SKIN and SCUBA DIVER-Lil Borgeson & Jack Speirs 1962

[vintagemike6]

I also found this book recently, the copy i found is a third printing 1974(revised)?. this book contains alot of classic B&W photos of 50's,60's,70's? gear. covers usual topics. there are some photos of guys posing with some monster 7 to 8 foot tall spearguns.

[21]

The book was printed in soft cover as well as a hard cover with a dust jacket..the later being very rare.

The spear gun is idenified "as a Addict variation made by the Bottom Scratcher club." False! It is a Bottom Scratcher Spear gun made from a 1939 design of the Bottom Scratcher dive club of San Diego. Only about 120 to 140 were made.

The gun pictured was made by Paul Hoss of the Compton Dolphins- which about 40 of the 120 were made..The Hoss/Bottom Scratcher gun can be Ided by a better trigger pull and the Sturgil muzzel prefered by LA & OC Spearfishermen.

The gun is being held by Homer Fletcher, Early LA Co & NAUI instructor, now still going strong at 87 years old.

I have two Bottom Scratcher guns, they are not 8 foot, mine measure 7 foot 9 inches, but with a Sturgil point probably 8 foot. The last time one was sold on Ebay it was sold for about $2500.00--they are a rare gun!

The plans on the page facing the picture is for an Addict gun, the plans were drawn by Sam Ichakawa, whom some of you recall as the repair man for SCUBA Pro. The plans were sold by the UW Sports shop in Long Beach for $2.00 a set,then this book was printed. The shop is still in business and doing well.

The Addict gun was designed by the Addict club of San Diego, reportedly by Vern Fleet, who now makes and drinks wine..

SDM

[21]

FYI...The Bottom Scratcher Spear gun

My all time favorite spear gun is a "Bottom Scratcher." It was designed/developed in 1939 by Wally Potts and perfected by the Bottom Scratcher Spearfishing club of San Diego, California. It is the original California long gun, constructed of by the joining of a simple tube SS handle containing a one piece trigger to a 1&1/4 inch dowel barrel, and a long balance bar that was either made of wood or SS.

In the very early days if spear fishing around 1950 Wally sold a Bottom Scratcher gun to Paul Hoss a member of the Dolphins spear fishing club which had won the very first spear fishing meet in Laguna Beach in the Summer of 1950. When he sold it to Paul who lived in Compton a suburb of LA, Jack Prodanovich is reported to have said to Wally that "Selling a gun up north was like selling guns to the Yankees." And he was correct. Paul disassembled the gun did some modifications that improved the trigger pull and began producing a very close copy affectionately became known as the "Hoss gun" by the "Yankees" of Los Angeles and Orange County. The Hoss copy was cosmetically and functionally identical in every respect except for the Sturgil muzzle which was the muzzle of choice for all guns used by serious Yankee spear fishermen. The guns which were made by Wally and Paul were all custom made therefore no two were exactly identical. It was reported substantially less than 100 were made in a 30 plus year period by Wally and some where between 20 and 30 by Paul in about a 10 year period. Needless to say they were difficult to obtain and are now scarce and highly prised by those who own them, or collectors of diving memorabilia.

Known through out the spear fishing fraternity as the "California long gun" and on occasion the "Long Tom," they were made for long shots at big fish in then the clear unpolluted waters of SoCal.

I was fortunate to have ended up with two. My own personal custom gun and a friend's who after being chased out of the water by a shark decided that spear fishing was not for him, so he sold it to me a half what a bare unrigged new one costs -$20.00.

My guns measure 7 foot 9 inches plus the point which can have many configurations and lengths adding as much as a foot if the Prodanovich point impact aka power head was used. It has a sling pull of 4 foot 8 inches and the 5/16 diameter SS arrow rides on the first rails to be installed on a spear gun. It has a balance bar that extends approximately 15 inches behind the trigger mechanism.

