Who uses the US Divers ABS triple tank system?

[Sam Miller III]

Your post and pictures are of great interest and certainly have historical value -- A huge Thank You for posting .

Dominic Sumian as we know was formerly on JYC's dive team and was a leader of several expositions as I recall the most significant was the exploration of the amazon.

After the dismantling of the Cousteau team he was hired by US Divers (now Aqua Lung) as the manager of military sales, This brings up the question since Dominic was involved "Did US Divers develop the line as a possible military unit ?" or "Evaluate it as a possible military unit" (It is certainly a sturdy unit )
Can or will you comment ?

Two other questions - Did Dominic returned to France ? Did he ever write his book on his Cousteau adventures ? My last conversation with him he was having difficulty obtaining approval from Cousteau society in using any images while employed by JYC.

During that time frame I was teaching Advanced SCUBA a few miles away at Orange coast College and as the 3 or 4th LA Co UW instructor in the county. I had done considerable consultation for the local dive companies

I was presented with a unit for testing and evaluation. I can't recall after all these years my comments but as I do recall I thought it rode to high and needed a back mounted PFV to make it saleable to the diving public.

I did obtain several shells which I adopted to my OC twin 44s, but they also were soon discarded

Keep on posting your historical knowledge and pictures certainly fill in gaps

Cheers,
SAM MILLER

 

[Greenball34]

Domminic retired and He and Carol moved back to France. He never published but I have a copy draft he gave me. I also worked for jean Michael and designed and made a helmet back pak for him which I will take some photos of and post if you want. I had Teri my office manager set up an account here originally to get a feeling for interest. I was making commercial helmets for Beckman USD USN aquadyne ect I still have all of the tooling for the shells. I still have Cousteau helmets paks and scooteer of the photos I posted I will use this Avatar from now on.
DG

 

[Erich S]

DG,
I find the history along with the Cousteau connection extremely interesting and anything that you can post would be much appreciated.

 

[Greenball34]

I just shot this mixed gas helmet that Dominic gave me...it was given originally to Phillipe and i have a an old USD catalog somewhere that shows it on the deck of the Calpso. Cool helmet. I have lots of old dive gear...

 

[Greenball34]

I am currently spring cleaning my shop and will upload things as I get the time...it's good to share from old timers like me I guess

 

[Erich S]

Us old timers appreciate the pioneers and the history of the sport.
As a teen and a diver in the mid 1970s Philippe was kinda of a role model to me and I couldn't get enough of all things Cousteau. Again, thanks for sharing your treasures.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Thank you again..
Dominic was certainly a credit to diving and the Cousteau team and a huge asset to US Divers.
I can understand him moving back to France....I recall chatting one time and he was undecided, I was hopeful he would move north to our wine country. (those Frenchmen and Women sure do like wine )

I have no interest in helmets, although I do have an lavish inscribed copy, number 500 of a 1000 of Leon's "Helmets of the deep." I seen to be using it less and less.

There was a time not so long ago in SoCal when diver were modifying all sorts of protective helmets as a platform for lights during lobster season. There maybe a market for a sport divers helmet .

Yes I think the entire board would benefit from your posts and pictures --keep them coming

SAM

 

[Diverdon]

David,

Thank you for joining the discussion. And thank you for the photos. It seems few people appreciate the ABS compared to the UBS and so anything you care to share about either of them would be greatly appreciated.
And if you do decide to sell the units please offer them here first. I'd love a chance to get a helmet for these systems. I mention to Ron, the other gentleman in the photos above who owns and dives both, that we need to fabricate helmets for our vintage dives. Perhaps we won't need. to?

Don