[Previous entry: "HISTORY OF DIVING .......Australian trivia"] [Next entry: "SCRAPBOOK .........Kathy Anne Troutt"]

04/07/2006: "SCRAPBOOK ........ diver news 1962"

It was 1962 when Wal Gibbins (left) was pictured with a bent spear after a shark encounter off Sydney.

Also in 1962 dive store manager and former navy diver Wally Reynolds (right) made a 327 foot dive off Sydney setting a new record for an aqualung – the registered trade mark or ‘other name’ for scuba.

He guided Kathy Troutt, then a 17 year-old novice diver to a similar depth setting a record for women.

The riddle as to what became of Wally Reynolds in more recent times was given light by Peter ‘prof’ Harper.

"Wally Reynolds was lost at sea, the Sulu Sea to be precise. While working aboard an oil rig or tender vessel where he was required to untangle a rope from around a drill underwater at night.

He chose to use a snorkel for the seemingly simple operation and apparently got into difficulties under the hull of a large vessel or platform and drowned".