Pros & Cons of Vintage Gear

[Trimix2dive]

U win.

I have some old horse collars with e-inflators, and some cyklons that work perfect. I've even dived sea hunt style - but have had to reconfigure. Equipment not as old.

 

[pescador775]

Duckbill, there is a generational gap in the understanding of these things. This cannot be repaired by speechifying on my part, or anybody, however eloquent. Remember, these events took place in a different world, a world where differentiation of sex and race were normal, and where men were expected to act like men, and women were expected to be all that implied in a paternal society. This was a world without seatbelts, where hunting big game and mounting tiger skins was admired, where Tarzan was a legitimate folk figure in America. Most people believed in staying free of debt, paying off bills as soon as possible and taking responsibility for their actions. Male children were expected to study hard, or if not, to get a job in a mill or farm to support the family. Females were expected to complete high school and soon marry. All men were subject to conscription and, if called up, expected to go immediately to war without complaining (grumbling excepted).

This was the backdrop when I went to the local theater at the age of 11 and saw the movie "The Frogmen" and immediately decided I would be a diver. I began practicing with goggles and made a snorkel from a bean shooter. The next year, I speared a bream with a modified broomstick. Within two years, I had started work on building an Aqualung and by the next year had made my first tank dive in a local fishing hole. I learned several things that first year. One thing that was apparent; a freediver could shoot more fish than a tank diver, as long as it was not too deep. Otherwise, the Aqualung was a very useful tool in many ways.

My dive buddy of many years started in a similar way. Practically all of us SCUBA divers were freedivers and spearfishermen before anything else. Remember, putting some food on the table was priority. At the age of 14, my buddy, Wes, emerged in 4th place in the California spearfishing regional finals against many mature men of greater experience. None of us had SCUBA instruction before strapping on the tanks. Why would we? We were already divers and using the Aqualung was just a matter of reading a pamflet and getting a copy of the Navy tables. Remember, before there is instruction there must be divers already in place to give it. Considering the attitudes and realities today it is necessary to have regular courses of instruction, to protect people from themselves and to forestall govt regulation. The difference is that some in our generation did not require or desire this instruction, and that was respected. Frankly, it would have been insulting to hear some idiot tell me that I needed to pay him to learn diving.

Others among us recognized the impending need for instruction and were the founders of the first SCUBA instructional programs. If one liked diving, was accomplished and a people person, and wanted to make a living related to diving that was a likely path to follow. It started in the dive clubs and moved from there to independent organizations. I think LA County, YMCA and NAUI were among the first. And so, parallel to these developments in our sport, American society entered a different phase, a changing reality much darker and intimidating than a physical frontier like the sea. It is a world of regulation and restrictions in some spheres accompanied by permissiveness, lawsuits, product liability, blame game and cultural aberrations of personal conduct to which, at times, have been difficult to adjust.

Diving is still fun and will remain so as the frontier expands. As for spearfishing, the future is less clear. Spearfishermen have continually upped the ante in the hunt for tablefare and/or trophies. Whereas it used to be possible to explore and hunt from shore it is now increasingly necessary to go offshore even as many of the best areas are now off limits. Certain wrong headed applications of technology have allowed commercial fishermen to run amuck and drive some species to virtual extinction. Island populations near and far have gleaned most edible life from the reefs. Pollution has put the very existence of sea life in jeopardy. In time, our generation will also be gone but hopefully not forgotten. In the future, there may be severe impediments to entering the old world of innovators and subsistance hunters into which we were submerged in the sea and in our psyche. A new world of science, photography, exploration and discovery awaits. Yet, for a moment, we can don our vintage gear and invoke a former time and state of mind, even while doing all these things that are now in the forefront of our sport.

 

[Nemrod]

Are you saying this is true, or just that it was the thought at that time? I question that "no instruction was necessary." I assume it is clear now that scuba diving should never just be considered an offshoot from freediving, and that there is just concern for proper instruction. Most of the greater medical dangers from SCUBA are either impossible or highly unlikely to strike while freediving- air embolism, nitrogen narcosis, and the bends.

****************************

Anyhow, I stand corrected to a degree. I thought horsecollar BCs were well in use in the 1960s. I forgot that true horsecollar BCs were a 1970s standard. However, while accepting the words of those that were actually diving in the 1960s, I did go back and check the marketing for buoyancy compensation in the 1960s AquaLung literature.

