Simnia's Dive Pages

Why Dive?

Here are the things I like about this magazine, especially compared to Skin Diver magazine (SDM), its main competitor at the time:

• To my knowledge, it was the only other diving magazine available in the U.S. in the 1960s, other than SDM.
• It is the only other diving magazine I remember seeing when I was learning to dive, other than SDM.
  
• Therefore it carries information and evokes memories more obscure than that of SDM.
• It provided an alternative view and focus on the sport of scuba, other than SDM.
• It is a source of advertisements not seen elsewhere, especially for vintage dive watches.
• It had many nice feature articles emphasizing ladies in swimsuits.
• It had many interesting articles on seafood cuisine: seaweed, abalone, lobster, etc.
• It has photos of vintage diving equipment and pristine beaches that are now all gone.
• It is somewhat easier to collect because it spanned only 15 years bimonthly instead of 51 years monthly (as in SDM).

Here are the things I don't like about Dive:

• The articles weren't as interesting as in SDM: less scientific, less interesting stories, fewer adventures.
• The photography wasn't as good as in SDM: grainy, poor color.
• The cover photography tended to be weak, with photos too dark or too distant.
• It was too infrequent: once every two months, compared to SDM being once every month.
• The size was too large and bulky. Even today the issues won't completely fit on a scanner.
• Nobody I knew bought it or recommended it, so it lacked the sharing aspect and universality of SDM.

These latter attributes may have contributed to the demise of this magazine. Interestingly, even decades later these same drawbacks that kept me from wanting to subscribe in the 1960s still prevent me from really getting heavily interested in this magazine. It was simply a more recreational, relaxed magazine meant more for show than depth. Whereas SDM had great news, fascinating adventures, good technical information, futuristic predictions, political activist articles, and so on, Dive just had fun articles about ladies, fictional stories, a heavy emphasis on The Diving Locker of San Diego, a heavy emphasis on specific trips rather than general info for the public, and so on.

The covers

covers table

A few notable pages from Dive

samples.htm

Years spanned

I have seen Dive issues advertised with dates from 1964-1979, so for the time being I'm assuming this 15-year span is close to the actual span of this magazine.

Clearly, even Dive magazine itself had some numbering problems:

When the above numbering problems are corrected, the situation makes sense from 1967 on. It appears that the (bimonthly) issues were numbered 1-6 across the span of one year, and that the starting month for each number "1" was not January but rather October.

Circa 1964, the situation is still unclear to me. For example, in one issue with only "June" marked on the cover, the only official date shown inside on the contents page is (c) 1964. However, on several pages in that issue are references to 1965 and none to 1964: "HAVE YOUR TANK V.I.P.'ed 65.", "RENT 1965 Chris-Crafts", "DIVE MAGAZINE & NASDS AWARD ... APRIL 1965", so that issue was probably June 1965, and possibly the (c) 1964 date refers to the earliest issue of Dive. But that June issue indicates no pairing of months, and worse, June is out of sync with all the other issues of Dive, before and after 1965.

The Vol. 1 No. 1 issue carries an explanation on an opening page that the magazine had run into temporary financial problems and had discontinued for an unspecified amount of time, but was fortunately able to restore publication, which was an unknown precedent in the diving magazine business. Such financial problems would account for the irregularity of issues and their numbering, at least in the pre-1967 issues.

Miscellaneous

June 1968, August 1968: The transition to including the dive flag logo.

Starting in August 1968, the covers had a diver flag symbol placed to the left of the magazine title, a practice which continued after the logo changed, and ever after, as far as I can tell.

The old logo, before 1971.

The "DIVE" logo itself changed significantly between 1970 and 1971. The original 4-dot Dive logo that I knew so well from the late '60s ended in either October or December 1970, and was replaced with a new logo without the dots by February 1971. I don't remember this less distinctive logo, only the earlier 4-dot logo. SDM went through several such logo changes, also.

The new logo of 1971.

In June 1973 the size of Dive magazine was reduced slightly in its vertical dimension. Issues from that month on will fit vertically onto a scanner, but still are too wide to fit horizontally completely on a scanner. SDM went through a similar reduction in size in the 1950s.

Did Dive become monthly later on? I have only one issue from 1974, so I can't be certain, but that issue is for January 1974, which is the first pure January issue up to that time. Until then January was always skipped or combined with February. Since Dive seemed to be copying Skin Diver in many ways such as size reduction, logo changes, and addition of well-known authors, I think it's quite likely Dive had been pushing to be a monthly magazine for years, and finally achieved that in 1974.

Other early underwater magazines