ISSUE 01 - Magazine - Page 14
14
DEEPSEA MGZN
CELEBRATING
DIVING HISTORY
The Deepwater Diving Monument will recognize and
celebrate Santa Barbara’s legacy as the birthplace
of Deepwater Diving and will be gifted to the City by
the Local and International Diving Communities.
Located adjacent to the Santa Barbara Harbor, this
long overdue monument will depict a professional
diver, circa 1982 “Going to Work”, wearing the locally
made and world-standard Kirby Morgan® Superlite®
17 Diving Helmet. The Project is being funded by the
sale of Limited Edition, Certi昀椀ed, Fine-Art Bronze
Statuettes sculpted by California-based artist, Greg
Polutanovich.
Very few people know it, but Santa Barbara, California is recognized by most international diving historians as the birthplace of deepwater diving technology.
During the 1960’s, many of the Santa Barbara abalone diving industry divers began a rapid transition
from air diving to deepwater oxy-helium commercial
diving.
05 — Blue Palace Crete
06 — Belmond La Residencia
07 — The Maxi Dress
08 — Ra昀氀es Intanbul
Mixed gas breathing apparatus developed in Santa
Barbara was used by divers to rapidly expand the
safe depth range for o昀昀shore exploration.
Wilson’s General O昀昀shore Divers company built and
launched the world’s 昀椀rst commercial lockout bell
‘Purisima’ in Santa Barbara in 1964.
While the concept of Purisima was advantageous, its
initial use revealed several 昀氀aws and challenges that
needed to be addressed. The bell’s instability in the
water column required the addition of a third sphere
for buoyancy to keep it vertical. This made launch and
recovery di昀케cult in most sea conditions.
The Purisma Bell has been restored and can be seen
today outside the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum,
there’s an excellent display telling its story inside.
In Santa Barbara, Bev Morgan and Bob Kirby
subsequently formed Kirby Morgan Dive Systems®
and designed the mixed gas diving helmets and
systems which have become the international
standard for military and deepwater divers worldwide.
Since 1964, well over 90% of the deepwater diving
helmets used by working divers worldwide are made
in Santa Barbara. In 1968, Santa Barbara City College
developed the only community college program in
the United States to train Marine Technicians and divers to support this global industry.
This development of equipment, technology, support, and training infrastructures developed by the
pioneering divers in Santa Barbara rapidly spread
The Santa Barbara Deepwater Diving Monument
worldwide and revolutionized the trade of both the
Committee was formed by local historian and founder
commercial and military diver.
of the Historical Diving Society, Leslie Leaney and
2022 marked the 60th anniversary of the 400 - foot Professor Emeritus Don Barthelmess of Santa Barbara
pioneering mixed gas dive by Hugh ‘Dan’ Wilson, a City College’s Marine Diving Technology Program.
former abalone diver, that led to the deepwater diving revoloution.
Their mission is to design and privately fundraise a
bronze diver sculpture/monument to the pioneering
Wilson lived in Santa Barbara and cast o昀昀 from Santa local divers as a gift to the City of Santa Barbara WaBarbara harbor for his historic dive in relative secrecy terfront Department. The monument will provide an
on the 昀椀shing vessel ‘Rio Janeiro’ on November 3, 1962 enduring local attraction that con昀椀rms Santa Barbara
harbor’s place in history as the birthplace of internaDuring this timeframe, the diving industry evolved tional deep water ocean exploration.
from utilizing traditional copper and brass heavy-gear
helmets for surface gas dives into modern lightweight
headgear used from closed diving bells. Wilson’s hisBronze Statuette Ordering Information
toric dive was the catalyst that created what is known
www.deepwaterdivingmonument.com/
as “The Santa Barbara Helium Rush.” The technology
developed in Santa Barbara rapidly spread to the
Copyright © 2022 The Deepwater Diving
North Sea, the Middle East, Far East, Gulf of Mexico,
Venezuela and beyond.
Monument Project - All Rights Reserved
