as it was in Myer department store which had a sports section. There were no dive shops back then and dive gear was very limited and exotic.

Interesting. Could even be a one-off sample. When I did a little research over recent months into snorkel-mask history, I managed to identify at least 150 different models, manufactured in Australia, Europe, North America and the Far East, most of them between the late 1940s and the 1970s, several even later. The most elaborate German-made model I know was the Gorgona, manufactured by Barakuda between 1960 and 1973 in Hamburg:

Here's a translation from the German of the Barakuda Gorgona catalogue caption:
A twin-snorkel full-face mask sealing under the chin and hence enclosing the nose and mouth. The mask body has a horizontal partition dividing the inside of the mask between the nose and the upper lip into two self-contained chambers: an upper viewing area and a lower breathing area. The two snorkel channels on the left and right sides run from the lower chamber to the outside. A bent snorkel tube fitted with a valve can be attached to each of these channels. A mounting device at the point where the snorkel channels enter the breathing area enables inhalation or exhalation valves to be inserted. The extra-large lens is made of shatterproof plastic retained by a light-alloy rim. A wide split head strap enables the mask to be a good fit for all head shapes and sizes.
Talk about German engineering...

I think the unwieldiest model I have found so far is Yves Le Prieur's Nautilus, which seems to be both scuba- and snorkel-compatible:

Here it is in action on the front cover of his book:

and inside:

 

[foxfish]

I started spearfishing around 1970, although I was not properly kitted out until around 1974.
The must have mask at the time was something called a Maxview, it had a structural frame and side windows with a external nose clamp.
I think there were two versions?

 

[DRW]

I started spearfishing around 1970, although I was not properly kitted out until around 1974.
The must have mask at the time was something called a Maxview, it had a structural frame and side windows with a external nose clamp.
I think there were two versions?

Might this be the Nemrod/Seamco Max-vue above? Here it is in a 1966 catalogue:

The Maxvue is listed in a mask round-up published by Skin Diver in June 1973:

The mask's name has been changed to "Max View" in the following 1972 ad:

Voit had a similar mask design in the USA in the early 1960s:

 

[foxfish]

Yes Max View is the one I remember but it was a very expensive mask , there was another similar one but I can’t think of the name!
We made our own suits from from flat sheets of neoprene, shark skin texture on the outside and plain on the inside, later came nylon lined insides.
Black witch glue and yellow over tape, loads of talcum powder to get them on!
The joints were always opening up and the suits had a short life span.
Of course the good news was ... loads of fish to be caught.
We use hand spears for a lot of the time to spear flatfish, lots of lobster and crab and big eels in the holes!
My first gun was a three band tube gun, twin barb steel spear with little bits of rubber to hold open the barbs pretty sure it was a Nemrod too
Non stretch weight belt, separate hood and sinking Jet fins.
I loved the Jetfins and I was still using them upto a few years back!

We had a great dive and spearfishing shop in Guernsey called Fletcher Sports, it was said to be one of the best and well stocked in that era .
Guernsey held several large spearfishing competitions in the 70 and 80s with many top international divers competing.

 

[DRW]

Yes Max View is the one I remember but it was a very expensive mask , there was another similar one but I can’t think of the name!

Glad I was able to find some information about it.

We had a great dive and spearfishing shop in Guernsey called Fletcher Sports, it was said to be one of the best and well stocked in that era . Guernsey held several large spearfishing competitions in the 70 and 80s with many top international divers competing.

Here's a scan of my paper copy of the 1967 Fletcher Sports catalogue. After seeing an ad in the BSAC magazine Triton back then, I wrote to the firm requesting a product list and they obliged.

 

[foxfish]

Wow that is amazing!
Fletcher Sport is still trading and in the same place but they don’t sell spearfishing equipment anymore.

Spearfishing got a bit of bad press in the late eighties, some of the open competitions saw ridiculous amounts of fish taken, some times the divers had to make two or even three trips to carry their catch up the beach.
Conger eels and wrasse were the main targets and neither are very good eating fish.
Then there was an accident where some guy got shot in the stomach and it all came to an abrupt end.

I can remember one big competition that had a lot of French and Italian spearos competing. I can’t remember the exact details but one diver managed to shoot two double figure pollock both on the same breath by reloading his gun in 60’ feet of water in a strong tide.

 

[popgun pete]

Nemrod had a slightly smaller 3 window mask the "Denia". I ordered one from the catalogue, but despite the claim of a reduced size it was like diving with a bucket on your head. The other drawback was internal reflection from the glass as the side windows were slightly angled. US Divers made a better version, but despite enquiries the local importer refused to bring one in. Years later I tried the Farallon Prismatic, I liked it so much I owned two, replacing the orange frame one with a blue frame. The black neoprene bodies got soft with oil absorption (off your skin) which spelled the end of them after 5 or 6 years.

 

[DRW]

Nemrod had a slightly smaller 3 window mask the "Denia". I ordered one from the catalogue, but despite the claim of a reduced size it was like diving with a bucket on your head. The other drawback was internal reflection from the glass as the side windows were slightly angled. US Divers made a better version, but despite enquiries the local importer refused to bring one in. Years later I tried the Farallon Prismatic, I liked it so much I owned two, replacing the orange frame one with a blue frame. The black neoprene bodies got soft with oil absorption (off your skin) which spelled the end of them after 5 or 6 years.

Nemrod Denia:

Farallon Prismatic:

 

[foxfish]

Yeah i am fairly sure the Denia was the other version i was thinking of, Nemrod equipment was popular at the time.

 

[foxfish]

I think the guy who ran the spearfishing side of Fletchers was called Lou Lihou, he was a national bench press champion and well known free diver.
Lou moved away to become a pro freediver. He was used on a front cover of a high profile magazine, pictured standing on the bow of a sunken ship in the Caribbean while scuba dives swam around him.

