View Single Post
Old 09-14-2016, 02:52 AM   #1
popgun pete
Registered User
 
popgun pete's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,245
A Monument to the Human Forge that created our weapons

Just in case I have "buried" this from a wider view I am posting here as well:

http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=190915

The great pioneers of the sport and their part in it is slowly vanishing into the past, soon only to be read in the pages of long forgotten books and the odd retrospective magazine or internet article.

I believe the remedy for this state of affairs is a monumental public sculpture that will add dignity, legitimacy and authority to the sport which we all love and form part of an enduring legacy. To this end I see not a statue of an individual or individuals, but the symbolism of a powerful fish and perhaps several species mounted on a rock based plinth of substantial proportions in a place adjacent to the waters where it all began. On this plinth, and in pride of place, will go the iconic names of the sport engraved on, or cast into metal plaques and I speak of none other than Drago “Jack” Prodanovich and Wally Potts. The idea of the metal plaques is that over time other names can be added as the ranks of the pioneers are joined by their modern counterparts and one name that belongs on there needs no introduction here from me. If there was a metaphoric “Hall of Underwater Weapons” that stretched back to the formative past, then the longest shadows are cast there by the two men I have just named and their immediate contemporaries in later years. Many underwater weapons have been furnished and went on to become iconic types for many years, even decades and to see them one only needs to look in the pages of Skin Diver magazine, for a long time the Sport’s “Bible”, during the sixties and seventies. It is not for me to name them all, other people here are far better qualified than me and such an endeavour will need planning, organization, funding and the will to drive it along. Here amongst the ranks of Spearboarders there is a collective knowledge and passion that I believe can make this thing happen. It was often said of the late Jacques Cousteau that he saw a need to exalt and dignify, not for himself as some cynics might say, but for the greater good of the Ocean World and those who immerse themselves in it. Exalting and dignifying are no bad things in creating and sustaining a positive image that we will all benefit from.

I almost hesitated in typing this, but as with most things a seed has to be sown by somebody to make a start. I strongly doubt that I am Robinson Crusoe in this matter and hope that this idea, which has been floating around in many people's minds for some time, will come to be a reality before we all get too old to see it happen!

N.B. Hopefully more on this at "All About Guns"!

If the idea takes off then there would usually be a design competition framed within certain requirements and a tendering process for the job, though this may be short-circuited by awarding a commission based on an outstanding design submission. City planners will need to be happy that the monument fits the character of the chosen location.

Last edited by popgun pete; 09-14-2016 at 06:16 PM. Reason: follow up comment
popgun pete is offline   Reply With Quote