Convert Yoke to DIN

[Boiler_81]

In my mind vintage is equipment and/or technique. Diving with an old style 7mm and no BC is certainly vintage in technique even if a modern regulator set is being used.

I don't think anyone supported "Today - 6 weeks = New Vintage" or "poodle jackets" as being vintage.

The problem is making a date the diving line between vintage and non vintage is many pieces of vintage type equipment were produced post the mid 70s as pointed out by Luis. On the other side the modern BC made its appearance before the end of double hose production.

Therefore, maybe the definition should be equipment style and/or technique based.

However, as I stated before unless ScubaBoard changes the forum definition we should expect discussions of 1980 and prior equipment in this section.

 

[vintagediver]

Come on, the "poodle jacket" was the most innovative piece of vintage gear invented next to the " Snorkair" and the "Bang stik".

 

[duckbill]

Same old same-o
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/vintage-equipment-diving/304969-how-old-vintage-gear.html
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/vintage-equipment-diving/309750-vintage.html
:calle:

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The term "antique" is certainly used in the context of diving gear and it's quite common on Japanese websites featuring vintage gear. However, if you Google with "antique" and "diving" you're more likely to find yourself in the setting of surface air supplied brass helmets as worn by standard divers of yore in bulky canvas suits and lead-soled shoes.

As a lifelong snorkeller, never a scuba diver, I agree with the chronological division between the pre-modern and the modern era as being around the mid-1970s. For me the arrival of "modern times" was signalled by the adoption of silicone-skirted masks by people with no allergies and by the first appearance of "composite" fins with their thermoplastic foot pockets and plastic blades. For me, it's a question of materials: vintage fins and masks must be made from natural or neoprene rubber and never oil derivatives.

I have a feeling we'll end up sticking with the cover-all term "vintage". There is a long thread in the snorkelling/freediving forum where alternatives to the term "snorkelling" are discussed. I think the final consensus there was that a change of name would probably find little currency within or outside the snorkelling community. I think the same would be true of the word "vintage", which is in the title of several diving forums and has the added benefit, through its association with the world of wine, of suggesting quality and good taste in precisely dated and located artefacts. Personally, I'd be much more interested in the identification of historical periods within the "vintage era" of diving. My own special interest lies in the 1950s, the decade when snorkelling and diving grew from a pursuit for the few into a popular pursuit for the many, including the family. I love the simplicity of the gear during the 1950s, the willingness to improvise and to innovate at a time when war-weary nations with little money to spare were eager to embrace the concept of leisure for the masses. I'm not just a historian of a bygone age, however. I'm also a keen geographer researching the diving equipment manufacturers in today's world which still make fins, masks and suits the way they used to be made during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The oldest diving mask in the world, Cressi's "Pinocchio", is still in production almost a half-century since its first appearance on the market. Such "classics" are still with us because there are still a few people around who appreciate timeless designs. I may collect fins and masks from the vintage era, but I prefer snorkelling with fins and masks made in 2010 to pre-1973 specifications. I get the best of both worlds and I don't know whether that makes me vintage or non-vintage. All I know is that I would never go snorkelling with a pair of plastic-bladed fins or a low-volume silicone-skirted mask even if you paid me. I've managed to avoid such modern aberrations for almost four decades now and I have no plans to change.

Your assessment of the 1950's and it's simplicity is right on line with my thinking and the template for my modern minimalistic approach.
Using basic skin diving gear and adding only a tank and lung was what scuba first was about and was how it started. This is the essence I'm trying to capture with my persuits in minimalism, except in fully modern gear.

There is another side of my diving, and that is using vintage gear, or as much vintage gear as I can get my hands on. I'm still aquiring.
To me vintage is the Sea Hunt era, double hoses, voit fins, oval mask, big knives, rubber weight belts with wire buckles, etc.
As far as I'm concerned this is the golden age of vintage diving, 1950's through the 60's.
When I see somebody using an older chrome single hose reg, that's nice, but to me It doesn't hold the same nostalgic feel of a double hose. I know that there were all kinds of single hose regs starting from the late 50's, and technically by definition they are "vintage", but I don't feel it, I'm sorry. To me it's just older dive gear still being used. Probably because it's too close in design and function to gear that can be purchased today.
A double hose on the other hand is an entirely different animal and they don't make anything close nowdays to the look and the feel.

 

[Nemrod]

In my mind vintage is equipment and/or technique. Diving with an old style 7mm and no BC is certainly vintage in technique even if a modern regulator set is being used.

I don't think anyone supported "Today - 6 weeks = New Vintage" or "poodle jackets" as being vintage.

The problem is making a date the diving line between vintage and non vintage is many pieces of vintage type equipment were produced post the mid 70s as pointed out by Luis. On the other side the modern BC made its appearance before the end of double hose production.

Therefore, maybe the definition should be equipment style and/or technique based.

However, as I stated before unless ScubaBoard changes the forum definition we should expect discussions of 1980 and prior equipment in this section.

