The Deepwater Diving Monument

The Deepwater Diving Monument features a bronze sculpture of a diver encased in an original nineteen thirties hard-hat suit. It stands on a concrete pedestal at the Santa Barbara harbor, marking the site where George Scholtz and other commercial divers pioneered the local abalone and urchin industry. Before this equipment allowed men to remain submerged for hours, most harvesting occurred in the shallows. Scholtz frequently risked nitrogen narcosis and equipment failure here to pull massive catches from the cold, turbulent ocean floor.