"Vintage" snorkelling equipment - BritMarine

[Mr. X]

2 years ago I found my 30 year old "MADE IN ENGLAND" BritMarine fins. I was astounded to find they were still perfectly usable and in near new condition; some minor perishing/tears around stress points was easily fixed with superglue. The full-foot, black fins are distinctly short and flexible by modern standards. Unfortunately I have now, rather badly, camo'd them for spearfishing.

Anyway, this Friday evening, while clearing out my father's garage, I came across my first real mask & snorkel; the actual first set was the seaside gift shop standard orange set, with no nose clearing capability and a float on the snorkel to stop water getting in if you dived. I was surprised to see they are still useable - they are more than 30 years old and were stored for more than 20 years! A blue, stiff rubber, high volume, BritMarine mask with full oval glass (made in England). There is a little cylinder hole in the bottom of the mask which catches loose water -- I think some versions of the mask had a valve here (like those on some modern snorkels) & required a cross to be cut into the mask to allow the mask to be purged.

I was happy to see my old, black Typhoon plain-J snorkel (made in Italy). I might actually use the snorkel - it always worked well. It has a soft mouth-piece and J; the tube looks like it might be a tad narrower than modern spearo snorkels.

 

[island_sands]

oh James you are my hero !!!

 

[DRW]

Sadly, Haffenden Mouldings, the company that made Britmarine fins, masks and snorkels, is no more:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4764421.stm

I still have, and swim with, a pair of pale blue full-foot rubber Britmarine fins and they’re among the most comfortable fins I’ve ever tried. So much so that it’s easy to forget I’m wearing them. I used to have a matching Britmarine pale blue snorkel and oval mask of the same hue, complete with stainless steel band and screw, purchased at a car boot sale. Sadly, I lost both mask and snorkel in the rough waters of the North Sea a few months ago. I managed to get another light blue Britmarine snorkel with rubber mouthpiece via eBay and I’m hoping to acquire a matching replacement oval mask some time in the future.

Haffenden Moulding made inexpensive, colourful, rubber snorkelling gear throughout the 1960s and 1970s. I expect many British divers snorkelled with Britmarine equipment as youngsters during those decades. When plastic fins suddenly burst on to the scene, Haffenden jumped on the bandwagon and began manufacturing rather nondescript and uncomfortable plastic fins instead, which didn’t sell nearly as well as their earlier open-heel (Clipper) and full-foot (B101) rubber fins. They soon stopped making sub-aqua gear altogether.

I’m a big fan of vintage and retro snorkelling equipment. I started snorkelling in the early 1960s when full-foot fins and oval masks were standard gear. I’ve never seen any reason to change. After all, during that decade, plastic fins were meant for those who couldn’t afford rubber ones, while silicone masks were for people with allergies, not the general diving population. It’s interesting to observe how all-rubber full-foot fins have found a new lease of life nowadays as swim training aids. They are still manufactured in as many as thirteen countries: USA, Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Japan.

 

[yaffle]

Nice tread!
I recently found this one on the attic.......Never used it as far as i can remember though....

Yaffle

 

[DRW]

Here's another snorkel mask combo that's still in production, the 107S model manufactured by Majorca Sub in Greece:



And yes, this is a very nice thread.

 

[Mr. X]

Those combined mask-snorkel are amazing! (Clearing any water that gets past the float might be interesting.)

DRW,
I was hoping that somebody who knew about BritMarine might respond but you surpassed my expectations with that detailed response. I haven't decided what to do with this stuff yet but I might well contact you in the near future about the mask -- I can't think of better home for it. It's destiny .

(Couldn't find hot water bottles in the US - untapped market? Unfortunately, making things with the quality to last decades probably undermines the business, unless you can grow the market or keep innovating so people want to upgrade. We are rapidly becoming a country that doesn't make things. Pity.)

 

[DRW]

Glad my response about Britmarine met expectations, Mr. X! A few facts more while I have my memory cap on:

W. W. Haffenden and Co of Sandwich, Kent, later known as Haffenden Mouldings, first called their line in sub-aqua products "Submarine", switching to "Britmarine" in the late 1950s or so.

The company sold its sub-aqua gear through many outlets, including Woolworths, and later, Boots.

The firm made fins, masks and snorkels for other companies, e.g. Jantzen, Woolworths, Lillywhites. They sometimes varied in appearance from the original Haffenden products and had different model names, e.g. "Speedswim" instead of "Clipper".

Although the TV series Sea Hunt was made in America, the spin-off "King Neptune" line of subaqua products endorsed by the lead actor Lloyd Bridges, playing Mike Nelson, was made in England by Haffenden.

In the 1970s, Haffenden had two of its full-foot fin models manufactured in Italy. One of these models closely resembled the Champion Hydromatic, right down to its closed toes.

In the 1960s Haffenden made three types of fin: the open-heel adjustable Clipper with its corrugated blade, available at various times in blue, green, yellow and red; the open-toe Penguin with its heelpiece, corrugated blade and adjustable heel and instep straps, available in blue and yellow; and the full-foot, open toe Neptune (later B101), available at various times in red, yellow, dark blue, light blue and black. All fins were sized up to UK 10, but a larger size, 11-12, was added later in the case of the Neptune/B101.

I wish the Haffenden company had some of this information on a website somewhere, but firms are usually in the business of making money, not history.