It was made during the era of the kettle cured rubber. I can't recall when surgical rubber for spear gun slings became popular but I think in the mid 1950s. I used 28 or less inches of surgical tubing for power when it became popular and readily available. I do vividly recall the first time I test fired it at Ships Rock off Catalina using the then new surgical slings...the arabelete type slide ring exploded totally disintegrated ! The arrow went flying in to the blue water never to be seen again by man--or at least me...so slide rings from aerospace material was custom made. A number of years later Joe La Monica who developed the Voit/ Mares/JBL gun copied my basic design and began producing a very strong SS slide ring which I modified and converted my guns to use.

My first and my favorite gun has a custom (aka home made) "San Diego" style "dump pack" constructed from a piece of SS sheet, a SS Piano hinge, several lengths of WW 11 webbing and a SS rod as the release pin. The dump pack contained 200 feet of yellow 1/8 Polypropylene line fan folded into small bunches secured by two pieces of a bicycle inner tube (they won't rot) terminating with a small WW 11 water purification bag modified into an automatic Co2 inflation float. It has a 15 inch SS balance bar

Gun number two is equipped with a huge six inch "Riffes Reel," produced and marketed about 30 years ago by a now defunct San Diego company by the name of Aquacraft. The reel holds about a jillione miles of hard lay tuna trolling nylon line. I can not recall how much it holds and I have never been reeled there fore cannot accurately state with any reasonable amount of certainty the amount of line on the Riffe's reel but it is a lot! It originally came equipped with a 15 inch balance bar, which the former owner trimmed to eight inches. I found this too short and extended it to it's original length of 15 inches by the addition of a piece of 1 &1/4 wood dowel.

Do I still use the guns? Heck no, especially when one Bottom Scratcher/Hoss gun sold on E bay several years ago for $2500.00 plus dollars.

I have several custom wood guns I made about 25 or more years ago that I currently use, but another story for another time.

But-- I still have wonderful memories of the Bottom Scratcher and years gone by.


21

<<<<Jack Prodanovich passed away at 94 years of age in 2002. He was one of the first members of the "Bottom Scratchers Spear fishing club" founded in 1932.
Wally Potts passed away several years previously.>>>>

[ebj]

21
Can you post some photos of your custom guns. It would be very interesting to see how they compare to the Riffe guns we're using today hunting below the rigs off the Texas coast.

[21]

SKIN and SCUBA DIVER-Lil Borgeson & Jack Speirs 1962
by ebj » Wed Sep 21, 2011 12:14 pm

21
Can you post some photos of your custom guns. It would be very interesting to see how they compare to the Riffe guns we're using today hunting below the rigs off the Texas coast.
Ernie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I would like to say Yes! but I will need to photograph them and figure out how to post pictures. Maybe soon..

There is no comparison of the Bottom Scratcher to the modern gun such as the Riffe, the Riffe has a better trigger mechanism, (a modified JD Preece,) vs a single sear/trigger of the BS, the Riffe's balance is better, but both are powered by Surgicial tubing.

Many SoCal spearfishermen have been making their own spearguns for many many years from wood using either the Riffe or the Alexander, or Kitto trigger mechanisms. It seems to be the current trend.

There maybe a mute point here...a thread on Antique and vintage Spearguns

sdm

[Bryan]

Send me the pictures....Post the story and information behind them and I will insert the pictures. Not a problem at all...

[crimediver]

I remember switching from slingshot rubber to surgical tubing when I was building guns as a kid. The first one I built that had several surgical tubing bands I thought was a pretty good gun. I was in awe of the gun as it was much more powerful than my earlier guns and I felt it was a weapon of mass destruction. I only shot two fish with it. Then the gun almost got me killed. Here is an excerpt of the story from an unpublished book I wrote called Taking the Law to the Lawless. I need to retire first before I publish it as it concerns my career as an undercover cop :

I also loved to go diving. I had gotten interested in this around 1966. I lived in the Philippines when I was twelve or thirteen years old. I was amazed by the wonderful world I found underwater and had never seen such brilliant colored reefs and fish before. I was hooked on diving. I spent as much time as I could in the water and wanted to go spearfishing.

