And 1999. THREE safety recalls? I'm staying away from them.
I'm now going to be very honest with you:
I dove USD/Aqua Lung/Scubapro/Voit exclusively for all of the
sixties, seventies and eighties. Frankly, I didn't really notice ANY
quality/performance differences except that my 1965 Calypso reg
(balanced diaphragm first stage/downstream venturi second...in 1965!)
breathed a whole lot easier than the Scubapro MKII. I did up the
intermediate pressure in the Calypso, when I was fifteen, with an
allen wrench. (they've got regs. sealed today so you can't do that).
The National Geographic (NGS-New York) divers mostly use Mares and they were, in reality,the ones who introduced Cousteau to the world when I was in diapers.
I searched GOOGLE for regulator recalls: ie: Scubapro regulator recalls,
U.S. Divers regulator recalls, Mares regulator recalls......
The U.S. Diver's Calypso IV (four)(recalled) WAS NOT the Calypso II of 1965 that
I used. The new Calypso is kind of a joke. The new Conshelf appears to
be a reincarnation of the old Calypso (which was not only never recalled,
but I have heard (from local dive instructors) that some are still out on rental in remote dive areas.
Most of the "new" (since 1980) scuba companies will probably be
out of business in ten years or so. Where will owners get parts/service?
(If their regs last that long!)
By the way, the old Scubapro stuff was never recalled as far as I am aware.
Seems like their quality has dropped in order to stay price competitive.
My local dive instructors agree with me on this...in fact they told me much of it!
They said the old Scubapro guys quit when Scubapro was bought by Johnson
Wax[sic](S.C.JOHNSON CO.)and started Atomic to get back to the "old" Scubapro
quality standards...yet Atomics are on recall too. We weren't fortunate enough
in the "old days" to have safety recalls and I for one am taking advantage of them
now that they are FINALLY here. (We had to SCREAM for lab tests/safety tests
for thirty years before they did anything about it. Thanks for your reply.
