Extra Length hoses on Cousteau Rig

[Bronze06]

Hey Folks,

I am sure some of you Nabobs of VDH have noticed this as well. On some of the rigs that the Cousteau team used there is an off-set "Mistral"?? over the left shoulder of their rigs with extra long hoses. I am wondering if there was any attempt by anyone on this forum to reproduce these lengths of hose? Or does anyone actually have one of these rigs.

Thanks

[luis]

They just joined two hoses.

Ryan has an original set from the dive to the Britannic. I saw it in Tacoma, Washington this past week. He has posted pictures before.

[Sea Explorer]

Luis is correct. They doubled the exhaust hose with a simple coupler. This triple set is huge. The tanks are triple steel 80cf cylinders on a custom Technisub manifold (108lbs empty)

-Ryan

[Herman]

Good grief, triple steel 80s?
I dove a Techniesub Raid that had twin steel 80 in it and that thing was very heavy. It was way negative and somewhat hard to control, pushed my no BC diving to the limit but at 30 ft I had a day of bottom time.

[Sea Explorer]

The RAID is actually only 72cf tanks with the large bottles. Still fairly negative. They are the Faber HP 72s. The Cousteau guys would put small foam floats inside the RAID housing when diving with the thin suits in warm water.

-Ryan

[swimjim]

No worse then my LP 108's. I think those are 115 pounds filled, tanks, bands and manifold. They are a bugger on land, but they sure dive nice. I was going to build a triple 72 set a few years back. Never got to it. One of these days..........................

[Bronze06]

Thanks for the information guys. I am curious about this because on newer manifolds you don't have the center mount regulator/valve linkage any more, but offset to one side or the other, or in many cases with two valves (one on each side) on the manifold. As long as the supply of earlier center mount manifolds lasts, we should not have a problem. Does anyone make NEW traditional center mount manifolds anymore?
Damn! 108lbs.!! That is approaching the "Break that Grunts back" limit in the Army. I can still run around like a maniac with my double 80s at approx. 80+lbs. full fill, but I shudder to think of adding an extra thirty to forty pounds. Just don't bust your rear falling on the coral during shore diving! Oh, and definitely wear heavier soled diving booties for foot protection with a heavy rig, or you will feel every little rock and shell. No wonder you always see these guys either leaning up against a gunwale, or resting their tanks on it.

[rhwestfall]

not sure it belongs in the vintage section, but, in regard to a modern center post manifold, yes, but it is stupid $$$$ (XS-Scuba)....