Farallon Snorkel Wanted!!

[icarus pacific]

OK, I'm going to milk this e-technology for all it's worth...

I'm looking for a large bore snorkel made by Farallon, an outfit long out of business. Oceanic bought them and 86'd most of the ideas which were pretty cutting edge at the time. Anyway, FArallon made a large bore, bent tube, adjustable mouthpiecew/ bite inserts that is just dakine freediving unit!! I've been usung one for going on 20 years and am looking for another. Most of the snorkels I see these days belong in the toy aisles. They originally came with orange moldable inserts on the teeth tabs, and a tri color stripe-tape on the top of the tube. The elbow can be rotated for a more streamlined fit. I don't need the stripes, the box or the owner's STD tests, but the bite tabs can be re-molded. I'm hurtin' here kids!!

Any info would be supremely appreciated and I'm paying CASH!

All that being said, let me also use this site to express my appreciation to those here and abouts that are doing what they can to maintain and forward our sport, who help eachother with info and unserstand what being in the blue is all about. These times are strange and fragile and nowhere else is this made evident than off the beach. Happy holidays to those that can celebrate, best wishes and peace to those that can't.

sven

 

[freediver48]

Hi I-P,

What is the bore on the tube? I am also looking for a snorkel that has more flow. This might be the place to start the customs. One with a molded in elbow might be the way to go, no need to tape the junction to seal it.

Thanks for your wise words,

Doug

 

[Bill]

best snorkel

Hey Sven.
I thought that I was the only one. Would you believe that I lost my spare while scuba diving, on my only tank dive from 1990-2000. What a price to pay. I won't make that misteak again.
It's a little sad to realise what has disappeared forever. I think of the Calif Dept. of Fishy Games throwing out fifty years of priceless data that was stored on the wrong medium for their new 'Bill Gates' system back in the 70's.
With the new techniques, I don't care as much about big bore but, comfort is where it's at and fit = comfort. Buildgoodsnorkels.com sounds like an idea who's time has come. On second thought, when a piece of gear leaves the store it has already done what it was designed to do. If it never gets wet the manufacturer's liability is reduced.

Aloha
Bill

 

[freediver48]

Big Bores

Hi,

What were the Nemrod Urins (sp?) like? From what I have been able to find out they were quite large something like the Farallon.
A place to look might be the antique scuba sites.

Best wishes,

Doug

 

[icarus pacific]

antique!!??

Hey if those snorkels are antique, then was does that make me?:t

Seriously, that's just such a bummer Bill, losing that snorkel... I've got a friend that has one, that he found in the garbage, for chrissakes and won't part with it for $100. I agree that while techniques have changed and big bores aren't in fashion, it was a damn good unit.

I'm not familiar with Nemrod's snorkel, off the top of my head, Doug, but the Nemrod name goes waaay back. I look at ebay often but no luck. Any "antique" sites you're familiar with? I may call Oceanic to see if the tooling is still around... A lot of people have been successful with less

Don't even get me started with the Department of Fun & Games, Bill. Of course I call them a few other names that the acronym is appropo for...:duh

sven

 

[freediver48]

"Classic Divers"

Hi,

Falleron makes porta-subs now, but I sent them a note anyway, so we will see what if anything comes back. The anitque scuba site also got a note about the Falleron snorkel. They do have a Falleron mask, so perhaps a snorkel is not far behind. I ran into the site last year when I was trying to replace my U.S. Divers Mistral reg. which I very foolishly sold when Scuba Pro first came on the market with their first two stage reg. I still have my first Aqua-Matic, which was one of the first two stage single hose regs, but it was not a good reg. then and it is even worse now.

Best wishes,

Doug

 

[Bill]

antiques

Christmas morning trip down memory lane. Thanks guys. Guess what was stirred up?
AN 6004-1 Diluter Demand Oxygen Regulator.
I can't remember where I put my fins yesterday but I come up with a number that I haven't seen in almost 45 years. Did I get it right? That was the first regulator, built in the 30's, converted as shown in Popular Mechanics in the 40's. The worst regulator I ever used but still a thousand times safer than the 'beach ball and tomato can rebreather' and it always failed in free flow.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Bill

 

[freediver48]

antiques?

