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19/05/2005: "SYDNEY SEA HUNTERS and memo from a MOSMAN WHALER"
As a young skindiver the priorities were to have a car and a boat in the early era. Few owned both. But there was always a car to tow a boat available.
Sydney Sea Hunters was a small club, one of a dozen in Sydney with about 20 members. By the early 1960's diving from a boat, rather than a rowable float or surf ski, was safer and more practical.
The first boats were of timber construction like the clinker-ply photographed off Bundeeena Beach,Port Hacking (Sydney). This particular boat had planks nailed rather than riveted, consequently it soon developed bad leaks, described as a death trap by senior expert Ted Louis.
Note: Both boys wear imported from France Tarzan brand wetsuits, the first nylon-lined neoprene wetsuits and probably still the best quality even today, but no longer available. The outboard is a 40 HP Evinrude electric start. The boys are water skiing after a morning of spearing fish. The beach in the background is prime real estate today with many more buildings.
A Mosman Whalers club member posted us the following:
Hi John great to see that you have really got off to a good start.The photos are great and the little story that goes with them will be invalueable to set people straight about how it used to be for us early freediver types. There is a lot of mis-information about in the diving world and how it used to be -mainly generated by the marketing people in the diving industry.
The mis-information serves their purpose and gives we earlier adventurers a bad name. Although I will admit that there were quite a few things done in those early days that would not be acceptable now (as we know so much more about our underwater world).
Keep up the good work!!
Terry Morrison
E-Mail:frogterry2000@yahoo.com.au, frogterry@hotmail.com
