Second-hand scuba sale find...

[crimediver]

I met a young man who had some old scuba gear for sale. He had obtained it from the estate of a man who had done a lot of diving. I agreed to pick up a few items from him and was on the way to his house when he called me on my cell phone and told me he had just found a regulator in a bag when was going through the gear. He said the regulator had "Made In France" on it and that was all he could recall. Anyways when I got there I saw it was a very clean DA Aquamaster. Nice hoses, beautiful label and it was so shiny it looked re-chromed.

What also caught my eye was that it had a LP hoses coming off it as well as a wireless computer transmitter on it. What the hell is this, I wondered? I turned it over and did a double take.

Needless to say what it was was a Phoenix conversion. It took me completely off guard to find a Phoenix under those conditions. I had already bought some stuff and only had a hundred dollars left in my wallet. He said he would take a hundred dollars and he got it.

I have been collecting old dive gear for decades, mostly from flea markets and garage sales. I never figured I would trip across a Phoenix. I am sure whoever had built that reg would have been pleased to know it will still be used by a person who appreciates,will take care of it and understands classic dive gear. I guess I got really lucky with that find. It just goes to show you that you can never tell where you will find collectible dive gear. Lady Luck was smiling on me today.

[Drado]

Very cool!

Brings to mind a question: I know that the nozzles have serial numbers, and theoretically we all sign the waivers prior to purchase. Are there records out there as to who the original owner of the Phoenix might have been?

[crimediver]

Yes, I talked to Bryan about this reg and gave the name of the original owner but it did not ring a bell with him. There is a serial number but I need to get a mirror to see it properly. It looks like the same production run of a Phoenix I own that was the second production run that was made.

[Herman]

I guess it's bound to start happening. A buddy of mine dropped by the other week with a DA he had picked up at an estate sale and ask me to look it over to see what it needed for a rebuild. The first thing that got my attention was a VDH band clamp, one of the older ones. Opening it up I found several other parts that I reconized as VDH reproductions. I have no idea who the owner was but as time goes by, we should start seeing more of the parts, esp on regs that look "too good".

[crimediver]

I guess it tells you something that these regs are showing up at estate sales instead of yard sales. It shows us that the only way we will give up our doublehose regs is when they pry our cold, dead fingers from them...