NAVED and hard hat divers in Brownstone Quarry Connecticut

[Luis H]

We just had our vintage dive event in Brownstone Quarry Connecticut. It was a great time.

The banner worked great and it drew a lot of interest! We had a lot of great response. I talked to several of people that have and occasionally dive their double hose regulators, but several where not aware of our group and the availability of reproduction parts, etc.

I got to dive the Navy Mk-5 again.

Also dove a Scubapro Visionaire mask, which got to be one of the weirdest full face masks I have ever tried. There is an article about them on the latest HDS magazine. The glass lens doubles as the demand valve diaphragm. It is probably the easiest breathing demand regulator I have ever tried.

Some pictures below:

This shot was not my idea.

You can almost see the NAVED banner in the background.

Dave, myself, Pete, and Dan.

I bet Rob would like this triples and the Voit 50 Fathoms.

It was great diving this triples.

Visionaire Mask

Scubapro Visionaire Mask

The Mistral in the picture looks almost as real as the one on the front.

Those are duck feet on my hand…they make a nice display, but they are not going to get much use. I went back to my Jetfins after one dive.

A couple of shots I took of another hard hat diver. Dave is standing near NAVED banner.

Dave, Pete, and Dan will probably have more pictures soon.

 

[Turtleguy9]

Wow Luis, wish I could have been there...And I am surprised to hear that there is a working visionaire out there!!!! Too much fun.
Aloha
Turtleguy9

 

[Gilldiver]

Here is Luis in action.

Note, no BC - It can be done!

 

[herman]

Nice shots Luis, I have got to make some of these events. Was hoping to make Portage tihs year but the wife and Boss did not like the idea...Oh well, the Phoenix got a lot of hours under the water this weekend and I put together HenryA's Phoenix on Fri, there is one more diving now.

 

[Luis H]

Turtleguy
The Visionaire was in great shape and it leally worked well…very strange do. Bob has a great collection of vintage dive equipment in great diving condition.
If you want to join us, there is always next year.


Brownstone Quarry is a great location for a vintage equipment dive event. The visibility is decent and the water temperature above the thermocline was comfortable. The diving is like other quarries…there are your sunken cars, sunken boats, dive training platforms at several different depths, etc. There is a thermocline at about 20 ft and the maximum depth is about 90ft in this area.

Some of the best diving is in the shallow areas where there are plenty of fish and some cool areas with a lot of fish nests and the fish hanging around there.

The facilities are comfortable and convenient to the surface supplied diving and Scuba diving.

The quarry also has a number of other non-diving activities such as zip lines, wake board tow winch, and other water sports, etc.


The Northeast Diving Equipment Group (NEDEG) people are great.
::: The North East Diving Equipment Group ~ Come DIVE with us ! :::

Bob has a great collection of hard hats and other vintage diving gear. It is just great that they preserve and share all this diving gear.

In addition to the Mk-5 they had several Ultra light helmets, Kirby Morgan Band Mask, The Scubapro Visionaire, a shallow water open bottom helmet together with a vintage hand pump, Scott Hydro Pack, etc.

I hope in the future to cordite more vintage equipment dives with them. The hard hats are definitely a main attraction, but most of them also have and /or dive double hose scuba regulators and some of them where not aware of our group and all the reproduction parts available for our equipment.


It was also neat when at least a couple of the general public divers saw the Phoenix, they recognized what it was and ask my opinion about it. They had no idea of my involvement with it. It sure looks like the interest on the Phoenix RAM double hose, all other double hose diving, and vintage equipment diving has a good potential for growth.


Pete
I have a 2 Lb weight of yours. Maybe I can catch you at Nubble Light and I will return it then. Dan and Dave are both interested on coming to Nubble to do some vintage equipment diving.

 

[Luis H]

Here is Luis in action.

Note, no BC - It can be done!

Thanks for the picture.

An interesting thing is that it kind of looks like I am vertically, but at that point I was horizontal facing the surface (notice the bubbles all around me and the background, it is not the surface). If I had any kind of a back mounted BC with any air in it would have been a bit difficult to hold that position (the air in the BC would tend to roll you).

At that moment I was perfectly neutral in about 15 ft of water (with a two piece 7mm wetsuit) and I could swim in any orientation.

 

[Gilldiver]

Here is another of Luis.

By the way, how do I post a photo in the message like Luis did above?

 

[Luis H]

Here is another of Luis.

By the way, how do I post a photo in the message like Luis did above?

First you upload it to a server like Photobucket or in this case you uploaded it to the Scubaboard server. Here is the URL to that photo:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/at...brownstone-quarry-connecticut-luis-2-copy.jpg


I just copy that URL into the dialog box that opens when you click on the “Insert Picture” button at the top of the message. Make sure the "http://www" is not repeated in the dialog box.


Thanks again for the picture.
My tanks were riding high on me on that picture.

 

[BSea]

Great photos & trip report Luis. I have now updated my bucket list to include Mk-5 Dive.

 

[Luis H]

Here are a few more pictures of Brownstone Quarry.

Some tech divers or tech divers want-to-be all dressed in black.

Take a look at all these expensive double hose units. The owners of all these re-breathers left them behind to go diving the old Navy Mk-V.

Now there are some vintage dresses

Pete and I

More hard hat diving.

Both heavy gear and ultra light

Look at the manufacturing date on this Navy Mk-V. I don’t know its history, but it is interesting to dive a unit that was built for WW-II during the war.

Also notice the manufacturers name. I guess they did better with the Schrader valves…the same valves used in most tires and now in many Scuba BC quick disconnect hoses.