I started watching Sea Hunt when it was first broadcast when I was in the 6th grade in 1958. The show had a significant impact on my life: from my lifelong use of Vitalis because it was the show's sponsor - to getting a SCUBA diving license on my own time and with my own money when I was in the Air Force in 1969 - to SCUBA diving in Japan: from Hokkaido to Okinawa. I was also motivated to read Lloyd Bridges' book: Mask and Flippers in 1969. The book is Lloyd Bridges' own personal life story with diving - beginning with trying to make a diving bell out of an old boiler or some other form of tank when he was 12 years old. When his father came by that dock and saw some other boys pumping a bicycle pump into a rubber tube, he asked "Where's Lloyd?" They told him, "He's down there. We're pumping air to him." By that time, Lloyd had already passed out since the bicycle pump didn't work for supplying air. His father dove down, pulled him out, and recussitated him. The rest of the book is also filled with rather stupid things that Mike Nelson would have never done - such as diving with ear plugs. The book also answers some key questions that Sea Hunt fans would have, such as "The first rule of diving is always dive with a partner. Why does Mike Nelson dive alone?" Lloyd Bridges' answers: If Mike Nelson dove with a partner, he wouldn't get into the dramatic fixes that are the show. And by seeing Mike Nelson get into those fixes, the audience gets the message to always dive with a partner." Two other things about the show that I noticed were done for dramatic effect: 1: So that we can see his full face, Mike Nelson wears a mask that does not have the equalizers to squeeze his nose so he can equalize his ear tubes for diving more than 9 feet. He'd bust his ear drums below 15 feet. 2: Mike Nelson for dramatic effect swims with his arms grabbing handfuls of water and pulling back. That is an exhausting motion that does not afford much movement at all. I know: I tried it when diving. All of us Sea Hunt fans will always remember Lloyd Bridges' charismatic narrations: "There he was. Being eaten by a giant clam. I knew he was in trouble."
Review of Sea Hunt