My first speargun I got from trading a pack of my Dad’s cigarettes for it through the base fence with a Filipino kid. Once I learned how it was constructed I made several more at the base hobby shop. The trigger assembly was very simple. It consisted of a spoon handle that had about a half-inch of the end bent at a ninety degree angle. It sat on a fulcrum that allowed the handle to rock back and forth like a teeter-totter. The bent end fit into a notch cut into a spear to hold it in place. Another notch in the spear held a U-shaped piece of wire that in turn was lashed to slingshot rubber that provided the power from the gun. The muzzle was a piece of tubing. The whole gun was lashed together with rubber bands. It was a primitive gun but was effective and I wore the fish out with it.

I began to build spearguns, each one I built would have an improvement in materials as I learned what I was doing. I would build a speargun and often would test it by shooting the spear into a wooden dresser I had in my bedroom. It soon was pockmarked by the many holes I put into it. My dad saw this and I got in trouble and was told I better quit shooting the dresser if I knew what was good for me. One morning I woke up and as I was lying in bed I happened to look closely at my dresser that was next to my bed. It was hard to see at first but I noticed that each hole had been carefully circled with an ink pen. I realized my dad had set a trap for me and was trying to catch me putting some fresh holes in the dresser. He would be able to tell that I was still shooting my dresser if he found any new holes that had not been circled. I still continued to test fire my spears into it but after doing so I would carefully circle the hole I had made with an ink pen. The Old Man never caught onto this.


One day a new neighbor saw me with the gun and talked to me about spearfishing. He was a navy dentist and had a large speargun he showed me. It was a large gun and used surgical tubing. It had several sets of bands on it which was a concept I was unaware of. I knew I would improve my gun by using surgical tubing and using several bands instead of one.

I soon went to the base hospital had scammed a roll of surgical tubing from a navy corpsman telling him I needed it for a Boy Scout project. I tried to beef up my gun by changing to surgical tubing and adding extra sets of bands. The trigger assembly would not hold together under the increased load and it was dangerous. It was time to get some professional advice.

I went to my scout master. His name was Heinz Doss. He was a navy chief and had a machine shop on base. He helped me build a nice trigger assembly. It even had a safety that consisted of a pin I would remove before shooting the gun. When inserted, the pin blocked the lever preventing it from discharging. I put it on a large gun I made. I made a very big gun and it was powered by multiple large bands of surgical tubing. The stock was made out of Philippine mahogany. It was about six feet long. It had a butt stock shaped like a rifle stock which would later prove to be less than ideal underwater. To keep from losing my one and only spear I had it attached with about fifteen feet of strong nylon cord that was attached to the middle of my gun stock. In hindsight I should have attached the line near the muzzle.

This gun was much more powerful than my earlier models. The first ones I used were powered by flat slingshot rubber bands and I used them on smaller fish. I used several bands of surgical tubing on this new gun. It was so powerful the spear would penetrate through a large banana tree trunk. My earlier guns were pea shooters compared to this gun and I was looking forward to using the gun in the water.

I did not get much of a chance to use this new gun. I only speared two fish with it. The first one was a small fish I shot at the concrete pier on the island of Corregidor. I was camping there with the boy scouts when I went snorkeling there. It was a good eating size snapper about two feet long. I ate it for dinner and it helped earn me my cooking merit badge. But my first real test of the gun happened during my spring break of my seventh grade school year.

I was one of about four kids that had been picked as a safety patrol crossing guard. I guess that was my first taste of working as a cop, if you could call it that. To reward us for our dedicated service in helping our classmates safely cross busy Sangley Avenue during the school year, my teacher took us on a field trip to Matabunkay beach at the South China Sea. This was a fabulous beach with crystal clear water and fantastic coral reefs. I had gone diving there with my dad and it was amazing to see the vibrant neon colors and fantastic fish life there. I also camped there with the boy scouts on the beach and we would snorkel the shallow reefs. I would take my speargun with me as well as my snorkeling gear when we camped there. Times were different then and teachers and scout masters did not freak out if I brought a speargun on an outing. They would just tell me not to shoot myself or anyone else with it.

Our teacher hired a fisherman to take us out to the reefs offshore in a motorized banca boat. This was a log canoe with outriggers on it. We went out where the water was about 25 feet deep. The visibility was amazing and it was like swimming in air. We were snorkeling on the surface and I had waited to shoot a fish until we were ready to leave the site so as not to attract sharks. I had been snorkeling over a large piece of brain coral when I looked down and saw the largest fish I had ever seen. It looked like a two-hundred pound largemouth bass. I did not know what it was at the time but it was a jewfish or huge grouper that the locals called a Lapu Lapu and it looked as big as a Volkswagen Beetle. It made the first fish I had shot with this gun look like a minnow.

