Jacques Cousteau....and His Gear

[vbond0071]

What Exactly Were Jacques And His Crew Using For "air Cylinders" On Their Backs That Looked Like Yellow Rebreathers Back In The Lat 1970's And Early 80's?? What Were Those Things And How Much Air Did They Hold? They Looked Very Covenient And Easy To Handle On Their Backs......why Is Everyone Still Using 80's Today???

Thanks-

Vic

 

[Vie]

What Exactly Were Jacques And His Crew Using For "air Cylinders" On Their Backs That Looked Like Yellow Rebreathers...

You mean these? Some pics and info...

IMG_9792

Cousteau FL

Flashback Scuba Products: C-Shell

Vintage Scuba Supply Community Forum - Spirotechnique C-shell

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/tanks-valves-bands/205864-tank-enclosure.html

 

[Jim Ernst]

Very cool!!!

Thank you for the post *answer* to the question!!!!!

 

[Luis H]

You mean these? Some pics and info...

IMG_9792

Cousteau FL

Flashback Scuba Products: C-Shell

Vintage Scuba Supply Community Forum - Spirotechnique C-shell

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/tanks-valves-bands/205864-tank-enclosure.html

The second link (and I think the first link also) are not pictures of the Calypso (Cousteau) divers. Those are pictures of Ryan Spence using the RAID system. The RAID system is a set of two tank for open circuit Scuba and was used by the Calypso divers in either late 70’s or early 80’s.

The picture on the third link is a reproduction of Cousteau’s Hydrodynamic pack that Ryan made for a museum. This type of pack was what Cousteau divers used in the early “Undersea World of Jacque Cousteau” series.

Ryan has a great on line Cousteau equipment museum and a very large collection of Cousteau equipment (probably the largest private collection). I recommend browsing through his web site:
Flashback Scuba: Simply Adventure

The pictures in that second link are actually from our vintage equipment gathering last spring in Weeki Wachee, FL. There is even a picture of Ryan and I at the bottom left. I am wearing my orange Fenzy horse collar.

You can also see in that set of pictures that Ryan wore both a yellow and a silver RAID system. The early calypso equipment was the black and yellow, I don’t know exactly when they switched to the silver suits, but I think it was mid eighties.

All this equipment was open circuit Scuba and some of the tanks were totally custom. The hydrodynamic pack used 4 welded spiral wound steel tanks (they look scary). Some of the silver packs used four titanium 5000 psi cylinders. The RAID system used two steel tanks. There were also several other systems that were not enclosed. To dive the Britannic they used a set of three good size tanks.

 

[Vie]

Thanks for the clarification, Luis.

 

[drbill]

I know the team was using the silver suits and packs back in 1985 or 86 when we were filming an episode for Cousteau's "Rediscovery of the World" series for TBS. However, I thought they had three tanks under the shell instead of two then.

 

[Luis H]

I know the team was using the silver suits and packs back in 1985 or 86 when we were filming an episode for Cousteau's "Rediscovery of the World" series for TBS. However, I thought they had three tanks under the shell instead of two then.

The RAID system designed and built by Technisub for Cousteau (and for sale to the public) had two tanks (I think around 65 to 70 cu.ft. each, I am not sure). I think they used that in the late 80’s.

The system on the pictures below as you can see had four tanks. I am fairly certain these are the Titanium 5000 psi tanks.

I know they also had some 3 tanks system, but I am not sure if the 3 tank systems were enclosed.

Ryan may drop by and share more information.

An interesting thing, in all the multi-tank systems (3 or 4 tanks) they always used one tank as a reserved. The reserved tank was always equipped with an isolation valve, but they didn’t use redundant systems. They just isolated the reserve.

Cousteau was a fan of the single stage double hose regulator (the original Mistral) for its high reliability. With only two moving parts and no sealing O-rings in the regulator there is extremely low probability of malfunction. He preferred the reliability of simplicity rather than the complexity of redundancy.

 

[drbill]

Here are links to a few of the newspaper columns I wrote about the filming on Alcyone back in the mid-1980's. There are pictures as well (gear is in the second link).

Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Dive Dry Column

Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Dive Dry Column


Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Dive Dry Column

 

[Nemrod]

Luis is absolutely correct in that Ryan has some wonderful Cousteau gear, much of it made by himself using the actual gear for a model or mold so it is the real deal.

I believe that one of the reasons that Cousteau used the double hose regulators in addition to their simplicity, reliability and functionality and did not use octapus, bungeed seconds, redundancy or even spgs was that he was a cinematographer first anfd formeost and all of that c--p hanging and dangling and dragging around would have distracted from his "man in the sea" spaceman, streamlined look he wanted to portray. That is he wanted to portray man as adapted and at home in the sea so his gear was sleek and streamlined emphasizing a modern look that makes the cumbersome dangly contraptions dived today seem silly and ill adapted.

N

 

[drbill]

Thanks, Nemrod... now I understand why they never asked me to join the crew full time. I look like an overly decorated Christmas tree (except almost everything is black).