In 1953 a group of friends from Dayton Ohio headed for Florida. We
camped at Juniper Springs which
is about 30 miles east of Silver Springs. We were all good swimmers but had never
dived. We bought
fins and masks at Silver Springs and learned to dive. When we returned to Dayton we
started the
Juniper Skin-diving Club which was the first dive club in Ohio. The spring at
Juniper is about 20 feet deep.
It is 72 degrees year round.
In Ohio we dove in stone quarries, Lake Erie and local lakes. I
built many U/W camera cases. Above right
my brother Larry holds an early experimental case which had a pressure bladder. It
worked but was awkward.
Later cases were O ring sealed and featured full controls. Most of my cases
had tripod threads which
allowed underwater time exposures. We also used clear flash bulbs which gave a lot
of light with more
red in the light than strobes give.
We dove a lot at a stone quarry in Cedarville ,Ohio. Our first cold water gear was
just sweaters and
long johns. Later we got dry suits and wet suits. I made the first ice dive in
Ohio in 1954 - and froze!
Above my brother Mike is diving on a wreck near Nassau. The warm clear water in the
Bahamas is
like going to heaven for divers from the north. Below are shots from the Florida
Keys.
Below are some items from McKees Sunken Treasure Museum on Treasure Key
in the Florida Keys.
We found the cannon ball on a dive trip near Marathon. The middle photo is an X-rays of
a
clump of coral containing many items - scissors nails and etc.
