Vintage friendy dive boat in Monterey!

[Eric Sedletzky]

I was up camping at Albion last weekend and a fellow camping next to me wandered over to check out my double hose reg I had set up. It turns out to be none other than Captain Tim Doreck of the Monterey Express dive boat out of Monterey. I guess he likes to take a break once in a while and get up to the north coast to pop a few abs.
We got to talking and apparently he is quite a vintage aficionado himself and has several double hoses that are in different stages of restoration. I mentioned that there is a small group of us in the process of putting together a vintage association in our area (west coast).
I asked him if it would be OK to dive vintage gear on his boat sometime and he said anytime, he'd love it. In fact he wanted to get a heads up if our group could pin down a date so he could get his camera person there to do some videos plus take some stills for his website.
He looked at how my set up was. All I had was a tank with a strap harness and a DA Aquamaster. No BC, no SPG, and no octo. I even clarified the fact that some of us don't use BC's Octos or SPG's just J valves, and he was totally fine with it, in fact he almost seemed giddy at the prospect.

Looks like we have a vintage friendly boat you guys!!!

Let's plan a trip!

PS: it has to be after the September 15-18 Albion vintage meet

 

[Akimbo]

OK, now here is the weird part. Tim and Liz were spending the weekend here and I was with them about an hour before you met . Tim showed me your card the next morning and I said “that is the guy that makes my Freedom Plate”. Bummer I missed you.

Tim and I were in Aviation Electronics School together and have been friends since 1970. He also doesn’t have much heartburn with competent solo divers. He had one of those 25th anniversary gold-plated Royal Aquamasters in the wood box, but it was stolen out of his van. I think he lost his Rollie Marine then too.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

He mentioned that he got ripped off and it made me sick to hear it.
He's a hell of a nice guy and genuinely happy or maybe even thrilled about old school diving.
He seemed almost giddy that he met someone who is into stuff he remembers so fondly. It was almost like the thrill and comfort of accidently meeting up with another American during travels in a strange and hostile land.

This is an uncovered treasure for us in the vintage world.