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DaleC
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First Name: Dale
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Learning stategies of early British Columbia Divers

Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:47 pm

I happened upon this PDF file and thought I would pass it along to any other interested parties. It is a Masters Thesis in Adult Education written by John Cuthill in 1997. In it the author interviewed a number of early BC divers (1951-1957) to try to determine what strategies they used to learn how to SCUBA dive in the absense of formal classes or instructors (the first SCUBA classes began in 1957 in our province). It is a long read (about 170 pages) much of which has to do with the "methodology" aspect of thesis writing, but the interview portion is very interesting from a historical perspective and covers skin diving, rebreather use and the introduction of the "aqualung". It provides a unique slice through an isolated community of divers and tracks their adaption of gear and techniques from primitive goggling to the creation of the first dive club in BC.

This is a link to the abstract page. In it is a section called "files in this item" where you can click a link to open an Abobe PDF file (12.67Mb).

https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/6384

If someone can let me know if the link works I would appreciate it.
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eskimo3883
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Re: Learning stategies of early British Columbia Divers

Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:07 pm

Hi,

I managed to download the file but the link took a very long time to come up
(close to 20 min). I Downloaded the file rather then opened the file directly to avoid a time out.
“A skin diver is a fellow who pulls on a pair of fancy swimming trunks, some rubber fins, a diving mask and canvas gloves, then fills his lungs with air and noses down into the ocean looking for two fisted trouble.”

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eskimo3883
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13 year old Phil Nuytten

Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:19 pm

Here is a paragraph from the download...

Phil Nuytten, as I remember was introduced to me by Jim. This extraordinary young man with a passion for diving that was unreal. He wanted to join the club but as Jim advised us he was far too young, for we had a (I think a 17-18 years) min age for joining and Phil was 14 {actually he was thirteen, JBC}. I remember going to the Chilco Grill for dinner and sitting and having coffee with Phil’s mother and sister while Jim conducted the interview and explained the age minimum. “He either joins your club or he will end up in jail” was the answer. An emergency meeting was held with Pat and being a cop he understood the true meaning of what was being asked of us. Phil joined the club and his story is very well documented.
“A skin diver is a fellow who pulls on a pair of fancy swimming trunks, some rubber fins, a diving mask and canvas gloves, then fills his lungs with air and noses down into the ocean looking for two fisted trouble.”

User avatar
DaleC
Master Diver
Posts: 497
Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:46 pm
First Name: Dale
Location: Left Coast, Canada
Contact: Website

Re: Learning stategies of early British Columbia Divers

Sun Jan 23, 2011 3:48 pm

It does take a long time to download as it's about 160 pages of text.

I liked that section. How about Fred Rogers making his own tanks out of airforce fire extinguishers and sending one shooting out the garage and across the street. He is a character I'd like to talk to (and Phil of course).
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#20 International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons

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