- Messages
- 6,839
- Reaction score
- 5,970
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
BOOM!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
Trying to find what this system looked like.I would not call that a hookah system. There is no demand valve and they are mostly doing breath-hold diving, using compressed air... Kind of the opposite to what has being taught in scuba. The mermaid are actually certified diver, but they are also very skilled in breath-hold diving. They are very aware of the issues of using compressed air and breath-holding.
I don't know of the first "narghile" (hookah) systems, but I have the impresion that they would pre-date the 1955...
Trying to find what this system looked like.
The first Hookah diving systems: By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, hookah diving equipment began to appear, where surface supplied air was pumped constantly to the diver. Divers no longer had to return to a dive bell.
Is that you holding the mermaid?I forgot about the older constant flow hookah systems you are referring to. Those have been a around for a long time. They just had a throttling valve at the most, no demand valve in those systems. You can do that when you have unlimited surface supply air.
The system used at Weeki Wachee Springs is just a low pressure hose with a hand operated valve at the end. The one in the picture looks like it had a knob that has to be turned. The ones we saw about 15 years ago appeared to have a small lever that the mermaids could operate with their thumb. They manually open to take a breath and then shut it of. It might have been even spring loaded. I am not shure.
We had a couple of vintage gatherings at Weeki Wachee Springs and I even dove with the mermaids, but I didn't get a close look at their breathing hose. Maybe I was distracted.
In the picture below you can see the LP hose. She is holding the valve behind my back.
View attachment 754449
Here is another picture in Weeki Wachee Springs. You can see the auditorium with the public seating area in the background.
View attachment 754450
Is that you holding the mermaid?