SDIII a Great Success

[Nemrod]

The vintage equipment divers that gathered for this vintage ralley had a great time. We dived a variety of venues, something for everyone. The visit to Weekie Watchie was a lot of fun and our dive out of Destin, a new venue for this event, went well. I made 15 or more scuba dives including several beach/kayak dives at Navarre beach, Pensecola Beach, Destin Jettie twice. Also dove two wrecks out of Pensecola and viewed the soon to be worlds greatest wreck dive, the Oriskany. On my last day I passed back through Destin for another kayak dive on the jetties I was fortunate to dive with a group of bottle nose dolphins that surfaced around my kayak and seemed to accompany me off and on for nearly an hour at their leisure.
The Oriskany is HUGE!!!, this is going to be a premier dive site assuming dive boats run to it, something I am not convinced yet of. I was told by one shop that the reason they no longer carrry divers to offshore locations was the poor level of training of divers today, what a shame.
Any way, the SDIII vintge dive ralley was a complete success, thanks to all who made it possible. N

 

[ClevelandDiver]

Glad to hear you guys had fun Nemrod. How many dolphins and how close did they get?

Did you test out any new vintage gear configurations? Over the winter I went a little crazy and amassed a whole mess of stuff I need to try out this summer.

 

[Nemrod]

I could not count all the dolphins, I estimate approx twelve. There were some little ones and several adults and one little fellow that was about my size. He was the curious one. The others kept their distance. Often breaking into smaller groups and rejoining. That is why it was hard to count them. I felt oddly safe with them around.

Why didn't you come to SDIII to try the gear out?

No, I did not have anything especially new, a new Royal Aqua Master to dive, a Tekna DPV (number two). I let people play with it at Alexander but none of the other locations were really suitable for a DPV. I guesss I should have gotten it out at Weekie Wachee. I do have a few vintage things I am working on but not sure when they may debut.

Do you know about the Portage Quarry event latter this summer?
N

 

[ClevelandDiver]

Yeah, I talked to the owner of Portage Quarry and told him I'd try to make it out there for the event. He is a real nice guy. The quarry does not officially open for another month or so, but he opened it up for me and some friends on the last weekend of March. Water was about 38 degrees viz range from 10 - 50 feet depending on where you were.

I have no good excuse for not making it to SDIII. Is it around the same time every year? I really would like to dive my vintage gear in some warm clear water for a change.

 

[Nemrod]

Well, I am not the official spokesperson for SD but yes, so far it is held about the same time each year. The best info is of course at vintagedoublehose.com. I think the next big vintage dive is the Portage Quarry and then Wazee.

The future will likely bring changes to the various events and maybe add a few--who knows. Yeah, you should have come down for SDIII. Since SDIV is a year away now I am sure various discussions will come and go about exactly when and where and how. The way it was done this year was like a buffet dive, pick and choose from a variety of locations, the group split and reformed several times and it went great. Next year should be the greatest yet!
Just my opinion but SD is a fun event, meant to just get people in the water with double hose gear and have fun, super challenging diving is not on the menue directly BUT there is always the opportunity to split away or before or after. Plan to join us next year and of course visit vintagedoublehose.com and vintagescubasupply.com forums for updates on gatherings. N

 

[ClevelandDiver]

Are you planning on attending the Portage Quarry vintage dive? If so drop me a PM and I'll meet you up there. I have been trying to get my buddies into vintage diving, but they just don't have any interest. I even bought a shark skin suit way too small for me that would fit one of them.

It is difficult for me to understand how people seriously into diving can be immune to the call of the vintage gear. The history of scuba diving and salvage diving fascinates as much as the 100+ year old wrecks I dive. Studying the evolution (or de-evolution in some cases) of dive equipment, training and practices just seems like a natural progression for any true diving enthusiast.

I am not saying they need to even buy any gear, just show a little excitement when someone offers you a chance to dive it. I love cars, including my project car 75 Nova, if someone gave me a chance to drive a model T, I wouldn't give them a half a second to reconsider the offer! Yet none of my hardcore dive buddies has the slightest interest in trying vintage diving, even with me providing a complete set of gear.

Oh well.... I am taking the double hose regs I rebuilt this winter to a pool session my LDS is hosting at a local high school tomorrow night. Maybe I can stir up some interest in the safety of a pool. If the weather looks good I may even give them a real test in the quarry this weekend. At least you don't have to worry about a double hose freezing up in the 38 degree water.

