Modern "vintage"

[novicediver]

With vinatge gear becoming harder to find and thus more expensive, are there any manufacturers that produce reliable vintage style double hose gear? I am not really mechanically inclined so piecing my own rig from parts of other rigs is not really in the equation?

 

[Doubler]

Aqualung made one a few years back but it was a POS. If you really want one:

Go to Vintage Dual Hose and buy a starter kit or
Buy a Aqualung DA Aquamaster and send it to Brian at VDH for a Phoenix Nozzle install.

Brian and a bunch of his engineer friends are really keeping DH's around. The Phoenix Nozzle by Luis adds the capability of HP and LP ports to a dual hose allowing inflators, octopuses and Computers. They have come up with new hoses and diaphragms manufactured from modern material. They have invented a Duckbill eliminator making the exhaust side of the regulator more efficient. VDH Rocks.

 

[herman]

There is really no one making a good quality DH reg for the rec market. AL makes one but it's sale is limited to military.....why??? beats me. The POS new Mistral they put out was a very poor job cobbled together with no clue how to make a good DH. Had they simply reproduced the Royal AM they would have sold a lot more of them. If you want a DH reg the best option going is this. Double Hose Explorer Kit [Double Hose Explorer Kit] - $250.00 : Vintage Double Hose!, Your online source for all things related to vintage diving
This is a professionally restored DA Aquamaster with a lot of modern updates. It's basically the same reg a lot of vintage divers are diving although most of us have restored them ourselves. Restoring the old regs is not difficult but it's not for everyone. You will find the vintage bunch a close knit group always willing to help out a new vintage diver. Find a vintage diver close by and give one a try. If you are anywhere close to Raleigh NC, we have a vintage day going in Feb, your welcome to attend and dive some restored regs.

 

[simonbeans]

That's Vintage Scuba - Vintage Scuba Gear at Vintage Double Hose

 

[elmer fudd]

Vintage gear really isn't terribly hard to find, or expensive. Sure a rebuilt Royal Aquamaster will run you $400 or more, but that's still less than most modern high performance regs. Plus, you can just do what others have suggested and get the explorer kit for $250.

The rest of the vintage gear is downright cheap compared to modern gear. For vintage fins, just get some old Jet Fins or a pair of DuckFeet. Even if you buy new they're still less than half the cost of a pair of split fins.

LP72's are the cheapest tanks you can get and vintage doubles are the cheapest doubles sets out there. What's more, half of the vintage gear I've got was just given to me. If I'd known what I was doing when I started diving, I could have saved thousands of dollars by buying good, restorable old gear instead of a lot of the modern stuff I started with.

I try to check out Craigslist once a day or so and about once a month I find a bargain or even vintage gear being given away for free.

 

[DaleC]

I agree with the above post.

A VDH.com Explorer DAAM allows you to get in the game with a known reliable basic performance reg (that comes with a service guarantee) for $250.
If money is no object you can get a top performance PAM or PRAM for about $450-700. For that price you will have the last regulator you will ever have to buy.

One thing about buying through VDH.com is that Brian is very good about standing by his products.

If you want to go the vintage route I would suggest three things:

Find a mentor if possible.

Get to know the vintage community (locally if you can, here and at VDH.com).

Learn to tune out folks who tell you you will die if you dive that gear.

 

[elmer fudd]

Learn to tune out folks who tell you you will die if you dive that gear.

Yep. To hear some people tell it, there must have been ambulances and medical examiners lined up at the popular dive sites back in the day, what with this equipment being so dangerous and all.

What you've got to remember is that even back then, diving gear was expensive life support equipment designed to last a lifetime. If anything, divers were more serious, more skilled and more hardcore than they are today. Fat tourists didn't go diving after a two day resort course back in the sixties. Divers from that period took their gear every bit as seriously as we do now.

The only thing that makes using well maintained vintage gear more dangerous than using modern gear is that many of the skills involved in using it are no longer taught.

 

[duckbill]

Fixed it for you

Fat tourists didn't go diving after a two hour resort course back in the sixties.

 

[novicediver]

I want to dive vintage because I grew up watching "Flipper" reruns and because it just plain looks so cool! I also like the idea of fewer bells and whistles and getting back to what diving was meant to be.

 

[herman]

Well, where are you? There may be some of us near by that can help you along and there are a lot of other vintage divers that do not frequent this board that many of us know. Off hand I know divers in Fla, Ga, Cal, Tx, NY, NC, Tenn, Wa, Oh, Maine, Va and Il and several countries besides the US.