Basic gear from the People's Republic of Bulgaria

[David Wilson]

A new thread focusing this time on the production of basic diving gear in Bulgaria during the era of the People's Republic [Bulgarian: Народна република България (НРБ)], which existed from 1946 to 1990.

Bulgaria is located in the eastern Balkans in Southeastern Europe:

According to People's Republic of Bulgaria - Wikipedia, the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) was ruled by the Communist Party of Bulgaria, which "modelled its policies after those of the Soviet Union, transforming the country over the course of a decade from an agrarian peasant society into an industrialised socialist society. In the mid 1950s and after the death of Stalin, conservative hardliners lost influence and a period of social liberalisation and stability followed under Todor Zhivkov (below). Varying degrees of conservative or liberal influence followed. After a new energy and transportation infrastructure was constructed, by 1960 manufacturing became the dominant sector of the economy and Bulgaria became a major exporter of household goods and later on computer technologies."

The PRB had sun, sea and sand in abundance, as its territory bordered on the waters of the Black Sea, whose northern coast was the vacation playground of the Soviet Union. During the 1970s, I was a member of a group of student visitors to the USSR and on our last night in what is now St Petersburg we decided to celebrate our visit with a party where the principal cocktail would be "screwdrivers", vodka mixed with orange juice. We had quite a time finding a store selling orange juice and when we eventually located one, the juice had been imported from Bulgaria, where the climate was warm enough to grow oranges.

Today's Republic of Bulgaria is a popular beach destination for tourists, including water sports enthusiasts. The many resorts on the country's Black Sea coastline have earned the collective nickname of "The Bulgarian Riviera" (below).

In my next message I will review the first of a series of fins manufactured in Bulgaria during the era of the People's Republic.

 

[David Wilson]

The first fin to be reviewed will be the PRB's distinctive and groundbreaking "Gigant" (Bulgarian: Гигант. English: Giant).

The Gigant fin

At http://zamoreto.com/удължените-плавници-българската-сл/ there is an online article full of interesting information about Gigant fins. Here is my very rough translation of the relevant portion of the article from the original Bulgarian text:

In 1959, DOSO (Voluntary Defence Assistance Organisation) in Burgas collaborated with the “Black Peak” company in Sofia to produce “Champion” and “Dolphin” fins. These fins featured during the first nationwide finswimming, underwater apnea and underwater orienteering competitions in 1960. In 1961 the Bulgarian national team consisting of Radan Nedialkov and Kanev Milen from Sofia, Kiril Lyaskov from Varna and Georgi Manolov from Burgas successfully participated in international underwater orienteering competitions in Alushta in Crimea (then USSR territory).

It is a little-known fact that we Bulgarians have given elongated fins a “fashionable” tone within Europe. One of Bulgaria’s underwater sports pioneers, the talented artist Alexander Denkov, took charge and designed a template for a “Giant” fin. Cast in clay and dental plaster, the fin featured a foot pocket based on the shape of the foot pockets of Cressi sub swim fins in Italy. The fin also came with an elongated blade. The DOSO diving equipment workshop in Burgas made the first pairs of “Giant” fins during the winter of 1962. They had an unusual shape for the time, their length being 63 cm. They were well received by scuba divers and particularly well by athletes.

Too soon, “Giant” fins became known as the fastest finishers in international competitions and they were in high demand. In 1963, the Central Committee of DOSO decided to transfer production of diving equipment from Burgas to Ruse, where the former naval arsenal used to operate a boat workshop now occupied by DOSO. The new unit was therefore renamed the “DOSO Diving and Boat Workshop”. So far so good, but sadly two of the trucks carrying machinery and equipment from Burgas to Ruse caught fire while crossing the Balkan Mountains. The “Giant” fin template melted. Alexander Denkov had to make a new one.

After these complex twists and turns at the end of 1963 and during the first half of 1964, therefore, Bulgaria began to produce elongated fins. They were much sought after by divers and athletes from all the socialist countries and five years on, by September 1968, they became a hit across Europe. When they went abroad, athletes in the national team brought two or three pairs with them to sell or exchange for compasses from Czechoslovakia or KI-11 or 13 compasses from Russia (USSR).

