THE HANS HASS FIFTY FATHOMS AWARD
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During World War II (1939–1945), Stan was in
the US Navy and got to freedive with men from
his unit at the Naval Air Station in the Canal Zone.
Some of these men were experienced California
freedivers who had spent their water time
catching lobsters and abalone. It was here that
Stan encountered rubber masks, snorkels and
Owen Churchill rubber fins.
The first book on diving that influenced Stan
was Diving to Adventure, by Hans Hass, which
was published in English in 1951. By that time,
he had purchased an aqualung and was hiring
himself out to recover lost items and general
underwater work. Inspired by the adventures
of Hans and Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Stan
soon started shooting 16mm film with an early
Fenjohn housing and then a Rebikoff, before
building his own Plexiglas housings. His first