Vintage Double Hose

It all started in Sandy Eggo...

A local weekly newpaper called the San Diego Reader (knlwn to locals as simply The Reader) has started an online section of old archived articles above San Digo. While doing some research I stumbled across an article from 1978 about the San Diego Bottom Scratchers. I'm sure anyone reading this will be fairly familiar with them so I won't go into the long list of reasons they ARE the godfather's of our ocean passion. If find yourself in San Diego and have some free-time, stop into James & Joseph on Harbor Island. The owners have a well maintained museum in the store with actual guns and diving history items from the Bottom Scratchers. It is very low-key and they don't make a fuss about it but what you will see there is priceless, you can even flip through Wally Potts' log book! As the surface water temp the past 2 weeks is bouncing around 78-80F and the algae blooms are starting to take effect on visibility, the beaches are once again slammed with people who have zero clue that it all started here. Below are links to the article (in the lower left of the story you will find links to related articles under the heading More from SDReader) and a link to J&J.

We lost Jimmy Stewart last year and slowly this group will become a memory. But, if you know where to look (hint: an easy surface swim off Pt. La Jolla/Boomers) and you can freedive to 30 feet or so, you just may be able to have a few underwater words with our godfathers of The C.

May these Watermen rest in peace and keep a watchful eye over us as we continue to explore the wide-open ocean.

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/197 ... der-water/
http://www.jamesandjoseph.com/

Wow. Thanks for posting that. I read the whole article.

Ditto. A look back into time.

There are a few articles about diving off the sewage treatment plant and outflow pipe of Point Loma as well as diving in San Diego Bay (which is now no longer allowed for civilians since Sept 11 due to harbor security) which are interesting. If you search for diving history etc on that site all sorts of neat articles come up from the 70's. Of particular note is an article about urchin diving off San Clemente; these guys were tough nutz!

Jimmy was a mentor to me and a huge loss to our community, although we saw it coming in the last few years of his life. He passed on so much knowledge to so many young tadpoles throughout his time with us, I don't see that type of mentorship often now. A buddy was KIA in Iraq a few years ago and for his memorial service a bunch of us read the poem below, I also read it at the wake we did for Jimmy out off of Boomers as we drank "reindeer punch" which he was famous for.

I will always begin and end with the ocean.

The ebb and flow of the sea's tide courses through my veins. The ocean has become the framework for who I am. Changing, adapting, failing, succeeding, and inspiring.


But a beginning is just a beginning and an end is just an end. It is in the middle, the “in-between,” where we find out who we really are. And the middle is hardly ever at sea level.


*I am a fish out of water, always yearning to return to my beginning*

It may sound strange, but Jim Stewart was also an important figure in late 60's and early 70's instructor training in Texas. He was involved in the SCIP (Southwest Council Instructor Program) Scuba Instructor training in Texas, along with some other well known West Coast folks.

He and Glen Egstrom were the course directors when I first became an instructor in 1968, in Longview, Texas. Their knowledge, patience and friendly manner brought a welcome professionalism to this area at a time it was much needed. Jim Stewart treated all us participants like we were old friends, and I'll never forget that.

When I was working with NAUI Advanced classes back in the late 70's early 80's we would go to San Diego and dive La Jolla  Canyon as one of the advanced dives. Afterward we would take the students to Scripps. Jimmy would always give us a behind the scenes tour of Scripps Aquarium (the old one that is in the opening scene of Creature from the Black Lagoon) and then out onto the Scripps pier for stories of yesteryear. Great guy.