New Diver Old gear

[EHowe]

Just got my padi open water card in the mail today. I was certified back in the 80's when I was about 15 yrs old but never did much with it until I had a water operations class at work that got me interseted in diving again. Back when I was certified the last time my Dad aquired some old regulators that used to belong to the Chicago Fire dept. I have had them sittng in a box ever since & never thought of using them. Just for kicks I looked on eBay & found The same aquamaster DA going for a couple hundred bucks. I thought, would anyone really use this stuff? I found vintage Double hose and VSS . Of course now I want to by my own gear to dive with, but I want to use my double hose as my primary reg. I sent it off to Bryan hoping to upgrade to a Phenox & build the rest of my setup around that. I know I will have to practice some different skills (clearing, lost mouth piece ect.) I am not nessasaraly interested in all "vintage" but I intend to use the regulator because its mine & from all I have read It should be a safe reliable piece of equiptment I can use for years to come. Pictures by EHowe68 - Photobucket

 

[floridakid]

Enjoy! I love my DAAM and I dive with it all the time. In fact, I have had less trouble from my DAAM than what I have from any of my modern regs. They take a little getting used to and if they are not correctly positioned are very hard to breath, so a lot of people talk badly about them, but if you take the time to get used to them, you won't want to dive with anything else.

 

[Sam Miller III]

duplicate post

SDM

 

[EHowe]

I sent the Warner to Bryan already, it was the newer of the 2 and looked a little nicer. I split the can open on the Delhi and carefully knocked the dents out of it, polished it up with toothpaste and it looks pretty good. (better than pic anyway). I may try my hand rebuilding it once I see how the other one turns out. I do have a question about backpacks though. I would like to use a rear inflate type bc. I know the positioning is crucial, So I am interested to know what type or brand would work best? Any adsvice would be appreciated.

 

[herman]

Welcome to the board and to the wonderful world of vintage diving.
The best current BC on the market for diving with a DH is the Zeagle Express Tech and it needs to be modified before it works well. It's a fairly simple mod but unless it's done, the reg will not perform to its best. I posted a thread on VDH a while back on the ET and the mods I did to it. It's inexpensive, when modified works great with a DH reg, can be easily converted to wingless like most vintage divers prefer to dive and it makes a nice single hose reg as well. It is also very light which makes it a good travel BC. My BC of choice it I must use a modern BC with my DH, otherwise I like the thin contured BPs like the Kameze or Snugpack and no bladder.
I have a lot of regs to choose from, my Pheonix is always my first choice.