Three Decades of History and Change

In March, 1978, I’d just turned 25 and was running my very first dive operation in the eastern Caribbean. In those days, dive operations weren’t what we’ve come to expect today. At many destinations, the handful of divers who passed through each year would often have to seek out a local fisherman who owned a few scuba cylinders (of questionable parentage) and who, ostensibly, knew where the best reefs were.

The dive operation I ran wasn’t much more sophisticated than this. Our boat was a 20-foot plywood shoe box from which we would have to bail 40 gallons of water each morning (or risk sinking). The ancient outboard (a mix of Johnson and Evinrude parts) was steered by means of a scrap of two-by-four, lashed to the side by string. It lacked basic amenities such as a radio, first-aid kit, oxygen and toolbox. And its range was sufficiently limited that the only dive site within reach was a shallow, 20-foot reef where the visibility seldom exceeded 40 feet.

Needless to say, we didn’t get a lot of visiting divers. In fact, our clientele was limited almost exclusively to non-divers taking part in what we referred to as the one-afternoon “resort” course. Imagine my surprise, then, when a honeymooning couple showed up on the boat one day who not only had their own equipment, they also possessed such exotic accessories as BC power inflators, alternate-air-source second stages and (gasp!) instrument consoles.

“You guys can’t fool me,” I remember saying. “You’re dive instructors, aren’t you?” The couple was Bruce and Sandy Hootman, owners, for the past 30 years, of Underseas Scuba Center. Bruce and Sandy were passing through on their way to Grand Cayman. (Guess which destination they decided had the better diving? Hint: It sure as Hell wasn’t where I was living.)

Bruce and Sandy’s visit was the beginning of a friendship that has spanned four decades. Over that time, I’ve run dive operations in the Caribbean, DC and Hawai’i, and maintained close relationships with dive stores in North Carolina, Colorado and Florida. Yet none of these relationships has been closer than the one with Underseas Scuba Center. Like many of you, Underseas Scuba Center is what I consider to be “my” local dive store — even though I’ve lived in Chicago only sporadically over the past several decades.

This year, Bruce and Sandy celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of Underseas Scuba Center in 1976. In that time, much has changed — both in and out of diving. Many of the things we take for granted today, including cell phones, personal computers, CDs and DVDs, didn’t exist in 1976, Neither did jacket-style BCs, dive computers and split fins.

We thought that, in celebration of Underseas Scuba Center’s 30th birthday, you might like to know more about its history and about the changes in diving that have taken place over that time.

The 1970s: A Very Different Time

Are you old enough to remember 1976? It was a very different time.

• Jimmy Carter defeated Gerald Ford to become the USA’s 39th president.
• The Vietnam War and the resignation of the first sitting president, Richard Nixon, were recent memories.
• Gas prices had yet to eclipse 40 cents a gallon, and gas lines and rationing were still two years away. The national speed limit was a stifling 55 miles per hour.

• The USA was celebrating its bicentennial. Among US Diver’s most popular items that year was a line of masks, snorkels and fins made from a mixture of red, white and blue neoprene.
• Fleetwood Mac was recording the Rumours album. The Rolling Stones were considered an “aging” rock group.
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak formed Apple Computer. Bill Gates and Paul Allen formed Microsoft.

In March of 1976, Bruce opened the doors at Underseas Scuba Center very first location, 226 South Main in Lombard. The store would stay in this location until 1979, when it would move across the street from its current home. In 1986, Underseas Scuba Center moved to its present home at 611 North Addison, in what had originally been home to a company that sold steel staircases.

Learning to Dive in the 1970s

Learning to dive was very different in 1976. NAUI was then the world’s largest diver training organization, and the YMCA certified nearly as many students throughout the Chicago area as did the ten-year-old, upstart dive agency, PADI.

Scuba courses typically lasted eight to ten weeks, and students might go through a month or more of swimming and “skin” diving before being allowed to touch a scuba cylinder. Scuba courses had more in common with UDT/SEAL training than they did with modern classes. “Skills” such as bail-outs, ditch-and-recoveries and blindfolded harassment were considered critical to a diver’s development. Students were expected to master topics such as Boyle’s, Dalton’s, Henry’s and Charles’ law through long hours spent in less-than-stimulating classroom lectures. A lot of students never made it all the way through the course — and this was considered A Good Thing.

Dive equipment was radically different, too.

• Divers had just begun to embrace the concept of wearing some sort of inflatable buoyancy-control device. In most instances, this is what we now refer to as a “horse collar” BC — although a few still clung to what we now call a skin diving vest, whose soda-straw inflator did not allow you to effectively vent air under water.
• BC power inflators existed, as did alternate-air-source second stages — but, typically, you only found instructors using them.
• The submersible pressure gauge had just been accepted as a “standard” piece of equipment, but few divers had instrument consoles.
• Even the best horse-collar BCs were so uncomfortable at the surface that even a short swim could leave divers exhausted.
• The jacket-style BC was not introduced until 1977, and it would be three more years before it outsold horse-collar BCs. Primitive back-inflation BCs were introduced in the early 1970s; however, it was widely held that only certified lunatics, communists and child molesters would use one.
• The available neoprene was so stiff, wet suits had to have zippers at the wrists and ankles in order to get them on. (Wetsuit boots, interestingly enough, did not have zippers, and it could take up to a minute or more to squeeze into them.)
• Speaking of “stiff,” the two most popular fins — Scubapro Jet Fins and US Divers Rocket Fins — were almost impossible to kick, yet would only take you a fraction of the distance today’s split fins will for the same effort.

• If you wanted to avoid having to use dive tables, your only choice was the SOS Decompression meter, a mechanical contrivance so reliable, it earned the nickname Bend-O-Matic.

In 1976, being a diver meant being committed. If you survived the training process, you still had to work around the limitations of the only available equipment. Yet enough divers did that Underseas Scuba Center was able to succeed and grow.

30 Years Later

Today, Underseas Scuba Center is one of the nation’s best known and most respected dive centers. It has been recognized by PADI as a Five-Star Facility, and carries exclusive brands such as AquaLung, SeaQuest, Suunto and Atomic, whose manufacturers award dealerships to only the most quality-conscious dive centers.

• In the past three decades, over 5,000 divers have earned their scuba certification through Underseas Scuba Center. Many have gone on to become instructors. Today’s students learn using state-of-the-art, computer-based learning tools that enable them to complete the necessary classroom and pool training in just a single weekend.
• Since its inception, Underseas Scuba Center has also taken several thousand divers on group tours to destinations on six continent and in 50 countries. Many of these divers made their first trip outside the USA on an Underseas Scuba Center dive tour.

• Underseas Scuba Center has also become the pre-eminent service center for Suunto and other dive computers. Divers from across the country and around the world send Underseas their dive computers for everything from battery replacement to major repairs.

As this year progresses, we’ll share even more stories about Underseas Scuba Center’s history and the dramatic changes that have taken place in diving over the past three decades. Be sure to check our our gallery of historic photos in the Photo/Video section. — Harry Averill

 

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