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captain

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When I read the forums most of what I see are discussions about
technique or this or that type of equiptment.

How many of you have ever made a dive with just the basics. I mean just mask,fins, regulator, tank and backpack, no BC, no gadgets (computer), no wet suit, etc.
Try this sometime on a warm, clear, shallow reef and experience the freedom.
I don't want to imply that one should do all dives that way but when condition allow it, it is a feeling of freedom you just can,t get dragging around all the other gear.

Captain
 
I still have a USD steel 72 with backpack/harness, oval Voit mask and single hose (as in one - no SPG, no second, no inflator) Conshelf. My original rubber fins have long since disintegrated, but I do have some 20 year old SP jets...
With no weight and no wetsuit I can still dive that rig with neutral buoyancy, and late in the summer every year I do it at least once, just for the pure enjoyment of the "good old days."
Rick
 
Now that the surface temps are around 72 degrees, I like to dive with just a steel 72, tank, backpack, US Divers Mistral double hose regulator. I cheat a bit though and use a vintage Scubapro horse collar BC.
 
I'd like to try that. However the surface temp around here is still mid fifties and the bottom temps have been low forties. I think I'll need the wetsuit yet. Now if I could lay my hands on an old beavertail suit.........


Jim
 
I'd be willing to give it a try but I've rarely seen water warm enough to dive without exposure protection. Heck, I use half of my 1/4 inch in the pool and use a dry suit every place else.

I do have a couple of back packs that some one donated to my display and an old single hose reg.

OTOH, my double 104's helium and O2 (for deco), dry suit and a stage or two give me plenty of freedom too. I can pretty much go where I want for as long as I want. I also get to avoif the cattle boat, resort and other dive industry bs that you guys might not have had to contend with in those days.
 
Wow, some vintage gear. I am surprised to see that SP still sells the old Jet Fins. I have seen several people diving with them. Most people think Twin Jets when I mention them. I have a pair of those and an AMF Swimmaster version of the Jet Fins. I got made fun of a few weeks ago about my 19-year-old USD Aqualung Wrap-around clear (sort of a yellowish tint) triview mask. The guy said it should be in a museum. I wonder if this gear would pass the DIR specs? :)
 
"I am surprised to see that SP still sells the old Jet Fins."

They will make them as long as there's a market for the best fins ever made.
 
That's the way I used to dive in Saipan in the mid 70s. Surprised you didn't mention no octo, no SPG (only one hose -- imagine!) just a J valve -- dive until it becomes hard to breathe and reach back, hoping that the lever is still in the up position. :)

There were no computers back then even available (when did the decobrain/bend-o-matic come out anyway?). We did dive with a depth gauge, I still have my old Dacor model (I have no idea if it still works) along with the backplate of the time and my old steel 72.

To allow the hang-wringers to accuse me of hijacking yet another thread, this is why, after migrating to the popular poodle jacket BCDs of the 80s, I went looking for a way to dive closer to those days of yore and stumbled upon the BP and wing. Now I have the best of both worlds: A mimilaist system with buoyancy compensation.

Walter once bubbled...
"I am surprised to see that SP still sells the old Jet Fins."

They will make them as long as there's a market for the best fins ever made.
Unfortunately, don't count on it. Excellent equipment gets discontinued al the time. :(

Roak
 
It is a tremendous pleasure to reduce the equipment to simply a j-valve tank, back pack, and basic regulator. All these GUE DIR discussions make me gag.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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