Vintage diver pros and cons? Why do it?

[JohnW]

I thoroughly enjoyed my dive with the vintage gear and can't wait to do it again someday.

I saw your first report on your Oahu Vintage dive with Roger & Lisa, I was envious right away(I did one ealier in the Summer with Roger & Lisa). I can't wait to do one(or Two?) again.

I also liked the way that Roger explained how the equiptment worked, it made feel at ease with the configuration right away.

I really have to recomend that anyone headed to Oahu that has never dove vintage, should book a vintage dive with Roger & Lisa.

One Dive is all you need to see why it is so popular .

Great Photo of Me by Roger Miller(Lisa's Talent must be rubbing off on Roger)

 

[Greg Barlow]

Great Photo of Me by Roger Miller(Lisa's Talent must be rubbing off on Roger)

Nice Voit reg! What particular model is it?

As far as vintage diving goes, my diving interest are varied. I love to cave dive, wreck dive, and cruise along a reef at a leisurely pace. Of all my diving pleasures, there is something so relaxing about diving with vintage gear. This past Tuesday, I made five dives (all less than 30'), in search of photographing fresh water jellies in an Ohio quarry. My reg was a rebuilt 1960 model US Divers Mistral, along with a banjo fitting allowing me to use a SPG. I was diving solo, but had a bail-out bottle mounted in a stage bottle fashion. I never needed the safety bottle, but then again, I would have been very surprised if I had.

I began diving in the early 1970's, and still own several pieces of my original gear. To me, diving with vintage gear is a lot like my love of riding motorcycles. If you've never experienced either one, it is difficult to understand (and appreciate) the enjoyment.

My favorite vintage double hose reg is the Voit 50 Fathom as used on Sea Hunt. It had a brass body that was painted with metal flake blue paint. My favorite vintage single hose reg is the the Voit MR12. It was the first single hose reg approved for US Navy use. In fact, the name stands for Military Regulator 1 hose, 2 stages.

Vintage diving is not for everyone. It is quite a bit different from using modern gear, as special techniques are needed.

Greg Barlow
Former Science Editor for Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine

 

[justleesa]

Great Photo of Me by Roger Miller (Lisa's Talent must be rubbing off on Roger)

Actually - Roger is the one that got me started

Nice Voit reg! What particular model is it?

It's a Voit Triest

 

[Greg Barlow]

Actually - Roger is the one that got me started




It's a Voit Triest

The gray hoses were a Voit give away, but the Trieste originally wore black hoses.

Roger has introduced many people to the joys of vintage diving.

Greg

 

[justleesa]

...yes he has

Roger has put the grey and yellow hoses on his regs so they show up better in pictures.

 

[Turtleguy9]

Aloha All
Yes its been fun for me to introduce folks to Vintage Diving. I have the advantage in being able to dive vintage off the regular dive boats here, and it always draws a lot of attention from the other divers. I have even used my Kawasaki double hose on a few dives, but never got any of the japanese interested, as yet.
These days I have been mostly diving my Voits, but I have a rebuilt DA Navy that I have been itching to try. Some of the other double hose regs I have used a few times, but not on a regular basis, are the R-4 Dacor, and the first model Healthways.
Alas, so little time, so much fun gear.
Aloha
Roger
aka Turtleguy9
PS I always carry around my Square label Royal Aquamaster as a vintage backup.

 

[David Wilson]

Great photograph, justleesa. I didn't know that IST Sea Diver fins also came in yellow. Are they and the matching mask vintage? I've searched long and hard online, but haven't been able to locate a manufacturer, let alone a retailer, of yellow oval dive masks.

 

[justleesa]

Thank you :blush: You'll have wait for Roger to post the details, I'm just the wife that takes the pictures
I do know that he has yellow, orange, white, black, blue and grey vintage masks

 

[Turtleguy9]

Great photograph, justleesa. I didn't know that IST Sea Diver fins also came in yellow. Are they and the matching mask vintage? I've searched long and hard online, but haven't been able to locate a manufacturer, let alone a retailer, of yellow oval dive masks.

Aloha David
Sorry to say, they are all vintage, and they are all e-bay purchases.
If I see some for sale, I will try to PM you.
Most of the new oval masks I have seen are either black or clear.
Aloha
Roger

 

[David Wilson]

Thanks, Roger, for confirming this. I too have mainly located black and clear masks during online searches, although I did chance upon a couple of coloured retro models still in production; the Greek-made Majorca sub 101S:

http://www.majorcasub.gr/products/03-001.jpg

and the Japanese-made Basara:

http://www.gullsports.com/MASK/BASARA/A-0101 SL.jpg

No ordering details forthcoming, though.

Ebay has been a good source of the vintage fins I have been trying out during my weekly North Sea snorkelling forays. Having lost a vintage UK-made Britmarine light blue mask and snorkel recently, bought several years ago at a "car boot sale", I may keep an eye on ebay's mask, snorkel and vintage section myself to find replacements. Although Britmarine no longer manufactures such gear, their underwater products from the 1960s and 1970s do still appear regularly on the UK version of ebay. An interesting historical addendum is that Britmarine once launched a range of snorkel gear under the name "King Neptune" to capture a share of the US market when "Sea Hunt" popularised diving.