Stepping back in SCUBA time....

[texdiveguy]

I was first certf. as a SCUBA-Skin Diver in 1971 at the age of 16....... one of my memories (and I have a bunch from the way it was!!!),,,, was how you could elect to have your tanks air fill flavored with peppermint.....not real good for the inside of those steel tanks but was kool!!

What is one of your memories???

 

[HarleyDiver]

You must have been diving in Calif. lol.

In the early seventies, I remember a dive plan as something like :
"swim around till you can't breath, Pop your J-valve, Surface & swim back to shore/boat".
By 1975 I even bought a SPG, Big step up.
How did we survive?????????

 

[Jim Baldwin]

I was first certf. as a SCUBA-Skin Diver in 1971 at the age of 16....... one of my memories (and I have a bunch from the way it was!!!),,,, was how you could elect to have your tanks air fill flavored with peppermint.....not real good for the inside of those steel tanks but was kool!!

What is one of your memories???

I had a set of twin 50's with a Nemrod Snark II single hose regulator and a J-value. I did have a SPG. I didn't see my first BCD until 1982 and an octopus was something you saw in the ocean. My reg. didn't even have any additional ports.

I just threw away my waffle weave beaver tail Aqua Lung neoprene suit. My wife would not let me wear it in public anymore.

Did a lot of search and recovery diving with this gear and my backplate and wing looks a lot like the gear from 25 years ago.

Jim
Louisiana

 

[texdiveguy]

You must have been diving in Calif. lol.

In the early seventies, I remember a dive plan as something like :
"swim around till you can't breath, Pop your J-valve, Surface & swim back to shore/boat".
By 1975 I even bought a SPG, Big step up.
How did we survive?????????

LOL!! I also remember in those early 70's, it was a sport mainly partc. by young males/macho I think!! LOL Also I had a Dacor knife as big as a sword. My buddies and I had no SPG or depth gauges,,,,so we took a 60' rope and painted hash marks every foot,at the bottom of the rope was tied an OLD anchor we found---gee it is amazing we all survived some of those dives!

 

[Gary D.]

You must have been diving in Calif. lol.

In the early seventies, I remember a dive plan as something like :
"swim around till you can't breath, Pop your J-valve, Surface & swim back to shore/boat".
By 1975 I even bought a SPG, Big step up.
How did we survive?????????

It was that way in the early 60's. If you went to pull the reserve and it was down already, it was OH S%$T.

Gary D.

 

[texdiveguy]

It was that way in the early 60's. If you went to pull the reserve and it was down already, it was OH S%$T.

Gary D.

DITTO!!!!

 

[Gary D.]

What about "Road Map" Dry suits.

Gary D.

 

[Bubble Blower 479]

I remember having to breathe off the tank valve while underwater as part of the training. We also had to remove our tank and hold it in front of ourselves so we could fend off sharks.

 

[garyfotodiver]

During the summer of 1970, I went diving at night (11PM or so) in the Shark River inlet at Bradley Beach, NJ. My parents came to watch one evening, not that there was anything to see. My mother said later that all she heard was the sound of the tanks and weights banging against the rocks as we entered the water. She said it was the scariest 45 minutes of her life.

 

[OE2X]

I remember when Scuba Pro came out with a vest that had an lp inflator. Now that was cool. No octos' back then either. Basic rules for NDL were 60' for 60 minutes and no faster on the ascent than the smallest bubbles.