Vintage diving...what was it like?

[Nemrod]

One question about your picture Slonda. Where did you get those hoses for your vintage reg? They look like they came off a megalodon rebreather.

Those are new production silicone hoses from Vintage Double Hose available in black, yellow, green, gray. As well, www.vintagescubasupply often has some nice neoprene hoses. These hoses are generally 1.0X1.5 which is the standard for USD/Voit double hose regulators.

I never really had much difficulty then or now maintaining good buoyancy control and a proper horizontal position. The difficulties of vintage are often exaggerated because we look back and wonder how we survived and that is not unique to scuba, usually we were our own worst enemies, not the gear. N

 

[Slonda828]

Those are new production silicone hoses from Vintage Double Hose available in black, yellow, green, gray. As well, www.vintagescubasupply often has some nice neoprene hoses. These hoses are generally 1.0X1.5 which is the standard for USD/Voit double hose regulators.

I never really had much difficulty then or now maintaining good buoyancy control and a proper horizontal position. The difficulties of vintage are often exaggerated because we look back and wonder how we survived and that is not unique to scuba, usually we were our own worst enemies, not the gear. N

I have to agree with Nem. I am obviously not old enough to have been around during the time of the doublehose. Still, good divers are good divers. If you strip away everything else, a good diver can swim just with a mask and a scuba tank. He wouldn't be comfortable, but he would be underwater. My point is that if you understand how to properly weight yourself and you recognize the physics of diving, you can maintain horizontal trim and neutral buoyancy without a BC. If you train and practice buddy breathing, then you can dive a doublehose without an octo (there's no place to really put one anyway.) It's not like I dive vintage because it is hard, I do it because it is easy and fun for me. It's liberating, and it makes you recall what it must have been like when men first walked out into the ocean (or the River Marne) to dive on SCUBA. It also makes damn fine modern divers. I have amazing buoyancy control now compared to before. I really know how to breathe, how to swim, and how to listen to the forces of physics that are acting on my body. I'm telling you guys it's like a zen thing if you get it right. I just wish so many people didn't automatically think it was horrible...then again it keeps my gear costs down so I cannot really complain that much.

 

[Nemrod]

You know, sometimes I find myself falling into the trap. There I was standing on the beach at the PD thinking it looked kinda far, maybe I should just hire a boat, maybe I need a buddy to help me, maybe I need a BC, maybe I just need to buck up and go for it--so I did. Four hours latter I walked back up on the beach, nope, I am still Nemrod, even if my hair is going gray and I still don't need no stink'n BC. N

 

[gcbryan]

Probably a silly question but how do you buddy breath with a double hose?

 

[Nemrod]

Probably a silly question but how do you buddy breath with a double hose?

We are not cave diving, you get face to face, you pass the mouthpiece from diver to buddy rotating the mouthpiece, you swim up, nothing to it.

N

 

[Slonda828]

We are not cave diving, you get face to face, you pass the mouthpiece from diver to buddy rotating the mouthpiece, you swim up, nothing to it.

N

It actually is pretty easy. If you want the air to flow easier, just raise the mouthpiece. If you want it to breathe harder, just lower the mouthpiece under the level of the cans. Most doublehose regulators have such a large amount of venturi assist that they almost want to give you air at lower supply pressures (the upstream ones).

It's not like you have to worry about a runaway ascent, there's no BC with which to ascend too fast! You just grab the harness with your left arm, pass the mouthpiece with the right, and drive on. It's very much like a single hose in this regard.

 

[Sam Miller III]

The wetsuit was invented in 1952 by Dr. Hugh Bradner of U.C. Berkeley. Dr. Bradner and a few of his colleagues created a small company to market what was called the "EDCO Sub-Mariner" suit, $45 for the short version and $75 for the "full suit," as an ad in a 1954 edition of Skin Diver magazine put it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What happended between the years 1952 and 1954?

 

[Thalassamania]

What happended between the years 1952 and 1954?

Wet Suit Pursuit: Hugh Bradner's Development of the First
Wet Suit
Carolyn Rainey
Archives of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0219
November 1998
SIO Reference Number 98-16​

 

[Zieg]

Leave it to a Navy officer to whine and complain.

