Dennis the Divemaster,
Many, many years ago I began partipating in an activity called for lack of a descriptive name "goggleing," which later became skindiving and is now known as recreational diving. As the sport progressed I became a Magophile/Bibliophile of the sport and began my collecting over 65 years ago. a very brief summary is as fillows:
A complete bound set of "Skin Diver" magazine (1951 to it's demise) including every diving equipment catalog published and all Underwater Film Festival programs. This is the only set of its kind in existence any where in the world.
Complete bound sets of “Dive”, “NDA News”, American Scuba Diver”, Aquarius”, "Water World", "Underwater", "Fathom", "Sport Diving”, "Underwater Photographer",” California Diver,” “ Pacific Diver”, “SCUBA PRO Diving and Snorkeling”, “Diving and Snorkeling Quarterly” “Ocean Realm”, all of which are no longer published. Maintain and bind current sets of “Dive Training”, “Sport Diver”, Historical Diver” (USA), “Historical Diving Times” (UK), and “HDS Notizie” (Italy).
The only known complete set of “Pacific and Atlantic Underwater News”, published from 1966 to 1971. It was the first newspaper devoted entirely to the underwater world.
The largest and most complete set of civilian dive training manuals begining with the Spaco manual of 1949 to 1980.
All the USN diving manuals beginning with the original 1905 "Manual for Divers" to the USN's conversion to electronic format
I have collected and maintain an extensive 1500 plus volume diving library, the majority of which are rare out of print books. Many have been personally inscribed by the authors who were also friends and diving companions,in addition to being noted diving authorities.
A bound edition of James Dugan's 1948 "First of the menfish" which introduced J.Y. Cousteau and self contained diving to the US
In May 1996 I organized and hosted the very first US diving bibliophile meeting. It was attended by diving bibliophiles from the western US and via telephone from throughout the US and by letter from bibliophiles from across the world.
<<< Upon my demise the entire collection with be inherited by my son Dr. Sam IV, who is a NAUI (life) PADI instructor, Pro 5000 diver and an ER & Hyperbaric doctor. >>>
But I donot have an inscribed copy of your 65 page book SCUBA SNOBS!
The horror of it all..........
Dr. SDM
