Bob Travis Keagle...Early Minnesota Diver

[Bryan]

Here is some information from Jerry Lang. I'm going to share photos here with a link to the message board they are posted on. These are some of the best vintage diver photos I've seen and I'll try and add a few more each day.

http://www.mnscuba.com/forum/showthread ... 5#pid40955

Bob Travsi Keagle
Travis was to my knowledge the first active helmet,rebreather, scuba diver in Minnesota,he started in the late 30's and this is documented.
He wrote an article about making a shallow water helmet from an old hot water heater in 1937.
Also according to his son he used and aviators mask and pure oxygen to a safe depth of 15feet,he also made a rebreather and used it to recover a pair of false teeth in Lake Calhoun circa 1949.

Travis diving was an a underwater and surface photographer and in the early days formed Minnesota Skindivers club,had a dive shop and later moved to Orlando Florida.
Lots of the early scuba was converted aviation regulators and surplus bushed tanks.

Please look at the vintage photos his son was kind enough to provide.
Jerry

[lakediver]

Incredible images! Got to love those Minnesotans. My uncle gave me my first scuba diving experience and he still snowboards in his 80s. Is that a Desco full face mask attached to a cylinder in one of the photos?

[Britmarine]

I agree, wonderful pictures, and there are 5 pages of them, starting at
http://www.mnscuba.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=6159
I've seen this one before, somewhere else:


A couple of pictures of Bob diving in Lake Minnetonka in 1952 are currently available on eBay:



And here are a couple from George Bronson-Howard's Handbook for Skin Divers:


Bob's drysuit looks like a front-entry Healthways Carib:


I've only been to Minnesota once in wintertime. One of the lakes in Minneapolis was being used for ice-skating by scores of people in a scene reminiscent of a Charles Dickens novel. The next lake had several huts on it, each manned by a group of old guys ice-fishing after drilling a hole in the surface with an auger. I expect their hip flasks would have been well used considering the ambient temperature! I certainly wasn't tempted to try any ice diving or snorkelling of my own! One summer I went to Lake Minnetonka, which seems to have been Bob's "stamping ground." Lovely spot. I only found out when I got there that the lake had lent its name to Tonka model cars and trucks, which I remember being on sale in UK toy stores in my youth.

[swimjim]

Great photo's! The photo of the man with the DESCO triangle FFM was in the book "Shallow water Diving and Spear Fishing" Kendal and Sheck 1954. A great over all resource for diving of all kinds in it's day.

Jim

[SeaHuntJerry]

yes from the Cow's mouth

Incredible images! Got to love those Minnesotans. My uncle gave me my first scuba diving experience and he still snowboards in his 80s. Is that a Desco full face mask attached to a cylinder in one of the photos?

[Britmarine]

Great photo's! The photo of the man with the DESCO triangle FFM was in the book "Shallow water Diving and Spear Fishing" Kendal and Sheck 1954. A great over all resource for diving of all kinds in it's day.

Jim

Indeed, on page 92 of the 1954 version of Shallow Water Diving and Spearfishing by Hilbert Schenk Jr. and Henry Kendall, Cambridge, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press:

Thank you for identifying which book was the source.

[Bryan]

More photos

[Britmarine]

Great pictures! Here's a one-page illustrated article by Robert Keagle written for the November 1956 edition of Skin Diver, an issue dedicated to Exposure Suits:

[Bryan]

Bob Travis Keagle......Early Minnesota Diver
http://ow.ly/RGot6

[captain]

Thanks, some great old pics.

[Bryan]

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[Bryan]

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[Bryan]

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[swimjim]

I see he dove a Dacor Dial a Breath under the ice. He substituted to USD hoses just like I do now.