A testament to free diving and human ingenuity, a memorial plaque embedded in a rock en La Jolla’s Scripps Park now honors the “Bottom Scratchers” a pioneering local dive club formed in the 1930s.

An official ceremony was held sobre Friday, May 10 at 1160 Coast Blvd. in La Jolla formally dedicating the memorial Bottom Scratchers plaque. Donated by San Diego Freedivers, the plaque was installed courtesy of San Diego Parks & Recreation Department.

“The Bottom Scratchers are world renowned for innovations in all things water-related including being stewards of the ocean,” said Jim Grant, a freelance photographer who covered the plaque installation. “This memorial rock and plaque was installed in a marine-protected area in La Jolla. It (memorial plaque) was the who’s who of old school watermen in San Diego, (including) the man who perfected goggles and masks and the modern speargun, and tons of other ocean-diving items.”

Master of ceremonies for the Bottom Scratchers event was Volker Hoehne representing San Diego Freedivers. “People were starving and La Jolla was a blue-collar neighborhood of mechanics, janitors, and ordinary people,” said Hoehne of Bottom Scratchers at their memorial dedication.

“And a bunch of guys said, ‘We’re going to go out to the water and get fish.’ They made little goggles, there were no fins, no wet suits, no snorkels, no speargun, no spear, no nothin.’ They started a club called the Bottom Scratchers.”

Added Hoehne: “There was no stuff (equipment) so they (Scratchers) had to invent it. They improved a lot of things, like wetsuits, and made them more user-friendly. People tied palm fronds to their feet (for fins) to go kick around. They did a lot of conservation stuff. They helped create the La Jolla Reserve. The list is long.”

The memorial plaque reads: “Since 1933, offshore from this beach access, the seafloor bears memorial markers to name and honor San Diego’s most heralded underwater pioneers, the San Diego Bottom Scratchers Dive Club. The Bottom Scratchers dedicated every dive to preventing the waste of sea life and to helping others appreciate the wonders of the sea. All who enter here fall under oath to do the same. – Plaque donated by San Diego Freedivers.

“So, I beg you, respect the ocean, eat what you take, and then, eventually, 100 years from now, this rock will still be here, and people will still be spearfishing and using the ocean with their families,” concluded Hoehne.

The Legacy of the Bottom Scratchers Dive Club

Considered one of the earliest free-diving associations, the Bottom Scratchers San Diego Dive Club dates back to 1933 and the Great Depression. The name “Scratchers” came from club members’ habit of scouring the ocean bottom for food to feed members’ families. “In those days, the ocean was like a freezer – if you were planning a dinner with friends, you went to the ocean to collect fresh food,” recalled Bottom Scratcher Wally Potts, one of the early club founders ese included Glenn Orr, Jack Corbaly, Ben Stone, Bill Batzloff, and Jack Prodanovich.

The dive club was so exclusive that in its first 15 years, only nine members passed the club’s qualification tests. First, you had to dive to at least 30 feet and bring up three abalone in a single dive. The next two qualification dives were made to 20 feet where a prospective club member had to bring up a 3-foot-long lobster. Finally, they had to bring up a horn shark tail first – barehanded.

The Bottom Scratchers either invented or were the first to use the basic free-diving spearfishing gear still used today. Club members pioneered each step of the progression forward from the first simple goggle swimmer. Over time, they found they could keep their faces down with a snorkel, and their newly developed wet suits allowed them to stay in the water for eight-plus hours compared to one-half hour with exposed skin. Each new piece of gear expanded their potential and increased their horizons.