Jacques Cousteau invented the demand valve and scuba diving. Divers wore lead boots, bronze helmets and canvas suits with an air hose to the support boat before the scuba diver with face mask, air tank and flippers came along.
How better to prove their affinity with the sea than to swim naked or in very tiny briefs under water.
In the early days they invented and built their own kit, even flippers had to be made from conveyor belt rubber, they were at the peak of the sport's development and had to be physically fit to perform on camera underwater.
They were young fit men, living closely together on a boat (Calypso was an old British destroyer), they were usually diving in warm water away from the coastline so who cares if they didn't wear their swimsuits if the camera wasn't around.
There's some Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau videos on YouTube, take a look if only to see fit Frenchman in brief swimwear.
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