Diving Pioneers - An Oral History of Diving in America

[eskimo3883]

I have been reading Diving Pioneers- An Oral History of Diving in America by Eric Hanauer. It was published in 1994 but I only recently heard of it. It is mostly interviews of those early US divers alive and available for interviews with the author. Very enjoyable book. Filled with many stories as told by the folks that were their. For example, Glen McCall speaks towards the first aqualung dive in the USA (Cousteau, Rene Bussoz, Bob Vincent, Glen McCall and Johnny Weismuller). Apparently Rene Bussoz and Tarzan were long time buds. I picked my slightly used copy off Amazon.com for less than ten bucks.

[VINTAGESCUBA]

A lot of the info in that book is way off.I think Sam Miller would tell you the same also.

[eskimo3883]

The author introduced the book with a warning that over years memories drift a bit so that even the folks that were their remember things with a bit of poetic license but there are few left who can set the stories straight. I would love to hear from Dr. Miller or anyone else who can point out a few errors.

[capn_tucker]

The author introduced the book with a warning that over years memories drift a bit so that even the folks that were their remember things with a bit of poetic license but there are few left who can set the stories straight. I would love to hear from Dr. Miller or anyone else who can point out a few errors.

Mask & Flippers has some interesting stories about the early days as well. In it Bill Barada talks about getting his first Aqua-Lung in 1949, without any instruction other than the salesman saying it was "foolproof, just put it on and breathe". Bill then talks about how he nearly drowned on that first dive. Good stuff!