At the first European Underwater Sports Championship on Lake Maggiore in 1967, the Soviet team came equipped with Bulgarian “Giant” fins. This detail was mentioned in the Soviet magazine Спортсмен подводник (Underwater Sportsman) — “пришли длинные ласты” (long fins have arrived) — but there was no mention of where these fins came from, nor was there any indication that they were Bulgarian “Giant” fins. The Soviet team won the first European title. The Bulgarian team also performed successfully.

The following year, however, when the Second European Underwater Sports Championship took place in 1968 in Alushta, the host country’s athletes surprised us. They had made elongated fins with titanium strips — longer and lighter than “Giant” fins. They were difficult to swim with and required a long period of training, but the effect was very considerable. There were also elongated fins reinforced with fibreglass. As a matter of fact, V. Dubrovsky, an Estonian underwater swimmer, (reference another “Underwater Sportsman” contribution) was the first to create such fins. “Rondine Extra” fins, which were the finest fins of the Italian company Cressi sub, and which won the Europa Cup from 1956 to 1968, were beaten.

In 1970, “Cressi Sub” officially refused to participate in competitions with their fins. “Giant” fins were also losing ground. Straight after the Second European Championships in Alushta, interestingly, the Spanish company “Nemrod”, whose president captained the Spanish national team in the Championship back in 1969, introduced elongated fins without reinforcement.

As this posting is already quite long, I'll be devoting my next message as well to "Gigant" fins.

 

[David Wilson]

In the second message in this thread I posted an extract from Trayan Trajanov's online article "УДЪЛЖЕНИТЕ ПЛАВНИЦИ – БЪЛГАРСКАТА СЛЕДА" (Elongated fins – The Bulgarian connection), which originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of "DIVINGBG" magazine. I hope it was an instructive read, particularly to anyone interested in the history of competitive finswimming. I was impressed by the author's honesty, listing setbacks as well as triumphs, and illustrating the "do-it-yourself" ingenuity necessary in "eastern bloc" countries where hard currency was in short supply for importing sports equipment from the West. I particularly enjoyed the anecdote about the original "Gigant" fin mould being destroyed in a truck fire in the Balkan mountains and its painstaking recreation by the original artist-designer.

Anyway, let's have a look at several more images of "Gigant" fins:

and here's an illustration from the blog (http://patepis.com/?p=372) of a Bulgarian snorkeller holding what appear to be "Gigant" fins while vacationing in Croatia:

So, according to Trajanov's article, "Gigant" fins were 63 cm in length, extraordinarily long-bladed in comparison with other fins of the time. They were first manufactured in the winter of 1962 and went into mass production in early 1964. They were held in such esteem within the eastern bloc that Soviet finswimmers used them in international competitions without acknowledging their provenance.

Like most Soviet fins, the "Gigant" came with a closed heel and a closed toe. It must have been a very stiff fin to use, requiring strong leg muscles, if the reinforcements provided by the thick side rails and central rib are anything to go by. The blade terminated in a convex tip.

That's it for today, three postings this time instead of the usual one. In the next message in this thread I will move on to the "less competitive" fin models manufactured in the People's Republic of Bulgaria.

 

[David Wilson]

The previous messages in this thread have focused on the "Gigant" long-bladed fin, its semi-military pedigree and its international use in competitive finswimming during the 1960s. Other fins were manufactured in the Bulgarian People's Republic for leisure purposes, however. The main, and perhaps the sole, manufacturer of such fins was Hemus (Хемус). The Bulgarian edition of Wikipedia has a brief article about Hemus at ТПК Хемус – Уикипедия with no equivalent in English, so here is a rough translation: "The manufacturing cooperative "Hemus" is a cooperative in Sofia, (the capital of) Bulgaria. Its address is Sofia 1220, ul. "Prof. Ivan Georgov" 1B. The cooperative was established in 1924. It is one of the oldest Bulgarian producers of gifts, children's games, household goods, Christmas tree decorations and martenitsi."

