David Wilson
Contributor
On to a new thread, this one about production of fins, masks and snorkels in a landlocked Central European country that became a Soviet satellite after the Second World War and eventually separated to become the Czech Republic and Slovakia after the demise of the USSR. For the information I intend to post here I am indebted to a couple of Czech websites:
Anyway, let's get started on the gear. There's not a lot to review, which is why I don't intend to have separate threads for Czechoslovak fins, masks and snorkels. This posting will be about fins and my online source of pictures can be found at VSC - sbírka potápěčské techniky.
Vlastimil Hrůza's open-heel fins
The inspiration was the films of Hans Hass, whose swim fin design was originally manufactured by the Semperit company in his native country of Austria:
Vlastimil Hrůza (1927 - 2012) from Kladno was the remarkable man who came up with black and dark green Czech versions of Hass's design. They are illustrated in the first three images of this posting. They were the first fins to be made to a professional standard by an individual in Czechoslovakia. According to Dušan Šuráni, "Vlastimil byl šikovný a zručný a dokázal si vyrobit formu na ploutve" (Vlastimil was clever and skilful, and he managed to make a mould for fins). He manufactured the fins using machinery at the Kadno KABLO works. The fins, which mainly came in black, were reserved for his friends.
The Kladno diving club's "O nás" web page tells us a little more about Vlastimil Hrůza (above) and the diving equipment he designed and produced. We learn there that Vlastimil was employed as a cable repairman in the KABLO Kladno cable factory (below):
We also learn that the fin mould he designed was constructed at the Tauber foundry and the cable factory provided him with the wherewithal to press the fins, which came with a strap, but without a heel, in one size only. In the circumstances, Czech divers had no alternative but to make their own gear, because importing fins from the West in the early 1960s would not have been a priority for cash-strapped East European economies, while both the USSR and its satellite countries manufactured and marketed little underwater equipment of their own back then for the recreational market. On the positive side, the nationalised companies of Czechoslovakia in general, and the Kladno Kablo factory in particular, provided their employees not only with wages but also with social facilities such as sports clubs, which is why Vlastimil received the backing of his factory when he used their machines to make diving gear for his comrades. The factory also enabled the divers of Kladno to make contact with East German divers, who bartered the underwater products of their own country for goods made in Czechoslovakia.
So far as I am aware, Vlastimil's one-size-fits-all open-heel fins with their rubber or wire straps were the only fins ever made on Czechoslovak soil. We'll move on next to Czechoslovak-made diving masks.
- Dušan Šuráni's "Vintage Scuba Collection" website at VSC - sbírka potápěčské techniky. As the website title suggests, this is the labour of love of a collector and historian of underwater swimming equipment in Europe and contains data about gear manufactured both within what was then Czechoslovakia and beyond its territorial borders.
- "Sportovních potápěči Kladno" at Aktuality | Sportovní potápěči Kladno. This website, whose title translates roughly to "Sports divers of Kladno", focuses on Czechoslovakia's first diving club in the Central Bohemian city of Kladno. There's an excellent history of the club's beginnings and the emergence of home-made diving gear in the section entitled "O nás" (About us) at O nás - Sportovní potápěči Kladno | Sportovní potápěči Kladno.
Anyway, let's get started on the gear. There's not a lot to review, which is why I don't intend to have separate threads for Czechoslovak fins, masks and snorkels. This posting will be about fins and my online source of pictures can be found at VSC - sbírka potápěčské techniky.
Vlastimil Hrůza's open-heel fins
The inspiration was the films of Hans Hass, whose swim fin design was originally manufactured by the Semperit company in his native country of Austria:
Vlastimil Hrůza (1927 - 2012) from Kladno was the remarkable man who came up with black and dark green Czech versions of Hass's design. They are illustrated in the first three images of this posting. They were the first fins to be made to a professional standard by an individual in Czechoslovakia. According to Dušan Šuráni, "Vlastimil byl šikovný a zručný a dokázal si vyrobit formu na ploutve" (Vlastimil was clever and skilful, and he managed to make a mould for fins). He manufactured the fins using machinery at the Kadno KABLO works. The fins, which mainly came in black, were reserved for his friends.
The Kladno diving club's "O nás" web page tells us a little more about Vlastimil Hrůza (above) and the diving equipment he designed and produced. We learn there that Vlastimil was employed as a cable repairman in the KABLO Kladno cable factory (below):
We also learn that the fin mould he designed was constructed at the Tauber foundry and the cable factory provided him with the wherewithal to press the fins, which came with a strap, but without a heel, in one size only. In the circumstances, Czech divers had no alternative but to make their own gear, because importing fins from the West in the early 1960s would not have been a priority for cash-strapped East European economies, while both the USSR and its satellite countries manufactured and marketed little underwater equipment of their own back then for the recreational market. On the positive side, the nationalised companies of Czechoslovakia in general, and the Kladno Kablo factory in particular, provided their employees not only with wages but also with social facilities such as sports clubs, which is why Vlastimil received the backing of his factory when he used their machines to make diving gear for his comrades. The factory also enabled the divers of Kladno to make contact with East German divers, who bartered the underwater products of their own country for goods made in Czechoslovakia.
So far as I am aware, Vlastimil's one-size-fits-all open-heel fins with their rubber or wire straps were the only fins ever made on Czechoslovak soil. We'll move on next to Czechoslovak-made diving masks.
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I'll move on soon to another Czechoslovak-made mask, the next one dating from the 1970s.