Today I would not shoot a jewfish or a Goliath grouper as many folks call them now. It would be like shooting the family Labrador retriever. But in 1967 diving was geared towards shooting fish. All the books and magazines I read about diving always dealt with treasure diving and spear fishing. I really felt I could kill this fish with a stone shot to the head which would kill or totally immobilize the fish and I would be on the covers of Sports Illustrated or Skin Diver magazine like my spearfishing hero Art Pinder that I had read so much about. Art would shoot a five hundred pound fish on a breath hold dive. I had seen pictures of him holding giant fish wearing a duct taped bandage covering a shark bite. He was cool and I wanted to be just like him and now was my chance.

The fish was underneath an overhang of coral. I figured I could swim down to the coral head and shoot the fish in the brain as I dropped down on it. The new gun I had with the surgical bands on it would surely pulverize this fish, despite its size. I pulled the metal pin that served as a safety on my gun and hyperventilated for a minute or so. Hyperventilating allowed me to remove built up carbon dioxide in my system so I would not feel the need to breath until much later into the dive.

This can be a dangerous practice and can lead to a diver losing consciousness called shallow water black-out. I was not aware that it was a dangerous practice at the time. Back then I just knew I could stay down a long time by doing this. Filling my lungs up until I thought they would pop I dropped down on the fish. I kicked down wearing a brand new pair of Voit Viking fins I had just gotten. I leveled off at the coral head and snuck over the edge where I saw the fish. I aimed at where I thought the brain was. I pulled the trigger and I saw the spear hit the fish in the top of the head.

Instantly the fish took off and swam in a tight half-circle and collided into the coral head. There was a large cloud of sand stirred up and the fish looked stunned. I could hear a loud sound come from the fish and it sounded like someone was beating a large steel oil drum. It went "Bong! Bong! Bong!" It seemed to come from the gills of the fish but it was a very strange noise. I had never heard a sound like that underwater. It looked to me that my spear was lodged firmly and deeply into the head of the fish. The fish was holed up under a ledge of the coral head.

Even though I had hyperventilated I needed air. I had let go of my gun after shooting the fish but it was suspended above the fish by the nylon cord. I left my gun and swam up. I studied the situation on the surface through the clear water. My gun was floating about ten feet below me. I hollered to the banca to come closer and said I had a huge fish I had shot and might need help. I began hyperventilating for a couple of minutes and my plan was to drop down and grab the spear and shove it further into the fish, hopefully killing it. I am not sure how I would have accomplished that as I only weighed about a hundred pounds soaking wet. I knew I would not have much leverage to do the job but I hoped the spear only needed to go in a short distance to kill it.

I was worried about losing my gun and the fish getting away. I did not know why the fish had not already swum off and how it was still alive. There was blood coming from the wound and I could see blood coming from the gills. It looked like wisps of smoke floating in the water. The fish was holed up in the coral grotto in an undercut ledge and did not look like it planned on leaving it. I hyperventilated again to maximize the time I could spend underwater. and then swam down to my gun. I remember being totally pumped up with adrenalin and felt I could push the spear completely through the fish.

I grabbed the line attached to the spear and I made a loose circle around the line heading down to the fish with my fingers. I did not want to tug on the line but just used it to guide me to the spear. As I dove down to the fish and got near the spear I made one wrap of the line around my hand and the fish spooked and took off in a flash. The nylon cord zipped out, causing the gun to be yanked down and somehow my arm was bent into a chicken wing and my hand was wrapped against the middle of the gunstock. The wide gunstock acted as a paddle blade and the resistance it made in the water forced the muzzle of the gun against my back. The line was attached to the middle of the gun it only served as a pivot point to keep the gun pinned to me.

I was jerked through the water so fast I had my mask yanked down around my neck. I did not know it at the time but I also lost one fin and my bathing suit just disappeared as it was yanked off me as I was pulled through the water. I could feel the resistance from the gun against the water keeping my arm trapped as the stock of the gun acted like a paddle in the water.

