How old before vintage?

[jamiep3]

We swim down, swim around, and swim up (isn't that right Nem?). Some people call us chest pounders, but it takes a lot of skill to dive in just shorts with a pair of three pound fins, a double hose regulator, and no BC.

Actually, I find this to be the freest and easiest type of diving that there is. If the water is warm enough so you don't need to bother with a wet suit, then you need zero weights. At least with a good ole' steel 72.

Jim

I spend some time at a lake in Vermont every summer, and always take some vintage gear. I agree, a steel 72, no BC, my RAM, a mask and fins (once in a while I do cheat and use a silicone skirt mask), is the closet thing to being a fish.

 

[oldmossback]

Y'all have missed something very important for vintage diving......the smell man......the smell of black rubber, neophrene cement and wet suits, rubber fins and ......oh yeah, the taste of rubber snorkels, regulator mouthpieces.....not to mention the smell of wet galvanized steel, cloth harnesses, plastic backpacks after laying in the sun or in the trunk of your car.........

I keep my old pinocchio deluxe sealed in a case, and occasionlly savor the rubber odors when I need a vintage fix...........

Oldmossback

 

[telemonster]

As someone who collects vintage computing hardware, I assume it will be the same with dive equipment. Today's new stuff is tomorrow's vintage. I threw away lots of computer stuff thinking "Well it's not too vintage, it's too modern." Now it would be considered vintage, and I've run into people hunting those same parts.

Eventually as newer stuff becomes older, perhaps you will have to break it down by generations. The double hose self-contained SCUBA generation, the earlier surface supplied helmet generation, the later chrome single hose 2nd stage generation.... then I guess you came into the 80s with the earlier dive computers and plastic regulators?

 

[Slonda828]

As someone who collects vintage computing hardware, I assume it will be the same with dive equipment. Today's new stuff is tomorrow's vintage. I threw away lots of computer stuff thinking "Well it's not too vintage, it's too modern." Now it would be considered vintage, and I've run into people hunting those same parts.

Eventually as newer stuff becomes older, perhaps you will have to break it down by generations. The double hose self-contained SCUBA generation, the earlier surface supplied helmet generation, the later chrome single hose 2nd stage generation.... then I guess you came into the 80s with the earlier dive computers and plastic regulators?

Vintage scuba gear looks so artistic though, that 80's crap looks like a bad episode of Magnum PI.

 

[duckbill]

I didn't realize there was a bad episode of Magnum PI.

I understand what you are saying, telemonster, but for the time being I have to agree with Nemrod. He believes that the later (i.e. 1970s-80s) dive gear will never be "vintage".
HOWEVER, I'd have to change my opinion on that if there is ever a broad leap of inovation that revolutionizes dive gear, I think it's safe to say that there will eventually be some who even yearn for that old mechanically operated, "vintage" plastic junk they remember using "way back when I first started diving, sonny".

 

[Nemrod]

As someone who collects vintage computing hardware, I assume it will be the same with dive equipment. Today's new stuff is tomorrow's vintage. I threw away lots of computer stuff thinking "Well it's not too vintage, it's too modern." Now it would be considered vintage, and I've run into people hunting those same parts.

Eventually as newer stuff becomes older, perhaps you will have to break it down by generations. The double hose self-contained SCUBA generation, the earlier surface supplied helmet generation, the later chrome single hose 2nd stage generation.... then I guess you came into the 80s with the earlier dive computers and plastic regulators?

I seriously doubt it .

It is not just the what but the how.

N

 

[jamiep3]

I don't know, I think my Calypso J still qualifies.

 

[telemonster]

There are some that believe open circuit as a whole will become vintage as better technology makes rebreather use mainstream (new divers train closed circuit versus open circuit).

I said the same thing about computers. 8088 and 286 computers would never be vintage, only earlier stuff. But here we are today, and they are now vintage. Not as vintage nor sought after as the 1970's kit computers, but people are trying to sell crusty laptops for $300 because they are old and slow. And there are people looking for the PC equipment they got started on, or that was somehow unique.

Don't get me wrong, *I* think my DA-Aquamaster is the cool one, not the modern plastic stuff.

 

[WD8CDH]

We swim down, swim around, and swim up (isn't that right Nem?). Some people call us chest pounders, but it takes a lot of skill to dive in just shorts with a pair of three pound fins, a double hose regulator, and no BC.

Actually, I find this to be the freest and easiest type of diving that there is. If the water is warm enough so you don't need to bother with a wet suit, then you need zero weights. At least with a good ole' steel 72. I dove this way at SDV in the Florida springs and had a blast. Nem witnessed it even. He's probably still shivering from watching me. Growing up in Wisconsin and diving Lake Michigan tends to give you great cold resistance though. LOL. It's diving the way I dreamed it would be when I was a kid. Of course, when I was a kid that's the way a lot of diving was done. We're just missing out on the cool refreshing cigarette afterwards. LOL

Jim

Vintage isn't just minimalistic diving. There was vintage "tech" diving too. Sherwood and Nemrod both made nice two regulator fitting double manifolds. My buddy had the Nemrod manifold. It was a really cool looking manifold. Before that some of us made our own two regulator double manifolds.

?Ideal Manifolds Not So Ideal? (has operational opinions in addition to the vintage info)

Cave diving, and to a lesser extent wreck diving, brought about some of this development. I did quite a bit of diving with a doublehose primary regulator with a single hose backup back in the early 70's.

(Yes, I am a vintage diver for both reasons):sigh:

 

[The Kraken]

A good benchmark of whether or not a piece of gear is "vintage" would be to determine if Walter used such a piece when he first started diving.

No, wait!!! That would make it "antique"!!!

the K