plain backplate/harness diving?

[Uncle Pug]

I dive on occassion with my plastic backpack, steel 72 and drysuit.

Just today I received an 18# wing from Brownies and plan to give that a try with both the plastic backpack and also a 6# SS backplate.

 

[SDAnderson]

Those pictures bring back some memories!

Man, I'll say!

My back pack was plastic, I remember that it always dug into the small of my spine on the surface, so it must have been from the pre-contour days. Doubles were a challenge since the back pack was molded for a single tank, but with a few adaptations they could be forced to work. All long before the development of the isolation manifold, so we only had two valves to fiddle with. I still remember the excitement my first doubles dive and having what seemed like an unlimited supply of air with 144cf in double 72s, now we're doing dives with over 400cf and wondering where it all goes.

The horse collars were a blast, all too often literally, should you accidentally pull the pin on the CO2 cartridges. What are friends for? Otherwise, they worked better than nothing but that oral inflation was a PITA. I don't remember being heavy enough to need inflation at the surface and mine had a crotch strap that kept it nice and low on the neck, anyway.

We used to carry some ditchable weight with us on shore dives so that we wouldn't have to compensate so much for the wetsuits crushing at depth - a couple of bricks of lead that we'd leave on the bottom at 30 or 40 feet. One result of this foolishness was that our navigation skills were highly developed, lose that 4# of lead and you'd be scrounging for rocks for ballast. Heh.

Buddy breathing. Now there's a lost skill. Thankfully. I remember thinking that octo's, like SPG's, were a silly waste. I bought my first one when I realized that it meant I wouldn't have to be swapping spit with my brother and father, who were my primary buddies back in those early days.

I loved my 1/2" beavertail farmer john, which of course had no stitched seams, so just about every dive meant a little time spent with the glue pot, resealing the busted seams. I have no idea how many times I glued my fingers to my wetsuit, trying to manually clamp a seam together long enough for the glue to set.

And then there was my Voit mask. I've had cars with smaller windshields in them. The thing never leaked until the rubber started to fail but I think it could have held the better part of a quart of water.

Speaking of feeling old, as a teenager I remember that your knife was supposed to be longer than your ahem but not nearly as hard, when did things get all turned around? I still have my original Voit knife with the bright orange handle with the peen and bottle opener and the monster chromed blade with the serrations, line hook and sharp point. Mike Nelson had some serious competition I first strapped that thing on my leg, let me assure you.

Of all the gear I bought back in the early 70's there is only one thing that I still use - a trusty pair of JetFins that are still going strong. Amazing things, actually.

Ah, memories. Polishing them today is almost as fun as living them was.

 

[headhunter]

Man, I'll say!

My back pack was plastic, I remember that it always dug into the small of my spine on the surface, so it must have been from the pre-contour days. Doubles were a challenge since the back pack was molded for a single tank, but with a few adaptations they could be forced to work. All long before the development of the isolation manifold, so we only had two valves to fiddle with. I still remember the excitement my first doubles dive and having what seemed like an unlimited supply of air with 144cf in double 72s, now we're doing dives with over 400cf and wondering where it all goes.

The horse collars were a blast, all too often literally, should you accidentally pull the pin on the CO2 cartridges. What are friends for? Otherwise, they worked better than nothing but that oral inflation was a PITA. I don't remember being heavy enough to need inflation at the surface and mine had a crotch strap that kept it nice and low on the neck, anyway.

We used to carry some ditchable weight with us on shore dives so that we wouldn't have to compensate so much for the wetsuits crushing at depth - a couple of bricks of lead that we'd leave on the bottom at 30 or 40 feet. One result of this foolishness was that our navigation skills were highly developed, lose that 4# of lead and you'd be scrounging for rocks for ballast. Heh.

Buddy breathing. Now there's a lost skill. Thankfully. I remember thinking that octo's, like SPG's, were a silly waste. I bought my first one when I realized that it meant I wouldn't have to be swapping spit with my brother and father, who were my primary buddies back in those early days.