Hi,

You might find the following site interesting, but it does not reach as far back as Bill's memories.

http://vintagescubasupply.bizhosting.com/

Merry Christmas,

Doug

 

[icarus pacific]

Jeez Bill! You ARE older than dirt!!rofl I do remember that rig though it was a little before my time. Well OK a lot before my time. When I finally got decked out in my gear back in the day, the extent of my hi tech was a BC from Fenzy, with a bottle below it that you cracked to fill and you could breathe from it as well; a wetsuit from Imperial, their "turtle " fabric pre nylon 2 and Scubapro had just intro'd their Jet fins. I was the man!! And then Farallon started going "Star Wars" with their stuff. Being just down the road, I got to see some pretty wack stuff. Remember their fins with the stainless braces?

These days it's a 7mm Picasso commercial or a 7mm Mimetico, a Riffe with a length to suit the viz, a OMER Abyss mask, my Esclapaz open heel long fins and a Farallon snorkel on it's last legs. When I can tank, it's with pressed steel 80's, a Scubapro 20/250 DIN regulator and UK's Light Cannon, if I'm hunting, and with my Canon F1N/ Aquatica?Ikelite setup for photos... Now I'm just an older MAN!

Thanks Doug!! I sent mails to Oceanic, Farallon and the vintage gear site, so we'll see what goes... This is surprising and fun to know that there are others out there to remember this stuff with and have as a resource. 4months till ab season re opens. Tick, tick...

sven

 

[Bill]

OLD who me?

Hey Sven
What's this 'older than dirt' sh*t! I resemble that remark. My first Social Security check came before my first 150' dive but only by one month.
We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old.......................
I remember those fins, my ankles started to hurt just thinking about them.
Aloha
Bill

 

[freediver48]

compost

Hey,

Dirt isn't always old, it just looks that way. The US Govt. does freedom 65 right? Man, I'm totally impressed, 150 freedive post 65 wow, I'd be happy to be doing 150 on an open system!.

When I was trained in 1964, I had the option of doing rebreather training as well as scuba, but my instructor, an ex-navy diver, discouraged me because I was mostly interested in salvage diving below 40', so I took his advice, I kind of regret it now though. My first rig was a 82' US Coast Guard tank, a US Divers plastic back-pack, my Mistral and a totally horrible latex dry suit. My first wet suit I made from a kit from US Divers that was actually a bag of scraps. No bcs in those days, and air was really hard to come by. We had a slavage collective, my contribution was the Snake, a 30'x6'rum runner, it cost $500.00 and it would really go. We had a 24'x24' salvage barge that we made out oil barrels and wood. The rig was great, within the confines of Thunder Bay Michigan there were over 160 wrecks, lots of boiler tubes, capstains, and the like. Great Days! Thanks for stirring up the memories

Best wishes,

Doug

 

[Erik]

Hi Sven, I'm sorry I can't help with the Farralon, but I will tell you that I have just done a few days diving with my new OMER snorkle: the one you can tie in a knot. I have used around 15 different snorkles, and this one is the most comfortable, and has a big bore. If you don't get your Xmas wish, then maybe have a look at it?
Happy New Year,
Erik Y.

 

[icarus pacific]

tie it in a knot, tie in a bow...

Thanks Erik.
I was looking at the OMER the other day when I was getting lenses for my OMER mask, (see Bill, THAT"S getting old! ) and it looked to be a pretty good unit. But as Bill will attest also, that Farallon snorkel was and is da bomb! So I'm going to keep stopping at garage sales. It worked with my latest Riffe's.

Hey no disrespect Bill; besides after reading your comments in other threads, you come off as a legitimate and knowlegable guy with a sense of humor. And I was so enjoying my lone status...

Besides, if you can hit 150' and get something done, AND haul 150' back, well I don't give a sh*t how old you are, you've got grande's my man! You're not Bill as in Bill Ernst are you?

 

[freediver48]

Hi,

This what came back from Farallon.

Dear Mr. Morgan,

Unfortunately, I don't know of any existing Farallon snorkels. I
believe the tooling and drwaings for the snorkel were destroyed
several years ago.

Best regards,

Tom Deardorff
Farallon USA

We'll have to keep searching,

Doug

 

[Bill]

wrong Bill

I haven't seen him since the Catalina Nationals, '85 I think. I dove against him a few times. I'll just say that I had better luck when we raced bicycles about twenty years ago.
Thanks for the kind words. I wish everyone could lose the ten pounds, add ten meters to the depth and win a $10m lottery in '02.