Vintage equipment era late 50s:

Vintage equipment era circa 1960ish:

Vintage equipment era circa 1964:

Vintage equipment era circa 1966:

Vintage equipment era circa 68-70:

Vintage equipment era circa 1972:

Transitional or Horsecollar era with power inflator, circa 1973-74 (notice--WIDESPREAD use of power inflator appears):

Transitional or Horsecollar era circa 1974-1978:

Wings begin showing up circa 74 to 78:

Poodle jackets show up in force late 70s, 78 to 84 era:

IMO, it is not strictly the end of the RAM circa 73-74 but a confluence of events including the end of using CO2 vest (Mae Wests) and the brief use of oral inflation BCs and the widespread introduction of power inflator equipped horsecollars and the appearance of the SP Stab Jacket that closes the door on the Vintage Era at approximately 1973/74. Sure, some bits and pieces of equipment and techniques showed up before the WIDESPREAD use but it is the WIDESPREAD use and incorporation into training standards that counts, not if a fellow glued two horsecollars back to back in 1968 and made a protozoic poodle jacket or strapped his weight belt on with a rope and duct tape thus having the prehistoric weight integration system---like good grief!

But if you include the transitional period equipment as vintage then we have horsecollars, wings, poodle jackets, octopus seconds, power inflators which were used in mass by everybody through the mid and late 70s.

Notice also that prior to about 1965 nobody much used a Mae West and then between about 64 through 72 the Mae West CO2 vest were popular. Notice when the power inflator popped up in widespread use.

My "typical" configurations from 1966 to present, specialty, deep, cave etc excluded.

My configuration in 1966, generic awful round mask, Voit full foot Vikings:
Mistral, mask, J snorkel, wetsuit with beaver tail top, weight belt, USD harness

My configuration in 1968:
Calypso J, USD Pro Mask, J snorkel, full two piece 3/16 slick skin suit, weight belt, USD Mae West, Viking Fins, Voit Snugpack

My configuration in 1970:
USD Conshelf, USD SPG, USD Pro mask, no snorkel, Mae West, weight belt, Viking Fins, Voit Snugpack

My configuration 1973:
Conshelf, USD SPG, USD Pro Mask, no snorkel, Mae West, weight belt, Rocket Fins, Voit Snugpack

My configuration 1976 (non cave):
USD Conshelf, SPG, Dacor low volume mask, Dacor Seachute horsecollar twin bladder with power inflrtor, Jet Fins, generic plastic backpack

My configuration 1979--2000 (non cave):
Tekna T2100/T2100B, Tekna mask or Dacor low volume, spg, SeaTec wing, no snorkel, Jet Fins, Scubapro two hole console, weight belt

My vintage configuration 2010:
RAM, Jet Fins, USD Atlantis mask, Freedom Plate or Snugpack, weight belt, no snorkel, SeaVue on banjo

My Minimalist non legal:
RAM, Jets, Atomic Framelss mask, Freedom Plate, weight belt, no snorkel, B&G SPG, Sea Turtle second, no BC, Aeris Atomos computer

My Minimalist legal:
PRAM or Titan LX set, Oxy 18/30 Mach V wing, no snorkel, Atomic Frameless mask, Freedom Plate or Oxy Ultralight, Jets, weight belt or DR weight pockets. Hog rigged. Aeris Atomos computer.

Currently, I dive Minimalist Hog rig with Titan LX or modified Hog with PRAM now except when playing with all the old rotten rubber junk.

YRMV, I was there through the "change" in more ways than one. I remember the first time I was told I could not dive unless I had a octopus and a BC with a power inflator, I remember when I was told in 1982 that wings were not PadI approved and I could not use one, I remember when I switched from dh to single hose, I remember when I got my first horsecollar BC, I remember when the RAM disappeared from stores, I remember when wings reappeared. I also remember flipping a horsecollar upside down circa 1974 and mounting it on my Snugpack or harness as a wing. Was this widespread, NO!

You guys may be confused on what "vintage era" is and how it differs from today but I am not.

N <---continuously active diver since 1966

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I finally got out to dive today on the North Coast.
The water layed down to ankle slappers and there was no wind.

Dive one:
M&B custom 7mm beavertail wetsuit, Freedom Plate w/ Oxycheq Mach V 18# wing, XS scuba 3442 steel 100, Scubapro MK 2 with no octo, console with compass/analog depth gauge/SPG, Shadow frameless mask, Cressi straight J tube snorkel, XS scuba turtle fins with rubber straps, Casio watch. JBL speargun, Riffe knife,
24 lb weight belt.

Dive two:
M&B custom 7mm beavertail wetsuit, Steel 72 w/ homemade strap harness and J valve w/ rod,
Twin D rings for waist coupling doubled back to form quick release "tail",
1960 DA Aquamaster double hose regulator, uwatec bottom timer, wrist compass, Turtle fins, riffe knife, 24 lb weight belt, oceanways rubber skirted oval mask.

Dive three:
Beavertail wetsuit, turtle fins, same weightbelt, LP steel 95 w/ homemade strap harness, Scubapro MK 2 with single second and same console mentioned in dive #1, speargun, knife,
oval mask, dive watch.

No BC device on dives two or three, and no buddy on dives one, two, or three.

So I don't know where all this falls as far as vintage, eclectic, minimalist ?, but It is what it is.