As mentioned before, the precursor to the horsecallar BC was the snorkeling vest. The snorkeling vest is basically a horsecollar BC that was meant for surface floatation, and not for buoyancy compensation, right? That's what I thought too, until I looked at U.S.Divers' 1960s marketing. I found it interesting enough to share.

As early as 1959 the Diver's Float, or U.S. Diver's Float, was being sold as a surface floatation device.

Then in 1964 U.S.Divers came out with the Aqua Float. It was essentally the same Diver's Float snorkelers vest with the addition of a zipper for ease of don and doff. The interesting thing is that it was being marketed as a buoyancy, or "depth", compensator right from it's debut. What? What's that, you say? 1964?!

1964- "Aqua Float is the perfect divers emergency and depth compensating float."

1965- "Perfect for depth compensation as well as emergency use."

Well, I rather suspect that quite a few accidents resulted from runaway ascents, and the wise folks at USD backed off a bit and decided not to refer to them as depth compensators for a while. Even though they got smart and added an over pressure relief valve in 1969, they still refrained from calling them depth or buoyancy compensators until the next year, 1970, where USD stated, "A diving floatation device is absolutely necessary as a working piece of diving equipment for buoyancy compensation at depth, surface swimming, and resting."

So, while the snorkeler's vest was being marketed on and off in the 1960s as a buoyancy compensator, it seems the actual divers of the time didn't consider them anything more than surface floatation devices. Frankly, the divers were correct. Using a snorkeling vest lacking an over pressure device as a buoyancy compensator is a dangerous thing to do. Were they safe? Yes- when used for that which they were originally designed. Are BCs safe? Yes- if used properly. Are modern BCs safer or less safe that vintage BCs? -no. Is wearing no BC at all safer or less safe that wearing a BC?- depends on the conditions. JMO

While the concept of squirting a little air into the Mae West/surface float/CO2 vest was well known it was not advisable. Getting the air back out was not fun. Usually when I puffed a little air into my CO2 safety vest it was a very small amount for a correction. BTW, we did not refer to our safety vests as snorkel vest nor were they considered snorkling equipment, they were intended for scuba divers for surface floatation and as such were SCUBA equipment.

Scubaboard may think 1980 is vintage, whatever, they are wrong, the vintage era is pre 75 and in many opinions pre 70. I have gear from 1980 that is indistnguishable from todays gear, 1980 is hardly vintage. Frankly, I think the 68 edition of The New Scinece of Skin and Scuba defines vintage and anything above and beyond that described therein is not vintage, including unfortuantely BCs of any sort.

That said, a good horsecollar BC is fun to use and certainly vintage acceptable for all but purists even if they really were not in use in the vintage era of diving, they look close enough to our good old safety vests.

N, reporting from San Jose, So Cal and San Fran, not Maine

 

[captain]

As Pesky has so well written those of us who started as teenagers in the 1950's were water people before we became scuba divers. Other than La County there was no instruction in 1957. I didn't become "certified" until 1970 with already a couple of hundred of dives behind me. You read the instruction book that came with the Aqua Lung and went diving.

I am not sure when the acronym "scuba" came into use but in the 50's and 60's skindiver described both free diver and scuba diver. I still have a forth edition from about 1958 of Skindiving Guide to Florida and the Caribbean and nowhere in it is the term scuba used. Aqua Lung was generically used to describe any type or brand of scuba.

 

[pescador775]

The first time I encountered the term "SCUBA" was through reading the 1955 US Divers catalog.

 

[Luis H]

I read that the term SCUBA was briefly used by the Navy, but Healthways actually copyrighted it. They had the Scuba Deluxe, Scubair, and several other models with names derived from Scuba.

Scubapro started as subsidiary of Healthways and that is were it got its name, the Professional branch of Healthways.

I wonder what would we be calling our sport if Healthways didn't go out of business and the name was still copyrighted...may still be skin divers or Aqua lung divers.



Nice write up Pesky.




