The end of a era.

The Diving Locker at 1020 Grand Avenue has moved to 6167 Balboa Avenue as of January 1st 2006. The Diving Locker was started on June 15th 1959 on Cass Street in Pacific Beach. After 7 years it moved to 1020 Grand Avenue in Pacific Beach. Chuck, Terry and Flip Nicklin were managers for 42 years. The last 4 years have had 2 new owners. The first was not successful and the present owner, Jake Shelton is changing location as his lease has expired and the property has been sold. The Nicklin family no longer has an interest in the company or the property.

See ----- Fathoms Magazine article Issue #19 2007

(Click Here To Read SignOn San Diego Article About Chuck's History)

(The article is old news and be assured Chuck is still diving and filming)

How It All Began

Diving Locker History

In the middle 1950s, a group of graduate students and associates at Scripps Institute of Oceanography formed a corporation to do scientific consulting. The Scientific Diving Consultants, Inc. was hired by the city of San Diego to do a study of sea life in the area where the sewer outfall was to be installed off Point Loma.

There were eight original members including Dr. Wheeler North, Jim Stewart, Dr. Andreas Rechnitzer, Conrad "Connie" Limbaugh, Harrold Scotten, Ray Gilardi, Earl Murray and Chuck Fleming. All became important in the scientific community.

In 1959, they rented a building on Cass Street in Pacific Beach to store the bottom samples from their undersea collections. As the project came to an end, they had a surplus of about $5,000 and decided a dive shop would be a good investment as it would facilitate further underwater scientific and photography projects.

Emil Habecker, Ron Church and myself were brought into the corporation. Emil was a navy equipment specialist, Ron was a pioneer underwater still and film photographer and I was a diving enthusiast and small business owner.

On June 15th, 1959, the Diving Locker, named after the dive storage area at Scripps, opened for business on Cass street. But there was a considerable hitch in our plans. On June 14th, the day before our first day of business, a diving buddy claimed his friend was taken by a white shark while snorkeling at La Jolla Cove. This has been the only shark attack death in the history of San Diego. It was quite a while before we sold anything except magazines and some air for the working divers, although we were prepared to be a full service dive shop.

Over a period of years, as the members moved forward in their careers I absorbed the shares of the corporation. Connie Limbaugh was a driving force in the group, but he was lost in a cave diving accident in France. Ron Church helped me into the film business. At one time, Ron and I would dive in the canyon sharing the Rolliemarine underwater camera system, each having six shots on the twelve exposure film.

It was Ron Church's idea to form the Underwater Photographic Society, which started in the shop's back room. When Connie was lost, his wife Nan asked if I would like to use his photography equipment that was the state of the art at that time. All of a sudden I had the store to back me, the equipment, and the urge to share the underwater world that had become so important in my life.

In about 1966 we moved to Grand Avenue, the present location, and a few years later purchased the swim school and pool. We were in business 42 years. For a long time we were among the oldest of the one-owner dive operations in United States.

The Diving Locker always retained the highest standards in teaching SCUBA and retail support of the customers. It was a challenge, especially with the energy problems and the changing retail trends. But, if I had it all to do over again, I would jump at the chance.

Chuck Nicklin