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Stan Sheley’s Antique Diving Equipment Museum is on display at Stan's year round. This is an opportunity to see what the pioneers of recreational diving used to "Explore Their World." |
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| The collection of antique diving equipment was assembled
and cared for by Stan Sheley, a local diving pioneer who
resided in San Jose. This unique collection spans 60-plus
years and several of the items are one of a kind, and are
still in working condition today.
Sixty five years ago, the San Jose Mercury Herald reported one of Stan Sheley’s early underwater adventures as follows... "On March 21, 1936, Stan -then nineteen years old - made news when he used a homemade diving helmet which he made from a water heater to explore underneath the cold muddy waters of nearby Los Gatos Creek." Six years later, Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnon introduced scuba, which stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. The earliest dives made by man were around 4500 B.C. and most likely the activity involved the pursuit of food. Sometime later, salvage and repair operations, wartime activities and mining minerals became reasons for diving. Recreational diving first became popular in the early 1950's when portable diving equipment called scuba was available. Since then millions of adventure-seeking people have been trained and use scuba diving equipment to explore and study our underwater environment. Please stop by the store, if you are interested in the Stan Sheley Antique Diving Equipment Museum or you want learn more about recreational sport diving. |