 

[captain]

Are you planning on attending the Portage Quarry vintage dive? If so drop me a PM and I'll meet you up there. I have been trying to get my buddies into vintage diving, but they just don't have any interest. I even bought a shark skin suit way too small for me that would fit one of them.

It is difficult for me to understand how people seriously into diving can be immune to the call of the vintage gear. The history of scuba diving and salvage diving fascinates as much as the 100+ year old wrecks I dive. Studying the evolution (or de-evolution in some cases) of dive equipment, training and practices just seems like a natural progression for any true diving enthusiast.

I am not saying they need to even buy any gear, just show a little excitement when someone offers you a chance to dive it. I love cars, including my project car 75 Nova, if someone gave me a chance to drive a model T, I wouldn't give them a half a second to reconsider the offer! Yet none of my hardcore dive buddies has the slightest interest in trying vintage diving, even with me providing a complete set of gear.

Oh well.... I am taking the double hose regs I rebuilt this winter to a pool session my LDS is hosting at a local high school tomorrow night. Maybe I can stir up some interest in the safety of a pool. If the weather looks good I may even give them a real test in the quarry this weekend. At least you don't have to worry about a double hose freezing up in the 38 degree water.

Your buddies are probably scared to death of vintage gear with all the divers on this board who try to make diving into rocket science, then remember it's life support equiptment and possesses mystical powers that can not be understood by mere mortals.

 

[Luis H]

Your buddies are probably scared to death of vintage gear with all the divers on this board who try to make diving into rocket science, then remember it's life support equiptment and possesses mystical powers that can not be understood by mere mortals.

You are probably correct.

One thing that most divers are probably not aware is that by design most well maintained double hose regulators are (at least in theory) more reliable that a single hose regulator.

Let me explain:

As we know, from a mechanical stand point a regulator like the Royal Aqua Master is not only identical to the Conshelf, the Titan, etc., but it actually shares many of the same moving parts.

Designers of single hose regulators have gone through a lot of trouble to make some of the first stages environmentally sealed, but all second stages (when they are out your mouth) are exposed to the ambient water with any sand or other particles or contaminants in it. Even when it is in your mouth the moisture in your exhaled air goes over the second stage mechanism (this moisture is a known source of cold water freeze up).

Most double hose by default are environmentally sealed both the first and second stage. If well maintained and working properly, water and contaminants will never reach any moving parts. Again “if well maintained” chances of a freeze up or free flow due to contaminants are near impossible.

In reality, regulator malfunctions are very rare. But, in my experience, sand and other contaminants in the second stage or in a piston first stage is the number one source for a malfunction (on a regulator that has not seen many years of neglect and corrosion).

Now for the down side (the reason for the disclaimer “at least in theory”):

Most double hose are over 30 years old. Back 30+ years ago it was common to use phenolic gaskets and metal to metal seals (hookah port). These types of seals are not always as reliably tight as O-ring seals. The flip side is that in the rare case of an O-ring failure, the leak is much more spectacular that the small trickle from a hard seal.

Yes, the hoses are more delicate and will not last for ever. But, the only time I have seen a good hose fail underwater is in a knife fight with Mike Nelson or one of his enemies (some of Emilio Largo’s guys had trouble too when they tried to tackle James Bond).

 

[Nemrod]

Yeah, I like the "it's life support" statements. Ho hum, yawn, yawn, snicker. If they are so worried about it then they should switch to a double hose, more reliable, safer, fewer moving parts, fewer failure prone O-rings.
Most divers, especially newer divers like to have all the latest fancy plastic stuff--like a Christmas tree. They may also, deep down in the subconcious, realize at some level that their training and conditioning and experience is not sufficient to dive sans BC and the other scuba pacifiers so common now. I kept hearing one fellow(non vintage diver) on the SD dive ask "how do you get down without a BC?"---I could not really answer that for him because I don't use a BC to "get down". Whatever. This is not rocket science, I was 12 years old and learned with double hose, kids could do it, so can even PadI trained divers if sufficiently mentored.
Reduce energy consumption and waste, restore and dive old double hose regulators and dump the fancy plastic stuff in the recycle bin to be used for DVD wrappers. N