In case you're wondering what "Martinitsi" (pictured above) are, another Wikipedia article provides the following explanation: "A 'Martinitsa' is a small piece of adornment, made of white and red yarn and usually in the form of two dolls, a male and a female. Martenitsi are worn from March 1 until the wearer first sees a stork, swallow, or blossoming tree (or until late March)". So there.

"Hemus" products, such as the set of old pencils above, often appear on Bulgarian online auction sites. It is worthy of note that the "cooperative" status of "Hemus" dates from the inter-war years. It wasn't, therefore, a consequence of nationalisation during the Communist era of the People's Republic.

The Wikipedia article about "Hemus" fails to mention that the Bulgarian cooperative also produced basic items of underwater swimming equipment. I will review the first in a series of "Hemus" fins in my next message.

 

[David Wilson]

This posting reviews the Delfin (Bulgarian: "Делфин". English: "Dolphin") swimming fin made by the "Hemus" cooperative in the Bulgarian capital Sofia during the era of the People's Republic. If you have read my other threads, you may recall that there was a Soviet fin whose Russian name also meant "Dolphin", namely "Дельфин". Have you noticed the difference between the spelling of "Делфин" (Bulgarian) and "Дельфин" (Russian)? Yes, it's a difference of a single character ("ь"), the Russian word has a "soft sign" in the middle. Although Bulgarian and Russian share the Cyrillic alphabet, there are both subtle and significant differences between the languages despite their superficial similarity.

"Hemus" Delfin fin

The third image offers a close-up of the markings on this closed-heel, open-toed fin, which came with thick side-rails for reinforcement and whose blade featured radiating lines and a concave tip. Starting from the bottom, you can see the words "ТПК ХЕМУС", meaning " Hemus manufacturing cooperative", within the oval shape. Then come five wavy lines, presumably simulating open water. Above that is the word "ДЕЛФИН", which we now know means "Dolphin" and is the fin's product name. Above the oval shape are the numbers "44-46", signifying the European shoe size of the foot that this fin is designed to fit (roughly US 10-12). Scrutiny of East European auction sites offering "Hemus" Delfin fins appears to confirm that these fins were also available in European sizes 42-44 and 40-42.

The above image is an illustration from a Bulgarian metal-detecting website at Официален форум на БНФМ: Регионален събор Бургас 6,7,8 и 9 септември 2012 (1/16). The poster wanted to sell his old 44-46 size Delfin fins, which you can see have three central ribs instead of the pattern of radiating lines. The asking price? 8.40 Lev (or about US$5 at today's exchange rate).

Finally, there's a photo above from a spearfishing forum at Китен, 1973 - Spearfish.org, captioned "Първи стъпки в подводния спорт — с модифициран руски харпун, унгарска маска, български плавници „Делфин“, PVC шнорхел и самоделен нож на крака ..." (English: First steps in underwater sport — with a modified Russian speargun, Hungarian mask, Bulgarian "Delfin" fins, PVC snorkel and home-made knife on one leg). The title of the message is "Китен, 1973" (Kiten, 1973), which helps date and place the image; Kiten is a seaside resort in the Bulgarian province of Burgas on the Black Sea.

That's it for today and I'll be back soon with a review of another "Hemus" fin.

 

[David Wilson]

A short postscript to my last posting focusing on the Hemus Delfin fin. On German eBay yesterday I spotted a pair of Italian-made Pirelli Alcione fins (below):

and I couldn't help noticing their resemblance to Bulgarian-made Hemus Delfins (below):

The radiating lines on both sides of the blade, the manufacturer's mark on the top of the blade, the crease where the sole and the base of the blade meet: pure coincidence?

The Pirelli Alcione blade design with the radiating lines and the brand marking in the centre is also a distinctive feature of its predecessor, the "Superga" fin dating back to the Italian wartime combat swimmers:

The "Superga" prototype (below) was around in the very early 1940s. Note the concave blade tip:

So the design that shaped the Bulgarian-made Delfin fin may have a very long pedigree indeed.

