WOW, This is cool. I wish we had training like this today, or does it exist?
Vintage divers... no BC?
- Thread starter SteveC
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No, this type of training no longer exists to my knowledge--not even close.
Good news--you can teach yourself but you must have an open mind and be able to accept certain limitations in order to experiance the thrill of 3D "flying" that can only be done without a BC. It is also far more streamlined and actually very easy. I mentioned that you must have surface floats etc, divers today depend on their BC for that, just as an example, you must plan your dives from an entirely different vantage and that is the challenge--you have to think "vintage" or as I prefer it called, traditional.
Many early divers were water people, many were free divers and therefore they simply strapped on a tank. The closest thing to scuba diving without a BC is free diving. Become a good free diver and surprisigly--guess what---your mostly there. I feel much more kinship to the free divers of today than the walking dive shop displays we see now. Well, maybe because I, like many others, are free divers though I admit, my skills in that regard have sadly dimenished severely---lol .
N
NAVED Master Diver 111
Good news--you can teach yourself but you must have an open mind and be able to accept certain limitations in order to experiance the thrill of 3D "flying" that can only be done without a BC. It is also far more streamlined and actually very easy. I mentioned that you must have surface floats etc, divers today depend on their BC for that, just as an example, you must plan your dives from an entirely different vantage and that is the challenge--you have to think "vintage" or as I prefer it called, traditional.
Many early divers were water people, many were free divers and therefore they simply strapped on a tank. The closest thing to scuba diving without a BC is free diving. Become a good free diver and surprisigly--guess what---your mostly there. I feel much more kinship to the free divers of today than the walking dive shop displays we see now. Well, maybe because I, like many others, are free divers though I admit, my skills in that regard have sadly dimenished severely---lol .
N
NAVED Master Diver 111
I agree with Nemrod.
You will not get any formal training like this, the closest I have heard about is the YMCA training and a thread on scubaboard about some french training.
The first thing is to get fit and do a lot of free diving.
If you need a lot of neoprene to keep warm then you are going to have a big buoyancy swing when you get down. This might be dangerous so please be careful.
Try and reach a situation where you have little or no weight and can freedive down to 30+ ft.
When you are ready get a tank and BP setup that is neutral when full, add weight or buoyancy until it is. Practise in a pool getting out of the rig underwater in case you have to dump it at depth.
We spent a lot of training time putting kit on and off underwater, assembling it underwater, switching it off and then swimming to the next reg for a breath.
Part of the certification test was to swim down and put your gear on in the sea.
Remember take it slowly and keep shallow until you are comfortable, there is no need to take unnecessary risks.
Nemrod uses a twin hose from his avatar, I would not recommend them although they do work.
They are a pain to clear if flooded and because of the distance between the reg and your mouth can freeflow or be heavy to breathe depending on you position.
The modern second stage is a definite step forward.
However I have never tried a re-breather.
You will not get any formal training like this, the closest I have heard about is the YMCA training and a thread on scubaboard about some french training.
The first thing is to get fit and do a lot of free diving.
If you need a lot of neoprene to keep warm then you are going to have a big buoyancy swing when you get down. This might be dangerous so please be careful.
Try and reach a situation where you have little or no weight and can freedive down to 30+ ft.
When you are ready get a tank and BP setup that is neutral when full, add weight or buoyancy until it is. Practise in a pool getting out of the rig underwater in case you have to dump it at depth.
We spent a lot of training time putting kit on and off underwater, assembling it underwater, switching it off and then swimming to the next reg for a breath.
Part of the certification test was to swim down and put your gear on in the sea.
Remember take it slowly and keep shallow until you are comfortable, there is no need to take unnecessary risks.
Nemrod uses a twin hose from his avatar, I would not recommend them although they do work.
They are a pain to clear if flooded and because of the distance between the reg and your mouth can freeflow or be heavy to breathe depending on you position.
The modern second stage is a definite step forward.
However I have never tried a re-breather.
Didn't we just do a thread like this?
These are in the mid 60's.
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/9986/cat/500/ppuser/2714
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/35319/cat/500/ppuser/2714
What I have on here is a surface PFD only.
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/8936/cat/500/ppuser/2714
The BC is something that is fairly new to diving. In the early 60's BC had a whole different meaning and went along with AD.
Today I have one but I rarely use it.
The BC was never meant to be a crutch but that is about what it has become. In years past buoyancy skills were learned and practiced in the early stages of OW training, not as a specialty class.
Gary D.
These are in the mid 60's.
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/9986/cat/500/ppuser/2714
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/35319/cat/500/ppuser/2714
What I have on here is a surface PFD only.