OBTW, some of the previous comments about the Fenzy being less than optimal BC is very correct. It was advertised as “The Divers Parachute” not a BC. It work fine on the surface and it has a great “cool factor”, but it is close to a horrible BC (only acceptable with miniscule amounts of air underwater), and it can also be very uncomfortable if the neoprene neck in you wet suit doesn’t protect you from the sharp rubber edge.

 

[herman]

Amen Pesky!
I was too young for diving in the 50 or 60's and started my diving a lot later but I wish some things were still like it was back then. That may be a lot of what draws me to vintage gear and vintage divers, that spirit of self reliance, personal responsibility and innovation.
And as far as I am concerned Tarzan is still a hero.

 

[Slonda828]

Is it safe to dive with vintage gear? What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of more current gear?

Lee,

I'm not an expert like many of the guys who have already postd, but let me give you a recent vintage equipment diver's perspective. Diving vintage is easily the most liberating way to dive in my opinion. You have to have a mastery of your internally controlled buoyancy, and a good ability to actually swim. The equipment is simple, easy to pack, pretty easy to maintain, and easy to hump around on your back. As for downsides, if you want to be pure vintage, most of those setups didn't really use SPGs or octos. You had to know how to buddy breathe, and oddly enough, so did your buddy. You also had to know how to manage your gas...and actually use dive tables. I didn't learn to dive this way, but now that I have been diving this way I find that my fancy backplate and wings with my fancy air integrated nitrox computer sit in my closet. You haven't freaked people out until you gear up looking like JYC or Mike Nelson, jump in the water with a HUGE dive knife, and still manage to hover and not die. I think that's the funniest part, is that people will see you gearing up for a dive and think that you are instantly going to implode or something because you don't have a computer, an octo, a BC, a tiny paring knife, a crotch strap, a low volume mask, or a plastic second stage in your mouth. I bet if you try it, you'll be hooked. Besides, a lot of the vintage divers are really looking for people to show how to use this equipment and are helpful at imparting the knowledge. This is part of diving history, and it needs to keep being passed down.

 

[Hammerhead]

I started diving in 1995 and took up photography in 2005.

The use of double hose regulators made perfects sense to me because, as DA Aquamaster puts it: -

I also like the double hose reg for photography as it diffuses the bubbles more and places them behind your head where they scare fish a lot less.

Before this, I was already using mechanical, oil filled depth gauges. The first one I got was a Voit AMF Swimmaster that I still use, scuffed to bits, but utterly reliable. These days it's a back-up to my computer, but I've twice had to rely on it when a computer went beserk, and at least 4 times, I've lent it to other people for the same reason.

I also do some tech diving, and for that, I have my Apeks regs, which are nice and shiny, but ask me which I prefer, and I'll point you to my Voit 50 Fathom or my Royal Aquamaster.

I started diving with (borrowed) Jetfins, and apart from buying my own, and - later - adding spring straps, nothing has changed there. I own a new pair of APS fins, but only because they are light and that makes a difference when I'm travelling.

If you can work out how to maintain your modern regs (and IMHO, any serious diver should at least know the basics - there's enough info online without even going to your LDS to be able to get this far), then you can do the same with your "vintace" equipment.

It's easier, too.

I was lucky enough to have some household names (among the SCUBA and tech diving community at least) as mentors, and on equipment they all agreed.

Less failure points = greater reliability.

Add this to decent maintenance and you're within your rights to say that the vintage equipment is in fact safer than modern equipment.

So far, touch wood, I've never had to be helped in any way when using my vintage equipment, but I've had to do the same for others with modern equipment on more than one occasion as a result of equipment failure.

Here's me, happy. (photo by Mike Veitch)

 

[David Wilson]

>Besides, a lot of the vintage divers are really looking for people to show how to use this equipment and are helpful at imparting the knowledge. This is part of diving history, and it needs to keep being passed down.<

I agree. And the World Wide Web provides a perfect medium for documenting diving history, the skindivinghistory.com site being a fine example of the recording of historical sources in the form of diving equipment advertising. If we wait for an entire younger generation of divers to show a modicum of interest, experiences of the past will be lost forever.

Let's remember too that the vintage diving decades before 1975 may be different from the modern era, but those decades also differed among themselves and represented something different from the "hard-hat" standard diving gear that preceded. I have most interest in 1950s and early 1960s gear, although I didn't start diving until the late 1960s.