New aqualung Mistral double-hoses.

[Herb-alaska]

Zombie thread alert. Here is what you want, brand new, made in U.S.A:

It is the Argonaut Kraken. This is the finest double hose regulator ever made and brand new for 2014.

The AL "New" Mistral is a POS. It is a singularly poor example of engineering.

---------- Post added September 4th, 2014 at 07:10 PM ----------

Lol how much are you selling those for now ? Hate the color !

The Kraken comes with black or the red hose so you do not have to hate the color. The reg is a really nice regulator and sells for 680.00 the customer service is outstanding but you have to wait in line to buy them Each regulator is just about custom built for the owner. Mine is my first introduction to double hose diving and I love it.

Shop Online

 

[Nemrod]

Herb-Alaska has played with a post quote and constructed it, accidentally I am sure, such that it appears that I am saying that I hate the color of the Kraken hoses. I did not say that and it is not a quote of me or from me. The correct quote is shown below from the original author.

Lol how much are you selling those for now ? Hate the color !

1. I am not selling anything past, future or now. Laugh all you like.

2. As to the color of the hoses, what, let me guess, you want black?

3. Go ahead and get a New Mistral. Having actually used one, I can assure you it is, kindly speaking, a POC. Oh, look, what might this be, perhaps a Royal Aqua Master in yellow.

4. Or maybe a Voit Navy in grey?

5. Hoses are easy to swap if the color does not suit, what is not easy is to make a kludge of a regulator breath even as well as regulators made 40 and 50 years ago.

N

 

[Herb-alaska]

Herb-Alaska has played with a post quote and constructed it, accidentally I am sure, such that it appears that I am saying that I hate the color of the Kraken hoses. I did not say that and it is not a quote of me or from me. The correct quote is shown below from the original author.



1. I am not selling anything past, future or now. Laugh all you like.

2. As to the color of the hoses, what, let me guess, you want black?

3. Go ahead and get a New Mistral. Having actually used one, I can assure you it is, kindly speaking, a POC. Oh, look, what might this be, perhaps a Royal Aqua Master in yellow.

4. Or maybe a Voit Navy in grey?

5. Hoses are easy to swap if the color does not suit, what is not easy is to make a kludge of a regulator breath even as well as regulators made 40 and 50 years ago.

N

not sure how i could have corrupted a quote because all i did was intend to respond to FB1 by going to his post and hitting reply with quote but thank you for correcting the misconception
Herb

edit add :
i would have corrected the original incorrect post by removing it but for some reason i do not have the edit post option for that post.

anyway the red hoses look great on the Kraken it might be that in the pictures they seem to loose their tone and appear orange rather than red

 

[herman]

My prespective on the color.
Being on the design team I have one of the original sets of prototype red hoses. They are reddish orange in color, not quite as orange as they appear in the photos and to be honest when I opened the box (I had no idea they were coming or being made) my first thougth was "man, those things are ugly". But since they were being considered for the production model, I installed them. When on the reg, they start to grow on you and after a while I began to like them, they will stay on my reg if for no other reason than they do draw attention.

That said, you can order the reg with black hoses or I would bet there are a lot of guys that would trade you a set of any other color for them. My perfered color choice is yellow hoses with black MP and if I ever need to replace the hoses I will likely go back to yellow.

 

[buddhasummer]

They look very cool, I've put one on my wish list.

 

[rhwestfall]

About the Kraken:

With hearing years of bashing how a DH breathes like poo, I was wondering myself. Well, I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to get one of these beauties in the initial offering. I have a handful of dives on mine now, and all I can say is "LIES, LIES, LIES!!!" If properly worn, it is as easy breathing as my high performance single hose regs.

The brain trust behind it are some really gifted folks. Their collaborative efforts have made quite a statement, and the bold color is fitting as a wake-up call to "the old guard".....

The Kraken ROCKS!!!!!

 

[herman]

In fairness, the old DHs, for the most part were not as well designed as the AK. A lot of thought went into making it the best breathing DH we could. In addition, most people diving them in the last 20-30 years were diving old regs that needed to be rebuilt (new parts have only been available for the last 10 years or so), no tellin how badly they were set up and with the loss of DH experience they were not worn correctly. The "new' mistral has major design flaws and since few who dove them had any DH experience/knowledge it only added to the poor breathing reputation.
It is very improtant for anyone who wants to give DH diving a try, to find someone who is a current, experienced DH diver to help them learn the ropes and to use gear that is rebuilt to the current standard.

 

[buddhasummer]

In fairness, the old DHs, for the most part were not as well designed as the AK. A lot of thought went into making it the best breathing DH we could. In addition, most people diving them in the last 20-30 years were diving old regs that needed to be rebuilt (new parts have only been available for the last 10 years or so), no tellin how badly they were set up and with the loss of DH experience they were not worn correctly. The "new' mistral has major design flaws and since few who dove them had any DH experience/knowledge it only added to the poor breathing reputation.
It is very improtant for anyone who wants to give DH diving a try, to find someone who is a current, experienced DH diver to help them learn the ropes and to use gear that is rebuilt to the current standard.

Is it hard to pick up via the internet as I don't know anyone here who dives one, Japan, and in fact have never seen a DH here.

 

[Nemrod]

Is it hard to pick up via the internet as I don't know anyone here who dives one, Japan, and in fact have never seen a DH here.

Kawasaki had some sort of licensing agreement with USD as they did make some copies of the USD double hose regulators. I am not a huge collector and history buff, so I am sure someone who is can jump in and provide details.

Herman touched on something, "the loss of double hose experience," this is important, tribal knowledge, whatever you wish to call it the knowledge of how it was done was largely lost just as the knowledge of no-BC diving has been largely lost. Mixing old and new technologies sometimes just does not work well. Poodle jackets due tho their tendency to lift off the diver are generally, with possible exceptions, not a good platform for a double hose diver. Wings/BP, because the plate is part of the weight system and/or because weight can be affixed to the plate or if often carried on the cam bands, have much less tendency, when set up correctly to lift/float away from the diver.

Here is Herman, I think he sometimes dives a poodle jacket, so it works for him, at least that particular model and he does have a Kraken here with yellow hoses, not sure what else he has going on, :

Me, selfie, dive a wing/BP, in this case a vdh mini-plate. An excellent universal singles tank, travel plate, single or double hose, it is great.

There is another modern double hose regulator, the AL Mentor military double hose. They deny it much as the USAF denies they have alien bodies stored in the underground base in Nevada where they built the anti-gravity ships that flew over Phoenix and right over my house there! Anyways, I digress, the Mentor is lovely and could probably give the Argonaut a run but if there was a double hose heavy weight smack down my bet is on the Kraken.

N

 

[herman]

That BC is a modified Express Tech (modified specifically to use with DH regs). The reg was one of the prototypes that I was diving before the red hoses were made. I am still diving the same reg but now with red hoses. Those were borrowed from my Phoenix and have since returned to service on it.

Not sure of any active DH divers in Japan but I know for sure there was at least one on Okinawa for a while ( I sold it to him and helped him restore it). The techniques themselves are not difficult; I have posted about them before. The big thing is to know that they do dive differently and you must dive them correctly to get the best out of them. For example, as Nem says, diving them with a jacket style BC will work but the reg will perform badly due to it being incorrectly positioned on the body. That is not the fault of the regulator but rather that of the diver.