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/8936/cat/500/ppuser/2714
The BC is something that is fairly new to diving. In the early 60's BC had a whole different meaning and went along with AD.
Today I have one but I rarely use it. The BC was never meant to be a crutch but that is about what it has become. In years past buoyancy skills were learned and practiced in the early stages of OW training, not as a specialty class.
Gary D.
SteveCSteveC:
As they mentioned there are some limitations.
If you mean wearing infinite neoprene and expecting to hang anywhere in the water column in perfect trim it's not going to happen.
With moderate neoprene, correct weighting and lung volume control it is an awesome experience. Limiting the neoprene which of course has a buoyancy swing with depth is a huge help. Warm water is a fleeting thing here in Maine but this summer I managed to make one dive in only a 2mm shorty and harness and it was amazing.
I was diving an E7-80 so I actually ended up fabricating a 2.5+ buoyancy belt. It's foam blocks in a soft weight belt. Being foam it had fixed lift, as long as I didn't go deep enough to implode the stuff. Toss it at folks just for laughs.
On the way out with a full weight cylinder I needed to intentionally keep my lung volume on the full side and on the way back my tank mass was just right to breath normally. Other than that I was able to swim up or down with a kick or a few modified breathing cycles. All I needed to counteract was inertia. Other than that I stayed where I went. It added a whole new dimension to diving. I will say that in the dozen or so dives leading up to this I subconsciously amplified and improved usage of my lung volume. After making this dive I found myself relying on lung volume even more. I strongly encourage anyone with access to comfortable water to try it.
As you add more neoprene it becomes more reliant on such things as swimming strength and usage of things such as a safety rock that you pick up mid dive and retain until you pass your safety stop. There is only so much buoyancy change that your lungs volume can accomodate.
Pete
diver 85
Contributor
Have a 'backpack' @ our place on Roatan & have many logged dives there with one, only have BC's here in the states to dive with....If you're properly weighted, no problem.....now, saying that, it's not the safeast way to dive esp if your're surfacing & need to stay on the surface for awhile waiting for boat, etc ...I don't encouage it's use @ all but love the 'freedom & feeling' of one....some time if given the opportunity, try it, but stick with your safer equipment in the long haul; in fact you can empty your BC air, detach your inflator hose & get with it for that experience........
gregorio
Contributor
Diving without BC is really great!
Has the more experienced fellow divers said before me, the less neoprene, the easier.
I did it in Philippines during my DM trainning and our instructor advised us to try the backpack as a bouyancy control trainning and indeed, if you have no BC, you better use you lungs well!
Has the more experienced fellow divers said before me, the less neoprene, the easier.
I did it in Philippines during my DM trainning and our instructor advised us to try the backpack as a bouyancy control trainning and indeed, if you have no BC, you better use you lungs well!
Loneranger
Contributor
We never wore BC's on our shallow dives (40' less) into the early 90's. A BC was not needed. Just one of the hard packs. We took the BC inflator hose and tucked it in the tank strap. I still immitate the same style today by using a small lift travel BC, large steel tanks, and wear no weight.
I forgot to mention that along with no BC we had no second, no SPG, no computers, no inflators or exhaust on the dry suits and did fine even with 1/4" Farmer Johns. But we did have the mega big snot blasters in some of the masks.
And guess what? We survived. It's a good relaxing way to dive. We didn't have a bunch of crap to worry about. You just dove and payed attention to the tables. When you got cold or it got hard to breathe you came up, simple as that.
Gary D.
And guess what? We survived.
It's a good relaxing way to dive. We didn't have a bunch of crap to worry about. You just dove and payed attention to the tables. When you got cold or it got hard to breathe you came up, simple as that.Gary D.
I used to borrow my brothers BC to help lift bags of oysters we would collect from the bay in Maryland. That was in the '70's. Besides that, I rarely used one. Experienced divers told me "don't get one, it's not perfected yet". You just figured out how much lead to put on, and the rest was easy. As you got to about 300 psi, the tank started feeling a bit light, but it was time to go, anyhow.
I noticed the picture of Mr. Nemrod on a small boat. The backpack we used made it easy. Take off the weight belt and hand it to a pal on the boat. Take off the tank and fins and hand them up too. Then shinny up the Evinrude and hop in. It was all fun.
I noticed the picture of Mr. Nemrod on a small boat. The backpack we used made it easy. Take off the weight belt and hand it to a pal on the boat. Take off the tank and fins and hand them up too. Then shinny up the Evinrude and hop in. It was all fun.
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