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Milestones
Significant Accomplishments Along
Our Journey |
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A History In the Making
This page is dedicated to some of the more noteworthy
accomplishments and milestones that have been recorded
in the history of the Los Angeles County Underwater
Programs. |
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1952
The "Catalyst" memo that proposed Underwater Instruction
be developed, regulated and taught by a Public Agency
was circulated. |
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1953
Al Tillman, the Sports Director for the
Department of Parks and Recreation along with Bev Morgan
representing the Los Angeles County Lifeguards are
tasked with creating an underwater training program.
They along with Ramsey Parks receive background and
training from Conrad Limbaugh at Scripps in La Jolla,
California.
Approximately nine skin and scuba classes were offered
with Bev Morgan instructing more than 100 people
interested in SCUBA diving at local Los Angeles County
public swimming pools. Bev Morgan writes and
publishes the "Underwater Safety Manual" considered to
be one of the first diving manuals designed for public
training classes. |
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1954
An Advisory Board around diving
activities and safety is created for Los Angeles County.
Founding members included persons such as Conrad
Limbaugh, Dr. Kenneth Norris, Roger Plaisted, Ferron
Losee and E.R. Cross.
Al Tillman officially takes over all Underwater
Instruction through the Sports Division of the
Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with
Rusty Williams, the Division Head of the Los Angeles
County Lifeguard Service.
Bill Starr is hired to assist Al Tillman and together
they structure the first Underwater Instructor
Certification Course in the world. 01 UICC is held
at the Lynwood Natatorium in Lynwood, California with 25
candidates in attendance.
Two more UICCs are conducted to meet the growing demand
and popularity of SCUBA diving. Al Tillman and
Bill Starr co-author a new manual called "Underwater
Recreation" that blends safety with a positive upbeat
recreation concept that works well for public classes
for beginner divers. |
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1956
Underwater Instructor Certification
Courses (UICCs), extend to a 3 month long annual
training program with an average of 30 or more
candidates per class. Typically only 65% graduate
the class and achieve full certification. The
majority of the candidates have early dive industry or
dive shop connections.
Al Tillman accepts a teaching position at California
State University Los Angeles, but is retained by Los
Angeles County as a specialist to oversee the underwater
programs he helped create. |
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1957
Don St. Hill who was a Lifeguard
Lieutenant and Chief of the Search and Recovery Team for
Los Angeles County is brought in as the new Aquatics
Director for the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Together Tillman and St. Hill work to expand and polish
the various underwater programs.
The Junior Frogmen Program is introduced and becomes a
very popular program throughout Los Angeles County.
A recertification seminar program for instructors is
also developed. Diving is promoted through various
events and demonstrations. St. Hill and Tillman
perform diving tank presentations at the extremely
popular "Los Angeles Sportsman Show".
Tillman, St. Hill and Dottie Frasier create and produce
the first training film "Introduction to Skin Diving"
with support of the USC Cinema Department.
Skin Diver Magazine with Jim Auxier and Chuck Blakesee
(graduate from 02 UICC) provide tremendous support
behind the Los Angeles County Underwater Programs. |
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1958
Several organizations and individuals
from across the country request to be recognized by the
Los Angeles County Underwater Unit. An affiliate
by mail program is offered to help qualified and
experienced instructors obtain some level of official
status. A one week certification course is
developed in the summer of 1959 to address this need but
was eventually discouraged by County officials not
wanting the program to extend beyond the County of Los
Angeles itself.
UICCs continued to flourish along with more content and
enhanced curriculums. A governing Board of Directors was
formed that consisted of many of the outstanding
graduates of past UICCs.
Seminars on various topics such as Marine Cooking,
Search and Recovery, Marine Biology and New Equipment
were offered to help in recertification efforts but also
aided in public education for regular divers looking to
advance their skills and training. |
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1959
The County Underwater programs
begin to mature and achieve national and worldwide
recognition for excellence in training standards and
innovation. |
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1960's
Al Tillman leaves the Los Angeles County
program in 1960 and founds NAUI with the help of Nell
Hess. Clint Degn and Vince Van Detta take over and
through their combined leadership introduce a
multi-specialty Advanced Diver Seminar to keep recent
basic course graduates diving. This was the
foundation of what is now known as ADP, the Advanced
Diver Program.
Early participation would often exceed 100 divers for
the 3 month annual course. This program was the
forerunner for all specialty courses later offered by
other training agencies in the 1970's.
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1970's
The famous "LA County Ordinance" is
introduced that mandated government supervision of
rentals, air fills, instruction, certification and
charter boat operations. The underwater programs
still attracted instructor candidates despite the rise
of several national training agencies.
During this era, Los Angeles County claimed to have
certified over 500 instructors and over 150,000 divers
to date. The programs that were offered at this
time included Junior Frogmen, Adult Skin Diving, Adult
Skin and Scuba, Advanced Diver and of course, Underwater
Instructor.
The County programs were extending sport diving to
include training for underwater police, firefighting and
other technology driven courses.
In 1974 the Los Angeles County Underwater Instructors
formed a non-profit organization to conduct the UICC's
and ADP courses with Los Angeles County serving them as
a deeply involved consultancy. The Underwater
Instructors Association (UIA) provided the volunteers
for any of the County programs that were offered.
The staff generally came from the outstanding
instructors and divemasters of the time. |
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1994
On November 19, 1994 the 40th Reunion of the Underwater
Instructors Certification Course was held at the Regent
Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
It was a formal event honoring several pioneers in
diving education including Al Tillman, Bev Morgan, E.R.
Cross, Andy Rechnitzer, Zale Parry, Dottie Frasier,
Cmdr. Doug Fane, Jim Christiansen, Cmdr. Tommy Thompson,
Mel Fisher, Dick Bonin, Dick Long, Bob Meistrell and
Bill Meistrell.
Lloyd Bridges of Sea Hunt fame was also in attendance as
a special guest speaker. |
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2000
A County program called HEAT (High
Energy for At risk Teens) needed something completely
new and challenging for their water based activity
programs. They wanted to expand their skin diving
program but the training and risk involved with SCUBA
diving was not within their reach.
Discussions began on what could be offered to meet their
needs. The concept of "Scuba Air Snorkeling" or
SAS was conceived by the innovation and guidance of the
Los Angeles County Underwater Instructors Association.
Research on equipment along with developing the
standards of the program were conducted.
The end result was equipment being created with
specialized buoyancy compensators made out of floatation
foam that gave the participant the experience of SCUBA
while having the safety of skin diving. |
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2003
In 2003 the SAS program was
incorporated into a full day event designed to provide
the public with aquatic related recreation. It was
called the World of Water Festival and including
swimming, skin diving, kayaking, fishing, commercial
diving and scuba air snorkeling (SAS).
Over 250 people, families and kids participated in the
World of Water Festival that was organized and staffed
by volunteer County Instructors making this a very
rewarding and successful endeavor.
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2004
On November 13, 2004 the 50th Reunion of the Underwater
Instructors Certification Course was held at the Los
Angeles Athletic Club in Los Angeles, California.
Everyone in attendance proudly gathered with the finest
SCUBA Instructors in the world for a chance to reflect
on all the milestones and accomplishments that this
organization has provided the diving public over the
last 50 years. |
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