Retro Scuba Deep Diving Instruction

[=C=]

Hi all,

I came across this NASDS PSAI Deep Diving video.



There is some interesting stuff in the video. I just bought one of those new fangled analog "decompression computers" from Scubapro shown in the video. I played around with it for a bit and it seems pretty flaky... may just be age.

 

[Louma]

Looks better than my computer. Do you know where I can get one! Love the sideburns!

 

[Nemrod]

Looks better than my computer. Do you know where I can get one! Love the sideburns!

ebay has plenty of the Scuba Pro Bend'o'matics.

N

 

[=C=]

ebay has plenty of the Scuba Pro Bend'o'matics.

N

Yep I got mine on ebay... 50 something US I think... Got it on the wall along with a J valve, UDT duck feet, NASDS tables, first snorkel, and some Cousteau stuff.

I found a journal article citing early versions in 1953 but that their use was "highly discouraged" as the results often significantly varied from the tables... But it was an awesome idea... Using diffusion through a membrane to emulate the process that occurs in a divers body in a real time a non-linear fashion. Then the results suggested deco stops at a depth an a time on an analog dial. Too bad it didnt work all that well...

 

[captain]

Actually they did work fairly well when working, problem was there was no easy way to tell when it wasn't and they were fairly delicate. A slight bump could knock it off calibration and it had to be inside a sealed container that held sea level atmospheric pressure when flying or the bladder could expand and rupture. I went through two of them before I gave up. One got knocked off calibration by being dropped and the bladder leaked out the gas in it. Fortunately the Edge came out and put it to rest but I do know some divers who were still using it in the 90's