Vintage Double Hose

- We had an incident recently where a modern diver was be towed by a vintage diver on a scooter and the modern diver's "Safe" second went into free flow and promptly emptied the Scuba tank. They treated it like a simple out of air situation and surfaced without incident. BUT... There are two aspects of Vintage diving that DID and COULD HAVE made the situation safer:

- First, the modern diver had zero air when they reached the surface. That's no air for the inflator to fill the BCD. The Vintage diver pulled the cord on a CO2 vest and there was instant floatation. I have had my Vintage CO2 vest referred to as a "Suicide Vest" by modern diving instructors no less. On the other hand, the US Navy Seals still wear inflatable vests and they even have two separate CO2 mechanisms... They can inflate their vest twice in the same dive if they have to.

- Second, if the modern diver had a J-Valve (reserve) the free flow would have stopped when the tank still had 300 psi. A pull on the J-Rod would have given the modern diver breathing air as well as BCD inflation. I have also had my Vintage J-Valves referred to as "Suicide Valves" by modern diving instructors. But when XS Scuba introduced modern production J-Valves a few years ago, I found out they are a Workers Safety requirement by OSHA for commercial divers.

- What I'm taking from this incident is that CO2 inflation is GOOD. And J-Valve reserves are also GOOD. And furthermore, the J-Valve reserve should be turned ON even if you're diving with a pressure gauge.

Score one for vintage diving equipment and techniques!

You got me thinking now. I typically turn mine off, but I have had a couple recent air leaks due to operator failure. One at the beginning of my dive and one just as I was ending a dive and still at 90'. I might take your advice on that one.

On a side note, I wonder if XS scuba was smart like the VDH guys, and made the new j's as a replica of the old ones to use the all same parts. Ya, I already know the answer.

Think of all the "vintage" stuff that would still be in stores if scuba manufacturers had the insight to simply quadruple the price and put "tech" in the description. Course, people then might have been smart enough to see through that scam.

XS is bringing EVERYTHING back... I see now they even have brand new valves with 1/2" tapered threads.
https://www.xsscuba.com/xs-scuba-valves ... pt-threads

I wish they would bring back the cheater bar manifold but with a 3440psi rating.

Have you seen he price tag on the new "Military" Solid Bar Manifold they make?

XS Scuba seems to not think their prices through. Make a 1/2" tank valve, $79. Add more brass to make it 1", now its $55. Now, sell it without the DIN insert, and we're back up to $79 again. Maybe this winter I'll start tearing appart old valves and going through the vdh threads on rebuilding them. Just for something more to learn me.