How long have gear arguments been going on?

[Teamcasa]

It seems to me that gear arguments have gotten worse than ever lately.<snip>I'm just wondering what we've become as a group that are all supposed to be friends and have fun sharing a great sport.

Iv'e been diving since the late 60's. Short of computers, the basic gear has not changed much since then in practice, just in quality and minor improvements. The reality is that most divers don't really care what gear you use but love the gear they own.

ScubaBoard does have an active number of vocal gear proponents that rarely miss an opportunity to express their gear choice and point out why your choice is a poor one. Such is the nature of internet diving forums. In any event, people still learn, become better divers and increase the fun level, so it's all good with me!

 

[Crush]

I believe when a guy first used a goat skin that was inflated and used for breathing underwater, one of the guys buddies commented that cow was a much better choice.

I am afraid that you are mistaken - the first argument was "goat skin - bungeed or not?"

 

[Thalassamania]

I've been thinking about this a bit and I realize that I never heard any argument about equipment until I walked into an NASDS shop in the late 1960s and was told that anything but ScubaPro or Bailey was an accident waiting to happen.

So I guess that this phenomena has its origins in greed.

 

[Tortuga68]

Same message

 

[WetLens]

I've been thinking about this a bit and I realize that I never heard any argument about equipment until I walked into an NASDS shop in the late 1960s and was told that anything but ScubaPro or Bailey was an accident waiting to happen.

So I guess that this phenomena has its origins in greed.

Forgot about Bailey suits. Other side of the same discussion we were having.

 

[RJP]

I'd like to hear from someone who's been diving for a long time and see if there were these types of weird gear argument a long time ago.

Little known fact...

Cain killed Abel during an argument over Split-Fins.

 

[naick]

Little known fact...

Cain killed Abel during an argument over Split-Fins.

Maybe Abel got a stroke!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Maybe Abel got a stroke!

 

[dwhthediver]

and Cain whipped his mask off his forehead and beat Abel with his yellow snorkel!

 

[Zieg]

When I was fifteen I had a friend my age who was NASDS and fully Scubapro set up. I was PADI and USDivers. USDivers was the gear they had at the Camp Lejeune Exchange. We argued over Mk5 vs. Conshelf, Rockets vs. Jets. We did alot diving, had a blast. My older dive buddies thought that SPGs and BCs were silly and a waste of money, ya didn't need them if you really knew how to dive.

To me, the only difference from then to now is that now we have the internet.