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Skin Diving History
From the Viewpoint of the Los
Angeles County Programs |
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Junior Frog Program
In the late 1950's, Al Tillman (01UICC) was concerned
that the art of skin diving would be lost with the
recent surge of what he called "scuba mania". The
public was bypassing skin diving classes and getting
right into scuba training. |
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| Junior
Frogmen circa 1950s |
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Junior
Frogmen circa 1950s |
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Junior
Frogmen circa 1950s |
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At the time,
the minimum age to take scuba training was 16 and there
was nothing available for those younger would be divers
to get involved with. Al saw a way to create a
farm system to establish future generations of adult
divers by creating programs for the youth focused around
developing good skin diving skills.
Thus was born the Junior Frog Program. The program
was offered through the Department of Parks and
Recreation at their various pools for the youth with an
emphasis on safe diving, conservation, exploration,
courtesy and good fellowship.
As the program evolved it became more and more popular
and provided the local youth with an introduction to
diving. Many classes at the time went on field
trips to the Underwater Demolition Team Base where
Commander Francis Douglas provided demonstrations in the
water with his team of divers. |
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Golden Fin Tournament
In the spirit of other aquatic programs of the time,
local competitions for the Junior Frogs were created by
means of the Golden Fin Tournament. For many years
the Underwater Unit conducted a seven event single day
competition to provide youngsters in the Junior Frog
Program to demonstrate their skills.
Through this tournament youngsters were able to compete
for individual and team prizes with other Junior Frogmen
from all over the County. |
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| Golden Fin Award circa 1950s |
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The program was
later expanded and became a prestigious County wide
tournament. The Golden Fin Tournament was aimed at
making competition itself a worthwhile experience for
all youngsters, win or lose. The mastery of the
skills necessary for competition and the courage to face
competition were worthwhile by themselves and gave
youngsters the opportunity to try and be their best.
Many participants in the Junior Frog Program and Golden
Fin Tournament later learned how to scuba dive through
Los Angeles County Programs, some even becoming
Underwater Instructors for Los Angeles County when they
became of age. |
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Skin Diving Today
As many of the National certification agencies step away
from teaching skin diving as part of their basic scuba
diving curriculum, Los Angeles County still remains
committed to these fundamental skills. Our belief
is good skin divers make better scuba divers and that
core value resonates through all of our programs from
the 3R's,
ADP all the way up to
UICC. |
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| Skin
Diving Skills |
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Teaching Future Generations |
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Learning to Skin Dive |
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