ScubaPro Co-Founder Dick Bonin Passes Away

[luis]

From:
https://www.deeperblue.com/36449-2/

By John Liang -
December 11, 2015



ScubaPro co-founder Dick Bonin has died, the company announced this week.
ScubaPro co-founder Dick Bonin has died at the age of 85, the company announced this week.
Bonin led Scubapro for almost 30 years, according to the book “Diving Pioneers: An Oral History Of Diving In America.”
He also served in the U.S. Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams and helped found what was then called the Diving Equipment Manufacturers Association. In 1992, Bonin was inducted into DEMA’s Hall of Fame.
Joe Stella, group vice president for diving at ScubaPro, said of Bonin:
“The passing of Dick Bonin, our founder, saddens us all. If it were not for Dick’s hard work and vision, ScubaPro would not exist.
“Not only did he form a brand, he formed an industry — most of us are diving thanks to him. Many of us at ScubaPro have been able to spend time with Dick — some of us were even lucky to work side by side with him.”

http://www.scubadiving.com/dick-bonin-c ... bapro-dies

[Bronze06]

What a real innovator and general all around real American. He will be sorely missed. We owe it to him to carry on and continue to promote vintage diving, both single and double hose. My first set of REAL fins were Jet Fins. Man and the first brand new reg set I ever owned was a MK II with R190s, I still have that set. it is sad that he is gone , but look at what a life he led and what he's left behind! Hand Salute!!

[Britmarine]

During the pioneer era of skin diving, he was both an innovator and an entrepreneur, who recognised possibilities where other people could not see them and quickly translated concepts into products. Here's Dick Bonin explaining during an interview with Fathoms magazine how he invented the Bello-Flex snorkel:

"We brought out the first flexible snorkel. In Chicago, they used to sell surplus aircraft parts so I took a hose and put it on a snorkel tube, and I never forgot that. Swimaster priced it at $2.95 and everyone said we were out of our minds, but we sold them like crazy." Its historical significance lies in it being the first snorkel to feature a flexible corrugated rubber hose ending in a mouthpiece that dropped out of the way when it was not in use, a feature popular with scuba divers who found that a regular snorkel's hard bend could catch on underwater obstacles or get in the way of the scuba mouthpiece.

Read the interview in full at http://web.archive.org/web/200412080939 ... view.pl/9/

[Bryan]

Wonder if this is a copy or someone with the same idea? I dont know the date of this ad but looks late 50s early 60s.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

[Britmarine]

That's one of the ads in the Early Manufacturers and Retailers section of the Skin Diving History website:

Looks like Osborn and Ulland of Seattle stocked the item in their inventory. The Bello-Flex seems to have been carried by many other outlets:




When I searched the Skin Diving History site, all the results came up with a caption dating the Bello-Flex snorkel as 1959.

Dick Bonin's flexible-hose snorkel design is still available nowadays. I've identified 5 in the original configuration:

Escualo S22


Francis Corrugato


Majorca sub Spiral

07-004.jpg

Seac Corrugato


Sommap Annele

Annele3.jpg