Graeme Tolton
Contributor
Who wants to control Buoyancy anyway?
Dive Gear on JM Cousteau's Ocean Adventures
- Thread starter Sadamune
- Start date
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Most of us dove that way before the mid- to late-80's. We didn't use BCD's on the early POS Catalina programs, and I didn't try my first one until I dove with JMC and the team off Santa Cruz Island back in 1989. It autoinflated so I simply disconnected the "new fangled contraption" and dove without benefit of a BCD.
Graeme Tolton
Contributor
I understand that gear was not what it is today many years ago... BUT a NEW show depicting divers who have what is supposed to look like advanced equipment, really being nothing that wasn't around in 1975. Many of the watchers of this show are divers. It is troubling for me to see such simplistic equipment. No SPG, no secondary air source. No redundancy of any kind. This is not the way that people dive nowadays. Yes, I undersatnd that there is going to be a whole camera crew that likely has all sorts of redundancy and can PROBABLY sort out most air emergencies with the other divers. But it is the example that is being set. I am sure that the show will have many fans wanting to have a similar gear setup just because it was on the show. What is the point of a triple tank setup if there are no isolation valves? Kind of disapointing that such a well known family in Scuba would shoes themselves using such an out of date life support system.
Graeme... I would put my money on Jean-Michel, who has been diving for nearly 60 years, and his crew. There are many of us who dive with equipment that is not "current" and do it a lot more safely than many who use the latest gadgets. I don't think new divers should consider the likes of JMC, Howard Hall and others as examples of how they should dive. They dive the way they do for reasons that have been worked out and tested over decades.
Bob Evans
Contributor
Working with JM Cousteau was a dream come true. I have asked Blair Mott to step in and add some details. I plan to do a post on the experience, may be put up some footage of me working on his custom fins, youtube. Before making the foot cast, I sure had fun listening to him giggle while rubbing down his toes with k-y jelly. Yes the ops will come out one day, just kind of got busy filling orders on the 20 plus fins I make now.
Interesting that you would mention this. I participated in this same program back in 1979 in Roatan. This brings back a flood of memories. We al dove single 72s, regulator, SPG, and depth gauge. That was it. JM had some pretty nice U.S. Divers stuff with jacket style BC. His son Fabien (sp?) got bit by a pet monkey named Bunky (stupid monkey). That damned monkey pee'd on me more than once!
I forget her name, but his wife came along too. She was hot. The kids apparantly got their Mom's looks.
Sadamune
Thank yo for your interest and thank you to all the members for the honest opinions and feedback. You have a great link for some of the equipment we used during the series and it is a great reference.
For 1st and second stages it was a mix of USD, Oceanic and Kirby Morgan, but the consistent gear that was always used no matter what breather machines we were using were Force Fin OPS - Oscillating Propulsion System ( we also used the excellerating Force fin a lot) excel_force_fin_product , and the SuperMask Kirby Morgan Dive Systems | M-48 FAQ (which was being sold through Oceanic)
A very special thanks of appreciation goes out to both Force Fin http://www.forcefin.com/FF_PAGES/about.htm and Kirby Morgan Dive systems for their support during the series and all of the work that Ocean Futures Society does to bring a little bit of the outside in and educate people about the natural world.
Computers were Oceanic, HSE Explorer, Suunto, Nexus. All the Open circuit divers usually wore the VT PRO from Oceaninc and it was an excellent computer and I must say Oceanic's Support was AWESOME! JMC and the divers in front of the camera did indeed dive SCR and not only open circuit during the series as stated. Some of them even dove the CCR units(but not JMC)
Yes the gear sometimes looks fancy sometimes not, but we never had an injury or diving accident and all of the diving we did was far safer than any diving I have done outside of Ocean Futures Society. Our expedition leader was on top of every move of the dive team, safety divers were numerous (to many sometimes), boats (never failed and were where we needed them) and extra equipment was always available if any piece of gear came into question before, during or after a dive.
