captain
Contributor
I came in at the very end of what I regard as the "vintage" era - I had a single hose regulator, but no SPG and no BCD.
The main thing I remember (apart from the need to get your weighting right) was you dived pretty conservative profiles (except we didn't call them that). We didn't often go below 40 feet and you thought long and hard about going below 60 feet. There just a much more realistic risk you might be have to swim like buggery for the surface.
I remember reading about some guy diving on the Andrea Doria using a J-Valve in the 1960s, and he went to pull it and found it had already been pulled, so had to swim like a lunatic for the surface from 200 odd feet. I remember reading that and saying to myself that's why we stayed shallow.
Everyone brings up the old pulled J valve routine. I guess it's like the non motorcycle riders telling the motorcycle riders about the motorcycle accident they saw.
How ever many times you check your SPG should have been the same number of times you checked your J valve position. Plus to the educated ear you can tell by the sound of the air rushing through the valve if the J valve is or isn't in the reserve position.
Rhone Man, you don't look old enough to remember a J valve much less having depended on one.