 

[DRW]

Thanks, guys, for adding personal recollections and experiences to these relics of spearfishing past. Onwards now to Denmark, where Nauti Scope operated as a manufacturer of basic diving gear during the 1950s/1960s. There's little or nothing online about the firm on the Danish web, where I found one Danish diving equipment historian appealing for information about Nauti Scope, whose most famous product is probably the following "Svømme-Finner" designed by Denmark's answer to Jacques Cousteau, Jan Uhre:

"An unusual design" seems a bit of an understatement, what with each fin comprising a sheet of flexible rubber wrapped around the foot then laced up along the sole. This said, the British Dunlop Aquafort fin of the mid-1950s fitted roughly the same way, but without laces:

But I digress, because my intention in this post was to introduce the Nauti Scope de-luxe snorkel-mask fitted with a flexible hose:

This design too must be unique in that the flexible hose leading to the barrel and then the ball-valve of the snorkel proper actually emerges from the front of the mask lens. How this arrangement would have affected the wearer's field of vision isn't mentioned in the catalogue picture caption "Flexible special snorkel and saltwater-resistant metal rim (designed by engineer Jan Uhre)". Jan Uhre must have had an interesting eye for design. Note the extra strap around the top of the head to secure the snorkel, which would otherwise have flopped about, thanks to the corrugated rubber hose. And note too how the ear protectors seen on other manufacturers' masks have been replaced with a hood covering the head except for the face and incorporating internal ear cups. Anybody reluctant to use this de-luxe snorkel-mask could always use the standard Nauti Scope model:

Something of an anticlimax, perhaps, resembling as it does numerous other single-snorkel ball-valve models? We'll move on to Spain's old Nemrod snorkel-masks next time.

 

[marco15499]

Great thread!

 

[DRW]

Spain, ahoy! And we go straight to the country's best-known diving equipment company Nemrod, which designed, manufactured and marketed a dozen different snorkel-masks during its long twentieth-century history. We'll be focusing on just the two models that came fitted with a flexible hose: the Nemrod Haiti and the Nemrod Java. The Haiti first.

1950

The Spanish product description reads roughly as follows: "Model 2069. — ASTERIA HAITI model diving mask, fitted with metal security band, attached breathing tube and double valve system, designed for simultaneous nose and mouth breathing". "Asteria" is one of Nemrod's proprietary brand names.

So what we have here for the purpose of underwater vision is an oval glass lens retained in the rubber body of a diving mask and reinforced by a metal circumferential clamp with an adjustable top screw.

As for underwater inhalation and exhalation, the attached snorkel is topped with a ball-valve, which shuts off the air inlet when it drops below the surface of the water and which opens up the air inlet when it rises above the surface. Nose breathing is enabled by way of an aperture in the roof of the mask interior, a socket atop the mask exterior, a length of flexible corrugated hose, a length of light metal tubing and an atmospheric interface device with an acute-angle bend and a shut-off valve. Mouth breathing requires the use of a mouthpiece with a concertina neck leading in one direction to to a drain valve and in another to twin flexible corrugated hoses surrounding the lens-retaining metal clamp before entering the snorkel socket atop the mask exterior.

Quite an intricate device for underwater breathing and vision during the early 1950s, but not a unique concept for the Vilarrubis brothers Juan and Pedro who ran Nemrod and who came up with the following patent drawing from 1953:

The images from Spanish patent ES208755A1 entitled "Un aparato valvular perfeccionado" (an improved valvular device) and available for download at Espacenet, never made it to the factory, let alone the marketplace. Back soon to chronicle the further development of the Nemrod Haiti snorkel-mask.

 

[DRW]

Let's review how the Nemrod Haiti snorkel-mask fared before it ceased production in the mid-1960s:

1955

Spanish: "PS-2069. Lentes Asteria modelo Haití. Sistema de aspiración y respiración simultánea por nariz y boca. Boya con doble válvula que impide penetre agua en su interior".
Rough translation: "PS-2069. Asteria diving mask: Haiti model. System comes with drainage facility and the wherewithal to breathe simultaneously through the nose and the mouth. Double valve devices prevent water ingress".

The product description focuses on the valves fitted to the mask, which serve to drain off any water getting inside and to make it possible for the wearer to breathe orally and nasally at the same time.

1956

Spanish: "Lentes HAITI 493 Pts. Boya doble válvula. Aspiración y respiración simultánea nariz y boca".
Rough translation: "HAITI diving mask, 493 pesetas: Double valve device. Drainage facility and the wherewithal to breathe simultaneously through nose and mouth".

1957

Spanish: "LENTES HAITI. Modelo modernisimo con respirador acoplado. Ptas. 493'-".
Rough translation: "HAITI DIVING MASK. State-of-the-art model with breathing tube attached. 493 pesetas".

1961

Spanish: "PS/2069. — HAITI. — Con aro metálico de seguridad, respirador acoplado y sistema de doble boya, de respiración simultánea por nariz y boca".
Rough translation: "PS/2069. — HAITI. — Fitted with metal security band, attached snorkel and double valve system, for simultaneous breathing through the nose and mouth".

1964

Spanish: "PS/2069. — HAITI. — Con aro metálico de seguridad, respirador acoplado y sistema de doble boya, de respiración simultánea por nariz y boca".
Rough translation: "PS/2069. — HAITI. — Fitted with metal security band, attached snorkel and double valve system, for simultaneous breathing through the nose and mouth".

So the Nemrod Haiti never changed from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s. We'll look next at the Nemrod Java snorkel-mask, which was a simplified version of the Haiti.