No one was ever forced to dive if they were not ready mentally or physically and our training was ongoing! As Dr. Bill mentioned it is Production diving and should not be emulated by sport divers in any way. In the shows, you might not see a SPG or inflatable wing , but it is there.
But again it is a different type of diving and there is a lot going on off camera.
My experience with the OFS team over the years was amazing and I know there are dives I would never had made with out the team. It was the safest diving I have ever done!
Blair Mott
Chief Diver
Ocean Futures Society January 1994- August 2007
Thank yo for your interest and thank you to all the members for the honest opinions and feedback. You have a great link for some of the equipment we used during the series and it is a great reference.
For 1st and second stages it was a mix of USD, Oceanic and Kirby Morgan, but the consistent gear that was always used no matter what breather machines we were using were Force Fin OPS - Oscillating Propulsion System ( we also used the excellerating Force fin a lot) excel_force_fin_product , and the SuperMask Kirby Morgan Dive Systems | M-48 FAQ (which was being sold through Oceanic)
A very special thanks of appreciation goes out to both Force Fin http://www.forcefin.com/FF_PAGES/about.htm and Kirby Morgan Dive systems for their support during the series and all of the work that Ocean Futures Society does to bring a little bit of the outside in and educate people about the natural world.
Computers were Oceanic, HSE Explorer, Suunto, Nexus. All the Open circuit divers usually wore the VT PRO from Oceaninc and it was an excellent computer and I must say Oceanic's Support was AWESOME! JMC and the divers in front of the camera did indeed dive SCR and not only open circuit during the series as stated. Some of them even dove the CCR units(but not JMC)
Yes the gear sometimes looks fancy sometimes not, but we never had an injury or diving accident and all of the diving we did was far safer than any diving I have done outside of Ocean Futures Society. Our expedition leader was on top of every move of the dive team, safety divers were numerous (to many sometimes), boats (never failed and were where we needed them) and extra equipment was always available if any piece of gear came into question before, during or after a dive.
No one was ever forced to dive if they were not ready mentally or physically and our training was ongoing! As Dr. Bill mentioned it is Production diving and should not be emulated by sport divers in any way. In the shows, you might not see a SPG or inflatable wing , but it is there.
My experience with the OFS team over the years was amazing and I know there are dives I would never had made with out the team. It was the safest diving I have ever done!
Blair Mott
Chief Diver
Ocean Futures Society January 1994- August 2007
I was hoping you'd come along and clarify some of this, Blair.
It's funny... I watch hundreds if not thousands of divers a month here at the dive park or on the King Neptune. Too often it is the diver with all the new shiny gear, looking like a Christmas tree, that actually needs assistance. Most of the old timers dive with gear they've tested through years (or in my case decades) of use. I've never seen any reason to buy new equipment if the old stuff works well and has proven reliability. However, as a solo diver, I do make sure I have substantial redundancy to make my diving safe... so I guess at times I look like a Christmas tree with my four different second stages dangling from their clips.
It's funny... I watch hundreds if not thousands of divers a month here at the dive park or on the King Neptune. Too often it is the diver with all the new shiny gear, looking like a Christmas tree, that actually needs assistance. Most of the old timers dive with gear they've tested through years (or in my case decades) of use. I've never seen any reason to buy new equipment if the old stuff works well and has proven reliability. However, as a solo diver, I do make sure I have substantial redundancy to make my diving safe... so I guess at times I look like a Christmas tree with my four different second stages dangling from their clips.
Graeme Tolton
Contributor
Thank you Blair for that clarification. I in no way meant any disrespect. By no means, was I saying that the dives on the show WERE unsafe. With everything being concealed though, the equipment does look very simplistic. I can now see the the SPG is wireless. Also, I am not trying to compare myself as a diver to JM or any of his crew.
I appologize for the confusion.
I appologize for the confusion.
Actually, when you get outside of the "sport scuba" abcdefg agency box you will find that lots of people still dive with breath control bouyancy and simple gear without all of the complication and floor plan/sales driven consumer crap. You don't really need all that fuss and bother.
Thanks to Mr Mott and the DrBill for the insight into those rigs and especially the underside of the streamline packs.
N
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