Just another reason for Chiefs.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Published this as a newspaper article almost 11 years ago. Tt seems to answer the question how was it in the very beginning--the late 1940s and early 1950s prior to the advent of SCUBA, training and even the wet suit--Well we DID have a local Manufacture of dive suits --Water wear,but both owners were killed in an traffic accident about 1951..

You all are probably some what familar with Divers Cove in Laguna Beach, California but possibly never relized that there have been a number of changes to the area and the divers who have populated it in the last fifty plus years..

A little history-that has survived against the call of the running tide-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN…”
By Dr. Samuel Miller

This summer I visited with some relatives and old friends to reconnect with my roots down in southern California, in “smogsville,” as the smog shrouded area of Los Angeles and Orange County is known by most Californians who reside in other areas of the state.

This visit certainly verified the message in the Thomas Wolfe book “You can’t go home again” which I found so difficult to comprehend as a young college student. Yes, Thomas Wolfe was correct! You can’t go home again.

I spent a very early Saturday morning at Diver’s Cove in Laguna Beach, the fountainhead of American sport diving. It has been a popular diving location since recreational diving began along the California coast in the early 1930s. “The cove” as local divers refer to it, was catapulted from obscurity into international diving fame when it was chosen as the location for the world’s first competitive spear fishing meet in June 1950. The Compton, California “Dolphins Spear Fishing club”, won the meet with a three man team consisting of Ken Kummerfeild, Paul Hoss and Pat O’Malley.

Lots of changes have occurred in and around Divers Cove with the passage of fifty-seven years.

In the 1950s the rolling hills surrounding Diver’s Cove were devoid of housing and covered with dry chaparral, which emitted the classic California golden glow always associated with the “Golden state.” Now when viewed from the cove the hills appear almost surrealistic emerald green, blanketed by modern multi- million dollar homes on well-manicured lawns interconnected labyrinth of roads.

It is no longer possible to drive up to the edge of the cliff at Diver’s Cove and park haphazardly. Parking places are now regulated. They are neatly identified with white stripes on the concrete and crowned with a row of coin eating parking meters; silent sentinels waiting for the next quarter for fifteen minutes of violation free parking.

Also absent is the steel cable that provided beach goers and divers to access to the beach. It was a much-appreciated gift from some unknown beach lover who spent their time; money and effort to securely bury one end of the cable in cement and dangle the rest of the cable over the cliff to create a Tarzan style hand over hand beach access. Now modern stairs complete with handrails and a drinking fountain welcomes the divers to the beach

The beach scene I remember so well from my youth is now only a distant memory, but they are memories of gold as were the hills surrounding the cove.


In the genesis of recreational diving the beach was populated with young athletic sun tanned male youths clad in the diving costume of the era, baggy long underwear, tucked in to equally baggy swim trunks, round diving masks on their faces, short green fins on their feet and the weapon of choice a “Jab Stick” unceremoniously stuck in the ground.

Like ancient tribes returning from a successful hunt they stood in small groups, wrapped in surplus WWII olive drab army or navy blue blankets, shivering and blue lipped from the cold of the water and the chill in the air. Roaring bonfires fed by WWII surplus tires added much needed warmth as it belched fourth thick heavy black smoke into the clean crisp smog free Orange County air.

Divers Cove has now become a popular diving destination for dive training classes. It is populated every Saturday and Sunday morning by young certified diving instructors who have arrived before 7:00 to conduct an ocean check out dive for their classes of aspiring divers. Under the ever-watchful eye of their SCUBA instructor, young and old, male and female don the costume of modern diving. Bright colored wet suits have replaced the long underwear for thermal protection; clear form fitting twin lens masks of clear silicone replaced the black round rubber masks; multi hued long lightweight split plastic fins now adorn their feet replacing the short green Churchill fins. Not a spearfishing weapon is insight, since this area has been a game reserve for over a generation.

Yes, there have been a lot of changes in the last fifty plus years. Tomas Wolfe’s message has been verified. You can’t go home again, but you can relive fond memories from the distant past and dream and hope for the future of recreational diving.



Only the sea, the eternal sea, has relentlessly remained the same

DR, SAMUEL MILLER, 111