I loved my 1/2" beavertail farmer john, which of course had no stitched seams, so just about every dive meant a little time spent with the glue pot, resealing the busted seams. I have no idea how many times I glued my fingers to my wetsuit, trying to manually clamp a seam together long enough for the glue to set.

And then there was my Voit mask. I've had cars with smaller windshields in them. The thing never leaked until the rubber started to fail but I think it could have held the better part of a quart of water.

Speaking of feeling old, as a teenager I remember that your knife was supposed to be longer than your ahem but not nearly as hard, when did things get all turned around? I still have my original Voit knife with the bright orange handle with the peen and bottle opener and the monster chromed blade with the serrations, line hook and sharp point. Mike Nelson had some serious competition I first strapped that thing on my leg, let me assure you.

Of all the gear I bought back in the early 70's there is only one thing that I still use - a trusty pair of JetFins that are still going strong. Amazing things, actually.

Ah, memories. Polishing them today is almost as fun as living them was.

Steven,

This is too much fun talking about the good old days.

The only thing I would still be using from the 70's would be my JetFins. Unfortunately, in the 80's (can't remember exacly when) I was doing a beach dive and mis-timed the waves on the way out and got nailed by about a 10 footer. I actually broke one of my JetFins in half. I guess the rubber was getting old. I replaced them with a pair of US Divers Compros which I still have. Very similar design, but with some bright blue color. It was the 80's after all!

I remember the shiny chrome regulators.

I still have a rather large knife made by Wenoka with the serrated edge, all chrome and the Blackie Collins autograph. That machete is actually from the 80's. I lost the one from the 70's and it looked about the same.

It was the late 90's when I threw away my patched up wetsuit. It disintegrated. It was only a 1/4" farmer john with the twist locks for the beaver tail, but also had no sewn seams. I used to use wax paper behind the patched area to keep from sticking things together that weren't supposed to be. I'm looking forward to getting a new custom semi-dry now. I've just got to lose 5 more pounds first.

Oh my God... I've turned into my parents! All this reminicing about how it used to be. You know, "When I was your age we had to walk to school, uphill both ways in the snow!"

Now I'd better go out and mow the lawn. It's a jungle out there!

Christian

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I still use a plastic backpack when diving with a double hose reg. I also use a Scubapro horse collar BC and normally use just an oral inflator on it as some of my double hose regs do not accomodate a power inflator.

Inflating the horse collar BC was (and still is) consequently a process of removing the mouthpiece from the double hose reg, blowing a partial lungful of air into the BC, re-inserting the reg mouthpiece and blowing the rest of your air into the mouthpiece to clear the reg. Given that there was no purge valve, you needed to retain enough air to clear the reg after blowing into the BC. The whole process was a major pain so the less you had to do it the better. Overweighting was something you avoided like the plauge and so were saw tooth dive profiles. Diving in that era with that equipment required good swimming ability as well as very good in water skills.

You did not see many over weighted divers with that configurtion and divers in general knew there stuff when it came to proper weighting from their very first OW dive. Sometimes it's nice to return to those roots to devlop an appreciation for some of the scuba skills that are unfortunately undeveloped in many new divers due to an over reliance on improved technology. Technology is valuable to have, but not when it is used as a crutch for poor in water skills.

With no exposure suit or with a very thin suit, a BC is not really required at all and if I wear one on a vintage dive, it is for surface floatation after the dive. And diving that way with a backpack and horsecollar only is really a joy as it is the ultimate in streamlining and minimalisim. You can really fly through the water and you get a much better feeling of belonging in the environment than you do with a conventional BC and a ton of accessories.

 

[Turtleguy9]

I work full time as a dive instructor, in Hawaii, but when I get a nice slow day off, its nice to take out the Vintage gear and dive it. A lot of my friends, who get a chance to dive the hard backpack single tank, with no BC, are amazed at the freedom of movement. I love it myself, no BC drag, seems like twice the speed. Check out my Yahoo site http://groups.yahoo.com/group/divingantiquescuba/
Aloha Turtleguy