Medi historical article

[Ron]

Gentlemen,

A really nice article on Medi gear has been hosted on the site. Thanks to Franz and Rob for making this happen!

http://www.vintagedoublehose.com/vdh-ma ... istory.pdf

[Britmarine]

This is a fascinating article, Ron, and I really like the way the history of the company is set against the background of the history of the German Democratic Republic. I visited the GDR for two weeks during the 1970s, partly to add to the cultural knowledge I needed in my full-time job as a secondary school German teacher and partly because I wanted to experience life in the country whose education system I was studying for a part-time Masters degree. The article brought back many memories, particularly because I bought a copy of the GDR diving magazine "Poseidon" during my time there.

Just to complement what's in the article, there are other national precedents for medical companies making diving gear. Alfaplastik of Moscow makes diving fins as well as syringes and medical tubing, website at http://www.alphaplastic.ru/

Speaking of diving fins, Medi of Leipzig made the Pinguin dry suit as well as breathing gear, but it didn't make fins and masks. The GDR firm responsible for manufacturing the latter was Guwelin of (East) Berlin, a general rubber goods company. Their flagship fins, named "Naiade", have something of a cult status in modern Germany and they can still be obtained from Hungary, where the original GDR moulds were sent and manufacturing resumed. Currently named "Najade Standard", the Hungarian versions, which are still in production, are now the only all-rubber full-foot fins to be approved for international finswimming competitions. I have a pair which I occasionally use for North Sea snorkelling:

They're a great fit and move well through the water.

David

[Ron]

That's very interesting David. I wonder if I can find a pair and purchase them?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Britmarine]

If you want to purchase a newly manufactured pair of Najade Standards, Ron, they're available from:
http://www.najadefins.org/products/en/4 ... -fins.html
I bought mine (size 4, the largest size available to accommodate my US shoe size 12 feet) from this site, using PayPal. They're not cheap, but they arrived very quickly. As you can see, they're recommended for "classical scuba diving" (by which I presume they mean vintage diving) as well as pool training.

Some used original, GDR-made, Naiades come up now and again on German eBay, where they go at lower prices. However, many German sellers won't sell outside German-speaking Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and want paying by bank transfer rather than PayPal. I've just done a search of ebay.de, but nothing emerged in the way of Naiade fins.

[Hydromat]

Hi, nice to find my article here.
MEDI is more than fins, you know it. This is only the short version of the MEDI story.
Here you can read the complete story:

http://www.altes.tauchen.seveke.de/alte ... hichte.pdf

If there are any questions,...
Lothar

[adairrj]

Hi, nice to find my article here.
MEDI is more than fins, you know it. This is only the short version of the MEDI story.
Here you can read the complete story:

http://www.altes.tauchen.seveke.de/alte ... hichte.pdf

If there are any questions,...
Lothar

Hi Lothar,
Congrats about your amazing article!

[Hydromat]

May be these two appendixes are interesting for you,
I hope that's comprehensible without speaking german.

The item numbers of diving products from MEDI

http://www.seveke.de/tauchen/altes/mlw/ ... ummern.pdf

and the periods of production of the different versions

http://www.seveke.de/tauchen/altes/mlw/ ... uchger.pdf

Lothar
--
www.altes.tauchen.seveke.de