LDS Pressure

[616fun]

Thanks
I did fail to mention I am looking a single tank set up. if I ever do doubles again it will be down the road a little.Does DSS use a STA for single tanks?

No. They use rubber blocks that are laced into the cam bands. They keep the bands from sliding around.

The wing has some chalks built in to stabilize the tank. It works really well. Here is a pic from his site. It's the piece in the center of the wing. A cam band is laced above and below it.

https://www.deepseasupply.com/image_store/30126/30126_IMAGE_LARGE.jpg

 

[boulderjohn]

Do the equipment manufacturers have separate deals for their tech lines? For example Scubapro sells BP/Ws and Oceanic has the Hollis line while AL has Apeks, so dive shops should be able to order them.

Aqualung shops can order Apeks--that's how I got so much Apeks gear. I assume that ScubaPro shops can order any ScubaPro products. As I understand it, Hollis does separate deals from Oceanic, but if you talk nicely to the Oceanic rep, you can get around it. (At least, that's my understanding about the Hollis light that is on back order for me.)

As for the 1% figure, that came from a nearly identical discussion here in ScubaBoard about 3 years ago. It was supplied by a major dealer who participates in SB, and he was quoting industry statistics to which he had access.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I started diving in 1985 with a used Scubapro Buoyancy Control Pack. It had been discontinued a few years before, but was in nearly all respects a BP/wing - just with a narrower cam pac compared to the more or less standard plate we see today. Even then, I had to listen to a whole bunch of "you're gonna die!" nay sayers as it would not float me face up if I surfaced unconscious. What I knew that they did not is that in the water it was so much more comfortable and so much more stable/controllable. As for the face up/face down issue, I just planned to dive in a manner that ensured i stayed conscious....duh. Many of us drilled a small hole in the pack and filled it with lead shot to reduce the weight on our belts. They held about 6 pounds so again they were very close to a modern SS plate in that regard.

The lean years were afterI wore it out. I tried a used Watergill ATpac for awhile - it had a broader plate but it was thicker to allow for weight integration via marbles and lead shot inside the plate that was dumpable through a door on the bottom - but the inflator and OPV arrangement was sub optimum compared to the Scubapro BCP.

It was a relief when BP wings finally became available again in the mid 1990s.

-----

If you liked the double hose, I'd suggest a DA Aquamaster with the Pheonix Royal Aquamaster (PRAM) upgrade added to it. It provides a balanced first stage (using Conshelf/Titan parts) along with 3 high pressure ports as well as 3 low pressure ports (in addition to the Hookah port) by replacing the first stage/inlet assembly.

I have two of them, both with newly made reproduction silicone diaphragms, silicone hoses, silicone mushroom valves and butterfly valve. Both were also re-chromed so they look like the new 1958/2008 and 1959/2009 regs they are.

There is also a new second stage assembly available for the DAA, but I have not added that addition yet given that I have no issues with the current level of excellent performance.

 

[Nemrod]

There were wings in the 70s and 80s, the Sea Tec Seahorse was available as was a ScubaPro wing and the Sea Quest brand had a wing. Been using them since at least 78 and actually still have one.

They were not called wings, BIU, Back Inflation Unit, that was what they were called. More than once I was told I could not use my Sea Tec because it was against PadI rules, I told them I don't give a rats *** about PadI rules, then or now.

N

 

[blc]

Wow DA Aquamaster you are making me feel old. The Scubapro rig you started with is the same as the rig I used when I stopped diving. It looked almost identical to the one Nimrod posted above. Mine had a hinged chute built into the bottom of the pac for lead pellets with a dump pin. It was stolen with all the rest of my gear from a motel in fla around 1985 or 86.

Also got my eyes open for a servicable double hose just for kicks

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Wow DA Aquamaster you are making me feel old. The Scubapro rig you started with is the same as the rig I used when I stopped diving. It looked almost identical to the one Nimrod posted above. Mine had a hinged chute built into the bottom of the pac for lead pellets with a dump pin. It was stolen with all the rest of my gear from a motel in fla around 1985 or 86.

Also got my eyes open for a servicable double hose just for kicks

That would have been the Watergill AtPac. I remember seeing those new in the LDS shortly before getting certified. It was a great idea, just not all that well developed and a bit ahead of it's time. The idea of using large lead shot (about 5/16" in diameter) was great, except it tended to bridge and not fall out the shoot when you pulled the pin. Plus to adjust the weight you needed to fill the remaining space with marbles and to get the lead to dump first, you had to load the marbles, then the lead, which meant determining the weight and removing and repacking everything.

But the major issue was the inflator and OPV assembly. Both were integrated into the inflator hose. The low pressure inflator hose was short and connected to a fitting in the upper third of the corrugated inflator hose, then routed inside the hose to the inflator assembly at the end. It was very clean, but the the fitting for the LP hose also housed a vey small OPV and it was not adequate. ATPac wings were known to burst if they were full and the diver ascended too rapidly. The polyurethane bladder did not help matters in that regard as the seams could burst and over time they developed leaks as well as cracks.

I liked the fairing that came with it though - a little large but kinda cool in the Cousteau'esque nature of it at the time, although most of the divers I knew who had them used them without the fairing.

WaterGill007.jpg

WaterGill004.jpg

Sea Pro made a modernized version up until several years ago. It eliminated the harness and used a nylon jacket to create a back inflate BC.

 

[blc]

Yep, thats its allright. I remember the lead getting all clumped together to the point it would not dump. I would take it out fairly often and wash it and spray a little oil on it to help it stay loose. The dump pin & hinge was another problem. It was simply a straight steel wire pin with a pullloop on one end. Evidently it was a poor grade SS because it and the hinge would rust up guite a bit and had to be cleaned often to keep working.I never had the fairing thought. Looks kinda cool but useless. To be honest, I went from straight from never wearing a BC to this set up. But it worked great.

 

[mdb]

I was a Sea-Quest rep for almost 20+ years. My favorite BC was always the BCP, a back mounted BC with a hard pack and continuous webbing. Now we are calling them by a different name. The concept remains the same.