Vintage diving...what was it like?

[diverdoug1]

I never really had much difficulty then or now maintaining good buoyancy control and a proper horizontal position. The difficulties of vintage are often exaggerated because we look back and wonder how we survived and that is not unique to scuba, usually we were our own worst enemies, not the gear. N

Before I was able to get the horse collar (thanks Santa), Bouancy was pretty tough. I would need about 12 pounds to get down with my thick wetsuit, but below 70' I could take my weight belt off. I needed to kick to keep myself from sinking. The horse collar was a great step in the right direction for efficient diving in cold water. When it was warm enough for no wetsuit, life was easy (and so were some of the girls in my school that year). I wish I still had all my original gear. Unfortunately, the ravages of time took its toll on the neoprene and rubber, and I got rid of it in favor of more modern gear. Looking back, I wish I had held on to it. Man, I really miss those orange rubber full foot fins and that old voit mask! We used to buy all our dive gear at the local sporting goods store. It was all in small room behind the fishing rods. Boy did that room reek of new neoprene and rubber! It smelled like heaven to me! I would go there at least once a week to see if they got any new stuff. Much more intimate than ordering from LeisurePro like kids can do now.

 

[Slonda828]

The real trick to cold water diving is to find a suit with very little buoyancy swing. If you dive a soft suit, then you are going to be heavy at depth (or need a BC). It's pretty much the same thing if you dive anything other than vintage tanks. People didn't dive steel 120's back then because there were not any. I can lung a single 72, 80, or a set of twin 50's. You can also use a vintage drysuit. I use a hydroglove, and it works great because you can equalize the suit with your mask and not have to worry about buoyancy swing at depth.

Here's a picture of me in the hydroglove with a steel 72 at about 55 feet in 61 degree water while at the Legends of Diving. For cold water diving with no BC, it's the cat's pajamas.

 

[slackercruster]

I like today's suits better. I certainly don't miss donning a 3/4 farmer john with beaver tail top. They were bulky and harder to move around in. They also let water flow more easily. While the thermal protection is slightly sacrificed (no big deal in Texas) the Hyperstretch's are awesome suits. I have a 3mm and 7mm.

Thanks for ALL replies.


Those old wetsuits must have been like weaning an inner tube. They must have let in lots of water. I can only surmise from the photos and old movies though.

 

[Thalassamania]

Thanks for ALL replies.


Those old wetsuits must have been like weaning an inner tube. They must have let in lots of water. I can only surmise from the photos and old movies though.

The original Kirkhill rubber was a bit stiff and when combined with a nylon lining it could not be fit very well. Rubatex skin two side was (is) a whole differnent story. It's rather flexable but not very compressible, it puts all of the "modern" materials to shame in terms of fit, comfort and warmth. That is until you put a lining on it. Our best solution for a "modern" suit was Rubatex GN-231N, smooth skin in with 4-way stretch lyrca out. Way better than any hyperstretch made, at least for real cold water diving, in warmer water the difference is not that marked and you might as well get the strechier material.

 

[slackercruster]

Based on what he calls "vintage" diving, we were still doing it in the Navy in the late 70s. Horse collar BC with no inflation (other than blowing into tube). CO2 cartridge inflation for emergencies. Oval masks that were crazy hard to clear. Hard backpack (single or twin steel 70s). J-valve on single, manifold valve on twins (yikes!). Stiff paddle fins with no ports. Single stage regulator that breathed real hard at depths greater than 60 feet. Beaver tail wetsuits.

Someone out there may miss this gear. I don't.

I love my overbalanced reg. I love the fact I have an octo. I love that newfangled low pressure inflator valve on my BC. I love fins that make me go fast with way less effort. I love a mask that clears in a single puff. I love staying warm in my fancy wetsuit (and fancier drysuit).

Anyone who says they love the old days is either a masochist or they don't remember the way it really was....

Yes, after being trained with a mouth inflator, I remember how thrilled I was trying a horseshoe BC with a power inflator back in the 80's. Never tried the oval masks though.

 

[Nemrod]

It was like this, people were happy and we had fun:

Now it is like this:

OH, BTW, the diver in the pic above, he considers himself a minimalist diver, yeah, OK. Don't be "that guy"!

N

 

[David Wilson]

I agree with Nemrod. Snorkelling back then was all about having fun too, as this photograph from Peter Small's "Your Guide to Underwater Adventure" (1957) illustrates:

The caption reads: "If underwater swimming is not fun, it's not anything". Modern developments such as "free diving" suggest more "points-scoring" than simple recreation.

As for good old-fashioned oval masks and rubber full-foot fins, you can still get them today fresh from the manufacturer. My current favourites are my Mexican-made Escualo Clasica fins and blue-skirted Ixtapa mask:

Blue certainly makes a change from the usual choice of clear and black mask skirts nowadays!

As for orange fins, they're still in production too, e.g. Greek-made Eurobalco Sprints:

They're wonderfully comfortable, broad-fitting rubber fins, popular with European swimmers in training.

I also agree with Slonda828 about the Hydroglove suit. Mine keeps me dry and warm during the spring, summer and autumn months when snorkelling in the cold waters of the North Sea, without binding my arms and legs in the way some wetsuits can do.

On the general matter of vintage versus modern diving gear, I recall an early 1980s TV series here in the UK designed to introduce the microcomputer to the widest possible audience. One of the presenters, a guy with great "people skills" as well as computer expertise, produced a fountain pen, emphasising how important it was not to buy wholesale into everything modern just because it's modern. He insisted that everybody should retain, and continue to use, at least one item dating from an earlier technology, such as his favourite fountain pen. Well, I do enjoy using the latest computer technology in 2009, but I also enjoy retaining, and continuing to use, the kind of snorkelling equipment prevalent from the 1950s to the 1970s because that's when I first developed my passion for breath-hold underwater swimming. It's my link with the past. I also associate the natural materials from which vintage diving equipment was made with quality. They're live, tactile, odorous, multisensory materials, unlike the ubiquitous synthetics used in today's gear, which to me represent something sterile and dead.

 

[diverdoug1]

Those are my old fins! I am going to google now, to see if I can order a pair.

 

[diverdoug1]

Crap, they don't seem to have on online presence.

 

[captain]

Crap, they don't seem to have on online presence.

Buy $77 Voit UDT Fins Duck Feet Vintage Scuba Diving Masks