I felt the rush of water and then I heard a loud crack. The fish had swum between some coral formations which cracked my speargun stock as part of it was wedged in the coral. I guess I was saved when the gun snapped in two as I was free from the line. I headed up and gulped in some well needed air.

The whole ride only took about ten seconds or so but we had covered a lot of territory during that time and I wasn’t able to find the location where it had started.

I never saw the fish, my suit or my new fin ever again and I had to wear a t-shirt for pants until I got to the car. I just had to sit in the banca boat and ended up with the worst sunburn of my life. I am not sure whether I was more shook up about my close call and losing my speargun or losing my bathing suit. Both were pretty unsettling for this seventh-grade kid and I got my share of ribbing about it for a while. I considered myself very lucky I did not get drowned by that fish. I eventually made another spear gun but after that experience I limited my spearfishing to fish that were smaller than me.

[21]

That is one heck of a great story! Any one who has spearfished can relate and those who haven't can certainly visualize the events.

The description of your first gun is simular to a SE Asia "Thumb trigger." My last trip to that part of the world was about 10 years ago -- and many of the divers were still using them..Simple to make and very effective

Once again great story!

SDM

[crimediver]

Glad you liked it Sam. I suppose a South East Asia Thumb Trigger is an apt description of the gun. You fired it with your thumb. It was easy to use and only the only moving part was the lever. Mine had a spring but most other ones I saw used rubberbands to put downward pressure on the lever. Mine was better built with a strong trigger system and triple bands with surgical tubing but it was like the local guns, except on steroids. Sadly I lost track of my homemade guns once I moved away from home. I wish I had kept some. Maybe I will make one again just for kicks.

[Britmarine]

The book was printed in soft cover as well as a hard cover with a dust jacket..the later being very rare. SDM

I'm the proud owner of a first hard-back edition of Lil Borgeson and Jack Speirs' Skin and Scuba Diver, complete with dust cover (no longer in pristine condition) and published in 1962 in New York by Arco Publishing Company in their Arco Sports Library series. I purchased my copy for $2 plus tax during August 1982 at Lien's used bookstore (now sadly out of business) in downtown Minneapolis, where I was spending one of my annual vacations with my brother, who is now a US citizen. Here's the front cover:

I guess the book has something for everyone, as the previous messages have eloquently attested to its featuring of vintage spearguns. With my main interest in vintage basic underwater equipment, I also find plenty to grab my attention within the pages of the book. I found the chapter entitled "Diving on a budget" of particular interest. It shows how a "jigsaw wetsuit" can be made at home using a simple pattern, scissors and a roll of neoprene. A photograph shows how the young snorkeller due to wear it lies on top of a sheet of paper and a pattern is drawn round her to ensure that the finished garment fits. The same chapter also shatters the canard that full foot fins can only be worn over bare feet. The picture below from the book shows the young lady now clad in her home-made wetsuit and donning a pair of Cressi Rondine full foots over a pair of sneakers:

Skin and Scuba Diving isn't the only book written by Lil Borgeson and Jack Speirs. They also penned a soft-back Fawcett How-To Book entitled Skin Diver Handbook which I also have in my possession:

The book is undated, but must have appeared in the late 1950s or early 1960s as it sported an advertisement for Skooba-totes drysuits. The front cover features again the long spearguns, which will please others on this thread, but also one blue and one yellow Cressi Rondine full-foot fin, the most popular fins on the Mediterranean in the 1960s. The contents are very well illustrated with contemporary photographs but don't duplicate what the authors wrote in their Arco Sports Library contribution.

[21]

Subject: SKIN DIVER

The young girl putting on fins was Cristy Crissie(?) Bauer, daughter of either Don or George Bauer who owned a number of SoCal dive Shops at that time. As I recall they went out of business about 1965.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re "The Skin Diver"
It was published in or about 1959/1960. This is based on simple historical detective work..Please check the following:
Page 124.."The year of the Golden Doubloon"...The GD was being prepared for a trip to hunt of gold by a SoCal shop owner, Mel Fisher. He departed LA in the spring of 1960

Page 128 "Paraventures." Dave Burt lived about 2 blocks from me in 1959-60 and was attempting to develop and combine, Parachuting and SCUBA diving, which is now very common but at that time experimental..About 1959-1960 he made his first ParaSCUBA Jump.