 

[DRW]

As for combined mask-snorkels, they appear to have been around since the early 1950s. You are right about some period masks being manufactured with a "cylinder hole" ready for a snorkel to be attached later. As a teenager my parents gave me a Typhoon Super Star oval mask for my birthday and the snorkel-ready cylindrical hole was at the top, next to the stainless-steel screw holding the metal frame in place. Here’s a picture from a 1960s Typhoon catalogue:



The Historical Diving Society of Italy has an article by Fabio Vitale on its website at

http://www.hdsitalia.com/articoli/20_attrezzature.pdf

featuring no fewer than seven combined mask-snorkels from the 1950s:

 

[DRW]

I think you're right, I haven't seen hot water bottles in the United States, even in Minnesota in the wintertime, when they would really serve a purpose! I've seen them in Canada, though, or more precisely 1990s Toronto, when I found hand-sized hot water bottles in "Honest Ed's" famous bargain store. It does get pretty cold north of the 49th parallel...

I have to agree with you too about us becoming a country that doesn't make things any more. We're great at inventing things but sometimes hopeless at marketing them. And sometimes we live up to the shopkeeper's non-sequitur: "You're the umpteenth customer to ask for that today, but there's no demand for it". A good example is the Dunlop company, which wouldn't make and sell subaqua gear after World War II because they had decided that there was "no call for it in peacetime". They failed to appreciate the huge demand for recreational equipment in the 1950s after years of wartime deprivation.

 

[Mr. X]

...A good example is the Dunlop company, which wouldn't make and sell subaqua gear after World War II because they had decided that there was "no call for it in peacetime". They failed to appreciate the huge demand for recreational equipment in the 1950s after years of wartime deprivation.

I knew a Scottish computer hardware engineer in the early 80s that thought home computers were a stupid fad "what possible use are they". He had a point...but boy was he wrong about it being a passing fad! (Like the Post Office executive that thought the telephone was a fad "we have plenty of messenger boys"). He was also greatly underwhelmed by an 18-speed blender he saw in America "what possible use...etc." - I think he was right on that one, the American's have had powerful single-speed, glass and chromed steel Oysterizer blenders since the 1950's, that could blend anything. Apparently you don't need speeds if you have that much power! One switch: On/Off/Pulse. The best ones are still very similar to the originals - brilliant product (cheap in the US, horrendously expensive in the UK).

 

[DRW]

Yes, I remember one mainframe computer expert of my acquaintance dismissing home computers at "toys" when they first appeared in the early 1980s. When I recently reminded him of his remark, he claimed he couldn't remember making it. In the early days, IBM itself believed that there was a tiny world market for its mainframes.

That's a great story about the Oysterizer blender and I'm sure one aspect of its success is the classic simplicity of its controls. It doesn't need to be "improved upon" and it's a ringing endorsement of the principle "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I despair about the gimmicky and unnecessary complexity of many modern devices, e.g. video and TV remote controls. Perhaps that's why I prefer traditional snorkelling gear made of hardwearing materials and classically designed to stand the test of time.

 

[Mr. X]

DRW, yes remote controls are a pet peeve. In the US, I bought a Sony TV & video so the remotes would be the same & compatible. Unfortunately the buttons on both were used for completely different things - there was no consistency at all! (I don't buy Sony anymore).

Island Sands -- no wettie. This was England in the early 70s when boys weren't allowed to feel the cold! We were hard back then* - like a nation of Yorkshiremen! Only scuba divers had wetties (and before that they wore wool -- no kidding, I was reading about the pioneer scuba divers in Weymouth - it was good enough for Mallory on Everest).

(Of course, the orange wetsuit jacket is hanging up, ready for action ).

*Check out the movies "Kes" and "Scum" for a taste of that era (grim).

 

[Pastor]

Island Sands -- no wettie.

Awww, you southern boys miss all the fun! :chatup

 

[island_sands]

rofl well how about some photos from the 70s? Alison wrote a brilliant article on diving all those years ago, why don't you write one too?

 

[Mr. X]

rofl well how about some photos from the 70s? Alison wrote a brilliant article on diving all those years ago, why don't you write one too?

That would be funny. Perhaps there is a photo of me & big bro. on holiday. I didn't scuba dive, just learnt the basics of snorkelling from a local guy (he was a qualified diving instructor - pretty unusual in those days, so far from the sea). The only story that springs to mind isn't suitable for young ladies like yourself Island Sands.

For some reason scuba & Africa/safari were big themes in the '70s. As Alison mentions, Jacques was on TV a lot (excellent), Tarzan, Cowboy in Africa (fantastic program), Daktari, Marine Boy (got to get me some of those oxygen tabs, mm, mmm), Stingray, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, James Bond, ... Now, if somebody had thought to combine the two it would have been a sure win ("Quick, get me Miles on the phone!..."Chronicles of a Bluewater Hunter"...).

[I like the bit where Alison was using equipment that was almost immediately banned on safety grounds!rofl Those were the days my friend...]

 

[island_sands]

oh Stingray...! i loved that programme. Haven't seen Marine Boy (sounds like something metrosexual from the sea )

Now about those stories from the past not suitable for my ears....

 

[Pastor]

Voyage to the bottom of the sea used to rock my boat! come to think of it their boat used to rock a lot too rofl

I cannot imagine Ali with a twinset, she was only small. She must have looked like someone with a pair of nuclear reactors on her back rofl