 

[David Wilson]

On to the next model in the Hemus fin repertoire, the "Sirena" (Bulgarian: "Сирена". English: "Siren"). Nowadays, the word "siren" is likely to conjure up the image of a device that makes a loud prolonged signal or warning sound, such as an ambulance. In Greek mythology, however, the Sirens (Greek singular: Σειρήν Seirēn; Greek plural: Σειρῆνες Seirēnes) were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island (see the Wikipedia article at Siren (mythology) - Wikipedia.

The Bulgarian noun "Сирена" certainly evokes the Ancient Hellenic legend of Ulysses tying himself to the mast of his ship to resist the musical blandishments of the Sirens (above) — Greece is Bulgaria's southern neighbour after all — but it is also worth remembering that "морска сирена" (literally "sea siren") translates from Bulgarian into English as "mermaid", a name more reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale.

Hemus Sirena fin

The Hemus Sirena is a closed-heel fin with an open toe and an inclined blade.
1. The similarities between the Hemus Sirena and Delfin fins:
* The radiating lines on both sides of the blade.
* The manufacturer's markings on the top of the blade.
* The crease where the sole and base of the blade meet.
2. The differences between the Hemus Sirena and Delfin fins:
* The Sirena has a wider blade than the Delfin.
* The Sirena has a convex blade tip while the Delfin's is concave.
* The Sirena has a wavy heel-tread pattern (like the Pirelli Alcione!) while the Delfin's is herringbone.

Let's take a closer look at the information embossed on the heel and blade of the Sirena fin.

The words on the instep read: "ЦЕНА 4.50 Лв", meaning "PRICE: 4.50 Lev." The "lev" (from the Bulgarian word for "lion") is the currency of Bulgaria. The People's Republic of Bulgaria was at least theoretically a country with zero inflation, so the price could be moulded into any product.

The name "СИРЕНА" (Sirena) is embossed in the oval shape on the blade above four wavy lines (the Delfin had five!) and the words "ТПК ХЕМУС", meaning " Hemus manufacturing cooperative". The shoe size (here European 32-34) was printed outside the oval. Other available European sizes included 34-36, 36-38 and 40-42.

There were a couple of alternative versions of the Hemus Sirena fin:

The light blue Hemus Sirena above came with a herringbone heel tread like the Hemus Delfin.

The fin labelled "Hemus Sirena" above resembles the "Hemus Chaika" fin (below), which I will be reviewing in my next posting:

 

[David Wilson]

Now for the fourth and penultimate fin, whose name is "Chaika" (Bulgarian: "Чайка". English: "Seagull"). Bulgarian and Russian are both Slavonic languages and their word for "seagull" is identical in spelling, which means that the original title of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's famous drama "The Seagull" is also "Чайка". There: a diving fin with the same name as a theatrical masterpiece. Like the "Delfin" and the "Sirena", the "Chaika" was also made by the "Hemus" cooperative in the Bulgarian capital Sofia during the era of the People's Republic, but it very likely postdated the aforementioned two models.

Hemus Chaika fin

The images above show the top and the bottom of the Chaika, which like its predecessors is a closed-heel and open toe fin. The blade has side rails and two central ribs for reinforcement on top and a single truncated rib underneath. The tip of the blade is concave. The heel tread has a herringbone pattern.

On to the markings.

Like the Delfin and the Sirena, the Chaika blade is embossed with the now familiar oval shape (above) with the manufacturer's identification "ТПК ХЕМУС", meaning " Hemus manufacturing cooperative". Above are three wavy lines; the Sirena and the Delfin had four and five wavy lines respectively. Over the wavy lines is the name of the fin "Чайка" printed in capital letters. Below the oval shape is the shoe size, in this case European 38-40. The Chaika was also available in European size 40-42 and possibly in other sizes too.

