Mike Nelsons Voit DA Aqua Master

[SurfLung]

- Sea Hunt Episodes of Living Fossil, Sacred Pool, and Cindy have underwater scenes where Mike Nelson is wearing a DA Aqua Master with gray Voit hoses, gray Voit hourglass mouthpiece, and chrome Tinnerman hose clamps... Notice the rectangular DAAM label on the regulator (picture is from Cindy episode where Mike is removing his tanks to escape being trapped in a mine cave-in).
- So, the idea of a "Faux" Voit goes back a ways...

[SurfLung]

More Sea Hunt Faux Voit Stuff...
- Sea Hunt Jerry told me about Courtney Brown (Mike Nelsons Double) preferring DA Aqua Master with gray hoses for underwater work. So I started looking for it and sure enough, you'd catch a glimpse of it in underwater scenes. And then in a next scene where Mike was on the surface, the regulator would be a real Voit.
- Simonbeans told me about how the Voit downstream 50 Fathom became official and the Sea Hunt divers didn't like it... Too hard breathing. It's rumored that they sometimes would put the 50 Fathom cans on Mistral guts.
- This stuff was probably discussed back in the early days of VDH but its new to me and kind of fun to learn.

[Bryan]

- This stuff was probably discussed back in the early days of VDH but its new to me and kind of fun to learn.

Post all you like on the subject it may be duplicated in the past it may not.
Sea Hunt is always a fun topic and often times new stuff shows up that very few have noticed.

[Nemrod]

Those tinnerman clamps are to di(v)e for .

I wonder why he preferred the DA AM when the Voit Navy is the same thing in a fancier can? Is it because the Navy was not available yet I suppose?

Nem

[SurfLung]

- I was looking back thru the Voit catalogs on VDH and it looks like for 2 years Voit concentrated everything on the 50 Fathom... I didn't see the NAVY model there, yet. Then in '61 when the Navy appeared, the 50 fathom was replaced by the Mistral types.
- Another tidbit: Simonbeans says the 50 Fathom had the venturi hole oriented so it didn't point down the inhale hose. He said when you point the hole down the hose, it improves breathing ease. He said there was speculation that they did that on purpose so that the 50 fathom wouldn't breath better than their 2-stage VR2.

[antique diver]

- I was looking back thru the Voit catalogs on VDH and it looks like for 2 years Voit concentrated everything on the 50 Fathom... I didn't see the NAVY model there, yet. Then in '61 when the Navy appeared, the 50 fathom was replaced by the Mistral types.
- Another tidbit: Simonbeans says the 50 Fathom had the venturi hole oriented so it didn't point down the inhale hose. He said when you point the hole down the hose, it improves breathing ease. He said there was speculation that they did that on purpose so that the 50 fathom wouldn't breath better than their 2-stage VR2.

I believe Simonbeans may be right about that. My 50 Fathom (with venturi pointing to hose and new style VDH diaphragm) breathes great compared to my VR2 that has no venturi assistance.

The VR2 is still my favorite Voit reg, but only because it is identical to the first regulator I ever owned as a kid. Funny thing is that we never thought a thing about breathing effort back then... we just did whatever we had to do to breathe underwater like Mike Nelson. Sure wish I had kept that first one.

[SurfLung]

Evidence of Artistic License...
Is this a Blue 50 Fathom front on a chrome DAAM or Mistral?

- The blue 50 Fathom is quite prevalent in the surface and underwater scenes of the Sea Hunt episodes I'm currrently watching in the series. I got to looking for the can swapping Simonbeans was telling me about and found this scene where the front of the regulator is definitely darker colored than the back side.

[Nemrod]

Well, at least he has the hoses going the right way. I am sure they swapped parts around but I doubt Loyd Bridges did much of it himself, he probably just told the guys in charge of the set he liked one better than another and so they fixed him up. I doubt he knew the difference.

Nem