What is a "Vintage Double Hose Regulator"?

[kelemvor]

I think vintage just means "Old fashioned or Obsolete". Kind of like non AI dive computers .

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I think vintage just means "Old fashioned or Obsolete". Kind of like non AI dive computers .

I think that's funny. I just got out of the water with my Mossback Mk3 double hose regulator, and I was using my SPG from Scubapro from about 1986. I've been shooting some video with a GoPro, and wanted to compare the readout of the analog gauge with the digital readout from my Suunto Cobra dive computer. I think the Scubapro analog gauge was easier for me to see and understand. This has to do with the visual display, and how it can be perceived.

When I think of "vintage diving," I'm thinking of diving the way I did in the early 1960s, with either a J-valve on my tank, or a restrictor orifice in my regulator. No BC at all! I'm diving "slick," and sometimes do this so as to swim more easily in heavy river currents.

A "vintage double hose regulator" can have the SPG, octopus and LP inflator hose ("push-button diving"). This is independent of "vintage diving." Here are photos of diving in Alexander Springs, Florida in 1967:




SeaRat

 

[Nemrod]

Here is another way to dive "vintage" double hose regulators with modern regulators--independent doubles.

James, I don't agree that diving "vintage double hose" is different from diving the Argonaut Kraken.

I am admiring the diving in Turkey.

I do not think I said that, only that it is clearly not a vintage regulator nor do I think was it intended anymore so than my AL Titan LX (which I love).

I love Turkey, beautiful place, tremendous culture, I have some very strong friends there .

N

 

[John C. Ratliff]

OK, just in case, let's go over this again for the Turkey.

Vintage Era:

Not Vintage Era:

N

Nemrod,

I was simply responding to this post. For someone from the outside, there doesn't look like a lot of difference between the Argonaut Kraken and the Mistral. The Calpyso is a different story. I was using the Calypso in my parascuba jumps in the 1970s. We dove vintage, with a wet suit, weight belt, tank set, regulator and mask. We also had LPUs on (Underarm Life Preservers), and of course the other gear for jumping from 1250 feet (380 meters) above the water.


SeaRat

 

[Nemrod]

John, I doubt many new divers could differentiate a Calypso J from a SP S600, really. Same thing, one is vintage and one is not and both work exactly the same way and look pretty much the same.

I do not think you were diving "vintage" in 1970! Just saying.


James

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Nemrod,

I was still in the U.S. Air Force in 1970. So my diving reflected the equipment we were issued, and where we were. I started out the year in Bermuda, and we dove and snorkeled around that island. Below are some photos of some of our snorkeling, where Don Beasley got caught by a wave and had to ride it to a coral head. We also dove for old bottles, but used unit dive gear, which consisted of twin 72s or twin 42s with a J-valve, LPUs, wet suit, fins, mask and snorkel. Our regulators were USD Calypso (second generation), without SPGs (they were just becoming available, but could cause a hang-up with parachute lines during a parascuba jump).

Then our unit, the 55th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (ARRSq) was transferred to McCoy AFB, Florida. I was on strip alert with engines running for the liftoff of Apollo 13. We were responsible for a possible rescue in the first minute of flight, flying the HC-130 aircraft (see below). But again, my dive equipment was twin 72s with a J-valve, and a Calypso regulator. I had an AMF Voit Forty Fathom regulator (Voit's copy of the original Calypso), but it was at home in Oregon. I did buy a USD Mistral at that time, and dove it with our jump tanks at Alexander Springs in Florida, where I did a lot of snorkeling too.

In September of 1970 I went home on leave to Oregon, and participated in some research out of the University of Oregon on diving physiology. There I dove a weird contraption with three tanks, an electrocardiogram recorder, and a vacuum cylinder to collect my exhalations.

In October of 1970 I volunteered for duty with the 37th ARRSq in DaNang, RVN, and closed out the year there. I flew the HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant helicopter while in Vietnam. In Vietnam we still had our swim gear and scuba equipment, though I did not get to go on the dive I arranged at this wonderful volcanic island with a fringing coral reef--I still would like to dive there some day, but I was sent on temporary duty to Udorn, Thailand when the rest of the PJs went on that dive.

All this diving was with either a Mistral double hose or a single hose regulator that was truly a single hose regulator. I didn't own a SPG. So I think I met the definition of "vintage diving" in 1970.

SeaRat
(I still have those very old bottles from Bermuda.)

 

[Nemrod]

John, what I am saying is that an antique is not an antique when it was manufactured, it became so. In 1970 you were not diving vintage as the concept of vintage era did not exist yet and the equipment and methods you were diving was of the day largely.

James

 

[rhwestfall]

[video=youtube;kxig2AF1-gw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxig2AF1-gw[/video]

 

[Nemrod]

Like Special Relativity, the definition of Vinrage Era is dependent upon the position of the observer. Now who would have thought time travel to first ocurr on scubaboard. I knew there was something about John, a regular Dr. Who.

N

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Like Special Relativity, the definition of Vinrage Era is dependent upon the position of the observer. Now who would have thought time travel to first ocurr on scubaboard. I knew there was something about John, a regular Dr. Who.

N

Nemrod,

That's a good thought. I'm still diving much the same way I was in the 1970s, but now it's called "vintage diving." So maybe I'm also "vintage." If you'll look at my avatar, I'm diving a BC that I invented, the ParaSea BC; I'm still diving it, but no one else in the world has it. (By the way, that avatar is from my first entries here on ScubaBoard, which was so long ago that I apparently cannot change the avatar, as I've tried.)

Here's a photo from my NAUI ITC in 1973 in Santa Barbara, and you can see the wet suits and life vests we were using at the time.

John