The base of the Chaika had its markings too (below):

The words "ЧЕРНИ — ЦЕНА 7.36 Лв" mean "Black — Price: 7.36 Lev". Here's another, reading "ЦВЕТНИ — ЦЕНА 10.30 Лв", meaning "Coloured — Price: 10.30 Lev". The official currency of Bulgaria is the lev and it's a tribute to the absence of inflation in the country that the price was embossed on the fin during the era of the People's Republic.

Here's a Chaika whose upper comes with a picturesque feature:

The decoration might have been more appropriate for a "Sirena" fin.

In my next message I'll review my fifth and last Bulgarian fin, known simply as the "Hemus". It also seems to have gone under the name of "Hawaii". Back soon.

 

[David Wilson]

The following message can be found in a thread about fins on a Bulgarian spearfishing forum at Плавници - но какви? - Spearfish.org:

Bulgarian original: И аз като доста от вас започвах с "Гигант" и "Акванавт", "Чайка" и "Хемус", и във всеки един от тогавашните вълшебни моменти, се чувствах богоизбран. Сега си спомням моментите със смесени чувства, като се замисля май най-много модели от екипировката които съм притежавал и ползвал са маската и плавника.
Rough English translation: I, like a lot of you, started with “Gigant” and “Akvanavt”, “Chaika” and “Hemus” (fins) and I felt like God’s chosen one at every moment of that magical time. Now I remember the moments with mixed feelings, when I look back at most equipment models I owned and used in the way of masks and fins.

The poster mentions three models he used before moving on to "Hemus" fins: "Gigant", "Akvanavt" and "Chaika". As a way of summaring what has been covered so far, I thought I'd illustrate these three before I too proceed to review "Hemus" fins.

Gigant (Bulgarian closed-heel and closed-toe long-bladed finswimming competition fin)

Akvanavt (Ukrainian closed-heel and closed-toe fin with massive blade)

Chaika (Bulgarian closed-heel and open-toe fin)

Three different fins, made by three different manufacturers. The Gigant was an early Bulgarian fin with military origins and a competitive following. The Akvanavt was made in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and would have been a frequent sight on the northern beaches of the Black Sea, where Soviet citizens swam and dived; the same Black Sea that bathed Bulgaria towards the southwest. The Chaika was a later Bulgarian fin, made by the Bulgarian manufacturing cooperative Hemus. If the posting spearfisherman is to be believed, all three spearfishing fins were very popular with him and the Bulgarian spearfishing community during the era of the People's Republic. His enthusiasm for these fins seems to have waned in the new millennium.

In my next posting, I will focus on the fourth fin mentioned by the Bulgarian spearfisherman: the Hemus.

 

[David Wilson]

The "Hemus" fin is simply named after the now familiar manufacturing cooperative that made them in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. The fin has a second name, however: "Hawaii".

Hemus (Hawaii) fin

The "Hemus" is a closed-heel and open-toe fin with a large blade reinforced by side-rails and a single centre rib on the top side. The blade has a rounded convex tip. The heel tread has a herringbone pattern. As for markings, note how the name "HAWAII" appears on the upper (first image above), while the word "ХЕМУС" (Hemus) is embossed on the instep (second image above).

The size was also printed on the sole (second image), not only as European 36-38 but also as UK or US 4-7. The latter plus the alternative name "Hawaii" may indicate that the Bulgarian manufacturer was hoping to sell these fins to English-speaking westerners visiting the country as tourists.

A further indicator of this possibility lies in the appearance of these fins, which closely resemble the Hai ("Hai" = German for "shark") fin then made by Salvas in Italy and distributed by Barakuda in Germany:

The Hemus and the Hai feature similar blade shapes and reinforcements, suggesting that the Bulgarian manufacturing cooperative was both aware of fin design trends in Western Europe and ready to take these trends on board when designing its own fins. This also identifies the Hawaii and the Chaika as later Hemus models than the Delfin and Sirena fins.

Coming soon, in my next posting, will be a review of diving masks made by the Hemus cooperative.