MistralOwner wrote:Look forward to hearing from some UK members....! BRegs, IanM
Welcome, compatriot! I vintage-snorkel here in the North East of England. Can't help with breathing gear as I don't scuba-dive, but I do have an interest in the history of exposure suits, fins, masks and snorkels and their use in snorkelling over the years. I've snorkelled for over a half a century and I prefer snorkelling with the kind of gear used back in the 1950s and 1960s.
You'll find the other VDH members an international bunch of welcoming and knowledgeable people. I've looked for UK vintage diving sites and I'm pretty certain there aren't any. The UK-based BSAC forum has a couple of contributors old enough to appreciate vintage diving, but the bulk of the members appear to be died-in-the-wool neophiles. I recall one exchange when a poster asked about an Avon drysuit he'd inherited and was virtually told by younger members that he was on a suicide mission if he even tried the suit on at home. I keep an eye on the BSAC forum because there's the occasional message about, say, a Britmarine oval mask that somebody's found in their loft and I can respond at length on the subject.
US vintage divers are far readier than their European counterparts to keep the history of snorkel and scuba diving alive. There's no European equivalent of the wonderful Skin Diving History website at
http://www.skindivinghistory.com
which has a marvellous collection of advertisements for American diving gear from the 1950s. Why isn't there a similar shrine with ads for British, e.g. Typhoon and Britmarine, underwater swimming equipment?
Anyway, welcome to the forum!