My 1st BC

[Dave McLean]

I may be wrong, but wasn't the Divator the AGA brand?

 

[John C. Ratliff]

The AGA Divator system was indeed an inverted system, but it was inverted doubles, steel tanks I believe, that were about 4000 psi rated tanks. They used the Divator full face mask too (now still in use as the Inspiro Divator II Full Face Scuba):

http://www.scubaboard.com/cms/article15.html

http://www.airsource-one.com/aga.html

http://www.interspiro.com/product-mk2.htm

http://cgi.ebay.com/AGA-Interspiro-...ryZ71161QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The UDS-1 was a U.S. Divers Company system, that included the first stage of the regulator in the valve. I own one, and have written on it here:

http://vintagescuba.proboards2.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1095723435&page=1

You may note that neither the AGA Divator system, nor the UDS-1 system, had a BC associated with it. They depended upon other means of buoyancy compensation. The AGA Divator, which originated in Europe, was often used with the Unisuit, which needed no BC as it was the first inflated dry suit of neoprene material. The UDS-1 used the cowling to house the triple tank system, and the diver wore a vest-style BC.

If you'll click on my name, and go to my public profile, you'll see a photo of me diving my UDS-1 at Edmonds Underwater Park, Puget Sound, Washington.

You may note both in my avatar and in this photo that I'm wearing a bit different BC. This is my own design, which I call the Para-Sea BC. But it is not the first BC I developed. I worked with Bill Herder in the 1970s, a dive shop owner and a diving suit designer, to make a different type of BC for divers. My first one was the one in the photo (enclosed) that Bill developed, which was a sandwich of the wet suit's back to make a BC that was better, more streamlined, and easier to use than any today. I was looking through my files this evening, and found this photo of the wet suit top, along with other parts that I experimented with in the 1970s. I wrote a lengthy article for NAUI News about the integration of diving equipment, and used these to illustrate it. But I don't recall that it was ever printed. Anyway, here's some of the first designs for BCs from Oregon's Bill Herder, "Deep Sea Bill." In the paper I wrote, the abstract stated:

"A man in armour is his armour's slave." This paper's purpose is to describe ways in which diving equipment can better be integrated into a whole which is not only functional but streamlined and easier to use in an emergency. The diver now has three separate components of his diving equipment to deal with, the scuba, a weight belt and a personal floatation vest. Separate development of these components means that the diver must choose between different emergency responses under a life and death situation. Equipment design parameters should include not only normal diving conditions, but emergency situations as well.

We've made improvements since then, but I don't believe that we are there yet, especially with the streamlining component described above. By the way, the backpack was a Mar-Vel Hawaiian pak that had integrated weights (and which I still have). The inflation bladder was from a U.S. Air Force Underarm Life Preserver (LPU) that we used in our Pararescue operations.

Enjoy,

SeaRat

 

[Turtleguy9]

Another one on E-bay
http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-SCUBAPR...217908025QQcategoryZ16053QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Turtleguy9