easydiver1
Skin Diver
Posts: 45
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2010 7:11 pm
First Name: Mike
Location: West Bear Delaware

Mask and flippers

Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:42 am

Has anyone seen the listing on the bay for new copies of Mask and flippers (Bridges and Barada)? His listing says he has like 68 copies.He has two listings at different prices. The listing is strange saying "no questions". Too weird for me to bid on one!

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DaleC
Master Diver
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Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:46 pm
First Name: Dale
Location: Left Coast, Canada
Contact: Website

Re: Mask and flippers

Sat Jan 05, 2013 8:27 pm

Don't know about that, can't find the listing. I have a 1961 PB edition, Cornerstone Library Publications/Affiliated Publishers Inc. New York. The original was 1960. It is a good read but I suspect LB did not do most of the writing (more likely BB). In it he tells stories about different aspects of diving. Chapters are:

Invitation to adventure
Basic equipment and the first skin divers
The cold water barrier
Breathing underwater and the problem of changing pressures
Scuba limitations - how safety rules were learned
Food from the sea - selective fishing
Creatures of the sea
Underwater salvage and treasure
Hollywood underwater
A look at the future

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NAVED #203
#20 International Brotherhood for the Assistance of Stateless Persons

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SurfLung
Master Diver
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Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2011 2:03 pm
First Name: Eben
Location: Alexandria, MN
Contact: Website

Re: Mask and flippers

Wed Jan 09, 2013 12:59 pm

I just ordered one for the $26 price... Will let you know when it arrives.
SurfLung
The Freedom and Simplicity of Vintage Equipment and
Vintage Diving Technique are Why I Got Back Into Diving.

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SurfLung
Master Diver
Posts: 1763
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2011 2:03 pm
First Name: Eben
Location: Alexandria, MN
Contact: Website

Re: Mask and flippers

Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:48 pm

- I received the book just fine. It is sort of a generic reprint... Might be a knock-off. No picture on the cover and the quality of the print inside is a little less than perfect. It's paperback bound and in brand new condition, though.
- I have only been scan-reading thru it so far but it looks pretty good. Bridges uses his own and other divers stories to illustrate how equipment, techniques, and safety procedures came about. As a side benefit, these stories give a pretty neat history of how scuba diving got its start in the USA.
- One of these stories tells how Bill Barada bought one of the first 20 Aqualungs imported by Rene Bussoz's sport shop before it became "U. S. Divers". It refers to "Rene" as kind of a huckster who told him, there's nothing to it. Just put it on and breathe. It was a 38 cf tank and Bussoz told him it would last 30 minutes.
- Barada's first dive ended up being kind of dicey. He was all by himself. He ran out of air, and the tank and a flooded dry suit were weighing him down as he tried to swim back to his boat. He didn't have a ladder and didn't use quick release on his tank straps, which were over his weight belt. By the time he made it back to the boat, he had to hang on the anchor line a long time to rest and catch his breath. His youth and muscle barely were able to pull himself (with tank, weight belt, and flooded dry suit) up into his boat.
- Lots of stories like that are used to illustrate diving principles.
SurfLung
The Freedom and Simplicity of Vintage Equipment and
Vintage Diving Technique are Why I Got Back Into Diving.

dacordiver23
Skin Diver
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2013 11:03 pm
First Name: Jordan
Location: Phoenix, AZ (aka: The Sand Box)

Re: Mask and flippers

Wed Sep 04, 2013 2:06 am

I hate to say it but I think I managed to score an original copy at Powell's Books, for $5, in Portland on a recent trip. It just goes to show that you never know where you might find one of these classics.

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Britmarine
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First Name: David
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Re: Mask and flippers

Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:00 am

Congratulations on your purchase! When you see "original", I take it you mean a first edition (1960 in this case). I own a used first-edition copy of the book marked $2.50, but if I paid that price for the tome, it would have been in the late 1970s. Mine doesn't have a dust cover, which would have added value to the article.

21

Re: Mask and flippers

Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:04 am

I own the hard cover edition, 1960 Chiton Co in Philadelphia and the soft cover 1963 reprint by Cornerstone Library publications.
Both editions are personally inscribed to me by Bill and Lloyd.

Bill was a "one of a kind person!" He was affectionately and some times not so affectionately know as "Bill the Barracuda." We had some good times and some not so good times together but remained friends and in contact until his passing.

I published several articles about Bill. Two that come to mind was about a CO2 Gun he invented and I made while serving in USAF during the Korean war, It was "The Magnificent gas gun" published in Discover diving about 20 years ago. The other was when he invented the dry suit, which I recall was printed in "South West Diver" (good luck in finding that one!)

Bill was a prolific writer and published about 10 diving books and a number of Hollywood TV scrip's including several Sea Hunt scrip's. He could only write when he smoked and did he ever smoke! Never stopped! That is until he met his second wife and she demanded he stop! When he stopped smoking he stopped writing..

I fear I have rambled a bit

SDM

The old Barracuda was certainly one of a kind

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