Aloha
Bill

 

[icarus pacific]

That's the same reply that I recieved from Farallon, Doug. The guys probably thinking that he hasn't heard anything about olf Farallon stuff for 20 years and all of a sudden here's 2 guys calling... Maybe I can get a hold of some info from Oceanic and /or Tekna about Ralph Shamalin (sp?) who was the head cheese back then. The more I think about it, the more intrigued I am about re-introducing the damn thing. Seems like there are a few small time guys with one or two really great products that are making their monthly's.

I've got to think that the snorkel, like everything else Farallon put out, was not only pricey, but just too over the top for the market. Interesting how times change and snorkels are $40 and up. And being pretty extravagant with the corporate lifestyle and all, I can see where the Co went South.

I was there also in 85 Bill, albeit still diving novice. I had met Bill E. while further North at the CenCal meets, with me being a member of the now defunct Amphibians. I got a chance to dive back then with Terry and the clowns. Good times and they were way over the top back then in the 70's. Turns out that later Terry and I would meet at my fiberglass shop in Santa Barbara to have me re-do his boat and we went on and on... Of course now that he's acheived mythic status with his tuna and books and videos he doesn't know me from Adam. Fun crew though. Christ!, now I need a Prozac...:duh


sven

 

[Bill]

I remember that

Sven
Your post looked interesting. With a pot of Kona coffee I read it and drifted into day-dream land. What a trip. Thanks.
"I've got to think that the snorkel, like everything else Farallon put out, was not only pricey, but just too over the top for the market. Interesting how times change and snorkels are $40 and up."
I've got to think that it really isn't that good. Just head and shoulders above what's available for spearfishing. With a few changes and someone who can do an injection mold, we could make it way 'mo bettah'. I found a moldable mouthpiece at one of the local bubble-diver shops.
"I got a chance to dive back then with Terry and the clowns."
Seems to me it was Terry and the Pirates after what they did to Al Schneppershoff at the Leo Carillo nationals.
"Of course now that he's acheived mythic status with his tuna and books and videos he doesn't know me from Adam."
With a sharp guy like Terry, don't bet on it. He recognised me in the crowd last year after a decade. Even called me a Blue Water Hunter during the talk. It sure helped my status in the local dive club.
Aloha
Bill
P.S. I claim to be the only one to make 1000 crossings of the Santa Barbara channel and go diving, without a tank on board.

 

[icarus pacific]

Hey Bill,

I've probably got that many crossings but I had a compressor and hose on board for urchins, back when getting 17 cents a pound was big doings...

So what changes would you consider doing to the snorkel? After all my uh, life experiences, I'm involved and product design and getting input from others would be a great part of the process in determining the feasibility of a re-design/re-intro of the snorkel.

Got my first 10" ab off Leo Carillo. I'm going to try to make it up to Russian Gulch for a genuine couple of days off mid Jan and see whats living on the tops of the rocks there, these days. Got to get a couple of lings for the freezer. Life sounds pretty sweet there where you're at.

sven

 

[Bill]

design

Sven
We've got to get together. Go diving, then join Brian at BWH (5 minutes away) and tell lies about the good old days. 8-9" red abs from San Nic for $35 a dozen, would you believe?
It's real good here. Like Redford says in 'Spy Games', put away enough money to go some warm place to die. In twenty five years I'll be tired of this life style anyway.
Back to the snorkel;
Big bore tube into a mouthpiece with 1/3rd the cross section ???
Fancy 360 degree adjustable angle that you set once and lock ???
The big leap in engineering will come from some method to let the user custom fit the gear. Most divers today have never had a mask that fit properly. Have you ever used a shotgun with an adjustable stock? Keep adjusting until it shoots where you look. Deadly.
Meanwhile I'll keep my Farallon locked up and use it for spearfishing. Most of the serious freedive breathing is done on my back anyway.

Aloha
Bill

 

[freediver48]

Vintage scuba reply

Hi,

This is what came back from Vintage scuba.

Hi Doug;

Sorry but I don't have any in stock. Thanks for
writing....
Dan Barringer


--- Carol & Doug Morgan <morgancd@shaw.ca> wrote:
> Hi Dan,
>
> Do you have any of the big bore snorkels made by
> Farallon or the Nemrod Urin?
>
> Best wishes, and a happy holiday season to you,
>
> Doug Morgan,
> Lantzville, B.C.