Vintage snorkeling gear

[AfterDark]

How's this for a piece of snorkeling gear? It really is ingenious, pumping air with your legs. Might be a little hard to swim.

Vintage Dive Man Underwater Scuba Snorkeling Equipment | eBay

 

[David Wilson]

I've just done a little online research on the device. According to CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED IMPORTS) REGULATIONS 1956 - SCHEDULE 12 Goods the importation of which is prohibited without permission under regulation 4U
its import is banned in Australia. In 2010 there was a discussion of the Diveman here on Scubaboard:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/vintage-equipment-diving/364071-diveman-underwater-breather.html
where some scepticism was voiced about the underlying science. Speaking of science, a short article about the Diveman appeared in the June 1991 edition of Popular Science:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...IzJzjxaGmxwIVx7QUCh0dkw8O#v=onepage&q&f=false
Finally, there's an interesting thread here from 1998 about the Diveman:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.scuba.equipment/bxaQwxaxZdM

 

[AfterDark]

I've just done a little online research on the device. According to CUSTOMS (PROHIBITED IMPORTS) REGULATIONS 1956 - SCHEDULE 12 Goods the importation of which is prohibited without permission under regulation 4U
its import is banned in Australia. In 2010 there was a discussion of the Diveman here on Scubaboard:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/vintage-equipment-diving/364071-diveman-underwater-breather.html
where some scepticism was voiced about the underlying science. Speaking of science, a short article about the Diveman appeared in the June 1991 edition of Popular Science:
View attachment 214624
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...IzJzjxaGmxwIVx7QUCh0dkw8O#v=onepage&q&f=false
Finally, there's an interesting thread here from 1998 about the Diveman:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.scuba.equipment/bxaQwxaxZdM


It's always worth delving into the historical context of any new technology before coming to any definitive conclusions about it. This is especially true in the world of vintage diving.

Good stuff David but these last 2 statements are a little confusing that is the use of the words "new technology" as it relates to vintage diving, vintage and new don't sound right together. My take without doing any research was that the idea/concept was ingenious but since it is vintage and never caught on it probably didn't work all that well.
I just noticed the date on the PS article,1991!? That’s not even vintage! Still hardly new technology the principle is as old as diving but using the legs is a “new” twist.

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks for the "thumbs-up" for what I found online, AfterDark. I've edited out the last part of my message - not quite sure why I wrote it in the first place.