Dr. Sam Miller

Dr. Samuel Miller began his long diving career in 1943 as a result to a very serious eye infection contracted while swimming in a local YMCA pool. In order to continue swimming he was required to wear a pair of crude goggles for eye protection. When he had graduated from high school in 1950 he had managed to acquire a Sea Net mask and a pair of Churchill fins. He was a “goggler” in a sport that had no name, no shops, no magazines, no training programs, no organizations, no flag, and very few participants.

Equipped with only a mask, fins and a GI surplus sweater for thermal protection and using borrowed equipment he made his first “lung” (SCUBA) dive on Memorial Day 1951 in Divers Cove, Laguna Beach, California.

He was a member and officer or on the board of directors of number of prestigious Spear fishing, Scuba and Underwater photography diving clubs. Most recently he was on the founding board of directors and Director of Recreational Diving for the Historical Diving Society.

In the beginning there were no published recreational diving books As an avid book collector Dr. Miller amassed what is possibly the most complete and valuable collection of historical recreational diving books, periodicals and ephemera in existence. In 1993 he presented the first US diving bibliophile meeting which was attended by divers from through out the world.

Dr. Miller appeared on the cover and was the first guest editor of Skin Diver Magazine. He has authored numerous articles for Skin Diver, Scuba Pro Diving, Historical Diver, Southwest Diver, Discover Diving, Los Angeles Underwater News, NAUI News and currently writes a diving column for a California news paper, the first and only regularly scheduled diving column to appear in any US news paper.

Retired and in his mid 70s he resides on a hill in Central California over looking the Pacific Ocean. He divides his time doing historical diving research, traveling to exotic dive locations, and frequently visiting and diving in his beloved Baja California.