High preasure tanks and older regulators

[YankDownUnder]

We have covered chest mounts before. They are not new and are not very good either.

When La Spirotechnique licensed Siebe Gorman to manufacture Mistrals for the Commonwealth countries, they could not meet the demand. It became impossible to buy anything here in Australia and importation was not an option. A Siebe Gorman hookah made it's way to Australia, where almost no scuba was available. In Sydney, the hookah unit was adapted for scuba use. It was copied and about a dozen where made (See Tom Byron's book, History of Spearfishing and SCUBA Diving in Australia, available through www.HDS.org) The divers carried inverted twins, with the demand valve on their chest. The 1953 Chips Rafferty movie, with Rod Taylor, "King of the Coral Sea" featured these scuba rigs. Some of the old lobby cards survived and show this.

There were many disadvantages........bubbles in the face when upright, severe free flow when the mouth piece is removed upright, awkward to have equipment on the chest, complicated harness arrangement, redundant in that a reduction valve was needed behind the diver when everything could have been in one package, more hose connections to leak or break (an early problem) and so on.

If you want to recreate the past, just buy a Siebe Gorman twin hose hookah and make a replica. There are many pictures in Tom's book.

[Sea Explorer]

I will be picking up two HP plugs from the local machine shop next week so I can do a chest mount for my Cousteau housing project. It is not a complicated part. They will allow any Royal or Aqua aster to be used as a chest mount or a hookah. A Conshelf mounted to an Aqua aster will perform like a Royal. I will post photos once I have the parts. -Ryan

[Sea Explorer]

This will be my set up for Wazee this year and it solves the problem of mounting the reg on the chest -Ryan