Page 140 Greater Los Angeles County Council of Dive Clubs, the president was Bob Retherford. In 1960 Ron Merker became president and changed the name to the Greater Los Angeles County Council of Divers.

FYI Bob Retherford lived exactly a block away from me from 1959 to 1965. You can see a picture of Bob in the "Legends of diving,"The Sea Sabre Signaling System" at www.portagequarry.com ~~

So consider "The Skin Diver" publication date as 1959/1960.

There were a number of different how to books published Arco, Faucett Trend etc books, both in hard back with dust jackets and in soft cover, I believe I have the entire series. I recently sent a listing of them to Peter Stone at Ocean Enterprises e mail [email protected].

If the list would be of value I will send the list to Bryan and it could be published on VDH as a permanent record

21

[antique diver]

21, you are absolutely right. I still have my copy of Skin Diver Handbook that I bought new when I was 14. The copyright date is listed inside in very small print at the bottom left column of page 2 as 1960. My book is very worn.

[vintagemike6]

I'm glad to see more posts about this book and that some of the "mossbacks" actully kept the book somewhere in the house. from britmarines photos, it looks like the DJ remained the same for all the printings. my third printing(1975) has the same pictures as britmarines posting.

[Britmarine]

21, you are absolutely right. I still have my copy of Skin Diver Handbook that I bought new when I was 14. The copyright date is listed inside in very small print at the bottom left column of page 2 as 1960. My book is very worn.

I've had another look at my copy of Skin Diver Handbook and indeed on page 2, I found the same date, 1960. I don't know how I missed that as I did inspect the book prior to posting my message, but the print is indeed very small.

[Britmarine]

Subject: SKIN DIVER

The young girl putting on fins was Cristy Crissie(?) Bauer, daughter of either Don or George Bauer who owned a number of SoCal dive Shops at that time. As I recall they went out of business about 1965.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Re "The Skin Diver"
It was published in or about 1959/1960. This is based on simple historical detective work..Please check the following:
Page 124.."The year of the Golden Doubloon"...The GD was being prepared for a trip to hunt of gold by a SoCal shop owner, Mel Fisher. He departed LA in the spring of 1960

Page 128 "Paraventures." Dave Burt lived about 2 blocks from me in 1959-60 and was attempting to develop and combine, Parachuting and SCUBA diving, which is now very common but at that time experimental..About 1959-1960 he made his first ParaSCUBA Jump.

Page 140 Greater Los Angeles County Council of Dive Clubs, the president was Bob Retherford. In 1960 Ron Merker became president and changed the name to the Greater Los Angeles County Council of Divers.

FYI Bob Retherford lived exactly a block away from me from 1959 to 1965. You can see a picture of Bob in the "Legends of diving,"The Sea Sabre Signaling System" at http://www.portagequarry.com ~~

So consider "The Skin Diver" publication date as 1959/1960. 21

Thank you for that brilliant human interest detail. That's what makes old diving handbooks so much more than musty publications gathering dust on bookshelves. Fascinating to have the young girl donning fins identified. There's a picture of a boy in scuba gear on the dust jacket. Interesting to see all generations involved in diving in these early books.

There were a number of different how to books published Arco, Faucett Trend etc books, both in hard back with dust jackets and in soft cover, I believe I have the entire series. I recently sent a listing of them to Peter Stone at Ocean Enterprises e mail [email protected].

If the list would be of value I will send the list to Bryan and it could be published on VDH as a permanent record

21

I for one would certainly be interested in such a list. In addition to the two Borgeson/Speirs books I own three more Fawcett period diving books: Handbook for Skin Divers by George Bronson-Howard (1956)

The How-To Book of Skin and Scuba Diving by John E. Cayford (1964) and
Handbook of Skin and Scuba Diving by Jim Martenhoff (1967)

The photographs of the book covers aren't mine, just ones I unearthed using Google Images. I'm not adept yet in the use of a digital camera.