Vintage diving...what was it like?

[james croft]

I have used one of the surfboards before. It had a glass port in it and had a rubber skirt just like and old divers mask to put your face into to look down. I had forgot about them. I have not seen one in years and the last one I saw was used by the fire department dive rescue team in Richmond Virginia and that was about 15 years ago.

FWIW the river rescue guys use the foam boards for whte water work and they are about 2-3 times as thick as a regular boogie board and have heavy duty rope handholds along the side. They have good bouyancy and would be good for shore diving. I am not sure but think the boards may be made by Morrey. I will check on them.

 

[james croft]

I asked a dive team guy and he told me they were Carlson Rescue boards and have about 165 pounds bouyancy. Works well in aerated water. Good for a diver doing a beach dive as well.
But kind of pricey at about 350 bucks give or take.

 

[Nemrod]

http://www.nrsweb.com/shop/product.asp?pfid=1868

Something similar. N

 

[ProFishing]

Hello DiverDoug,
Indeed, we don't have online presence yet!...
If you still need these 2-snorkel masks, just let me know...
Thanks,
Anthony.
ProFishing Hellas Corp.
EuroBalco
BNP Corp.

 

[scjoe]

"American made Rubatex G-231. Suits made with this material are warmer and do not compress nearly as much as the soft, stretch stuff in vogue today. As a result buoyancy shift due to suit compression was greatly reduced. Yes, we used 1/4 inch suits, roughly equivalent to a 7mm. I have a new Rubatex G-231 5/4mm suit."

I'm not sure your suit is made with new Rubatex. The company shut down in 2004 and was purchased by a German company. It was resold in 2008 and shut down again in June-July of 2010. I have not seen anything that suggests it reopened. That would make your neoprene at least 2 years old.

I realize that Wetwear advertises that it sells Rubatex suits, but I can find no other custom manufacturer that claims to do so, including those I know used to make Rubatex suits in the past like M&B. This seems odd. ​

 

[Boiler_81]

You might want to take a look at the posting date

"American made Rubatex G-231. Suits made with this material are warmer and do not compress nearly as much as the soft, stretch stuff in vogue today. As a result buoyancy shift due to suit compression was greatly reduced. Yes, we used 1/4 inch suits, roughly equivalent to a 7mm. I have a new Rubatex G-231 5/4mm suit."

I'm not sure your suit is made with new Rubatex. The company shut down in 2004 and was purchased by a German company. It was resold in 2008 and shut down again in June-July of 2010. I have not seen anything that suggests it reopened. That would make your neoprene at least 2 years old.

I realize that Wetwear advertises that it sells Rubatex suits, but I can find no other custom manufacturer that claims to do so, including those I know used to make Rubatex suits in the past like M&B. This seems odd. ​

 

[scjoe]

Good point. I missed that it was an old post and thread. I haven't heard of anyone in So Cal making a Rubatex suit since 2006. It still seems odd that only one manufacturer would have access to this source.

 

[Rich Keller]

Any old time divers out there? Back in the day of no pressure gauges and the J valve, what was diving like with no BC?

Did they use less weight? And Getting back to the surface from depth must have been a chore with no air assist. Did they even have J valves from the very beginning?

Clue me in on what it was like...from the hassles to the nostalgic memories.

I dove before there were J valves, SPGs and BCs. We used surplus oral inflating vests similar to the snorkel vest of today but these were useless for buoyancy control so you needed to be weighted just right. I would start a dive neutral or slightly negative, suit compression would make me slightly negative at the bottom and I would be slightly positive at the surface at the end of the dive. You could figure your time by knowing how deep you were diving and add in a safety margin. If you screwed that up you could tell by the change in the way your regulator was breathing when you were getting real low on air. For shallow water dives I still do not use a BC or a lot of the other stuff people think you can not dive without today. These pics show what tank valves looked like before the J valve. I bought this tank used in 1970 and it is still in service today.

 

[gypsyjim]

I dove before there were J valves, SPGs and BCs. We used surplus oral inflating vests similar to the snorkel vest of today but these were useless for buoyancy control so you needed to be weighted just right. I would start a dive neutral or slightly negative, suit compression would make me slightly negative at the bottom and I would be slightly positive at the surface at the end of the dive. You could figure your time by knowing how deep you were diving and add in a safety margin. If you screwed that up you could tell by the change in the way your regulator was breathing when you were getting real low on air. For shallow water dives I still do not use a BC or a lot of the other stuff people think you can not dive without today. These pics show what tank valves looked like before the J valve. I bought this tank used in 1970 and it is still in service today..

Bought my J valve 72steel in '70, also. Weighting, with those thick wet suits sure could be a hassle at time. The oral inflate May West vest sure helped.
Never forget that "drag" on the reg just before you hit E on your gas! Really a shock when I reached to trip the J valve, and discovered that the surf entry had done so already! Time to go!

 

[captain]

Actually the J vale was available from just about the beginning. It is listed in the 1953 US Divers catalog. I have and still use a Voit steel 72 with a J valve that I bought in 1957. It was called a reserve valve but if you look at the catalog you will see it listed as item J, That is how it got its name J valve. Also that is how the non reserve K valve got its name, it is item K

https://backup.filesanywhere.com/vwr/ELinkvwr.aspx?&FILEID=1248311&NAME=Aqualung1953.pdf&PATH=\BLPEN163\US%20Divers%20Catalogs\Aqualung1953.pdf