Last week, having the urge for some good old Vintage Diving, I pulled the 1942 model Aviation Oxygen reg/Diving Lung conversion out to see if it still worked well enough for a trip to Wheeler Branch Reservoir (WBR). A quick check on the test stand at 2000 psi, and it passed with its usual one star rating. Cracking effort well below 1", and a strain to pull a heavy breath registering off the 6" scale of my Magnahelic gauge. I know that sounds bad, but it's par for this little jewel, so I decided it was going diving again.
This trip I was to be joined by a long-time old friend from the mid-seventies. Steve came to work with us at the dive shop in 1975 at the age of 15, after being certified by us a while before that. His eagerness to learn everything in the world about diving combined with his quick wit and outgoing personality made him a hit with our clientele. Francie and I quickly counted him as one of our best friends, although we were nearly twice his age.
Somehow we had recently been in touch again, and after reminiscing about the good old days we decided we must recreate some of those fun days of diving. We gathered up some modern stuff (just in case), and loaded my vehicle with a good variety of vintage tanks and regs and got an early start to WBR. On week days you can count on having the best dive sites to yourself, and this Friday was like that.
Steve made a short dip using modern gear since it had been a while, and quickly wanted to shuck that and try the Vintage goodies that were all older than him. So he made dives with the Diving Lung on a single 38 of 1951 vintage, which must have been his first dive without a pressure gauge or BC. He wondered about the subject of determining the remaining air supply, and I reassured him that the Lung would let him know with a noticeable increase in inhalation effort. We did use vintage simple inflatable vests from the 60's, but left them completely empty and adjusted weights for neutral buoyancy. I used a little 27' tank and a 1957 Aquamatic single hose (Aqualungs first single hose reg). Great dive even though the visibility was only about 8'.
Next dive he elected to use my twin 27's that are mounted valves-down, and again no pressure gauge since we can pretty well tell remaining air on those by using right side only until breathing resistance increases. Then, leaving the right side open, "decanting" the left tank into the right until equalized. We started with 2000 psi in the set, and when equalized in the above manner the diver knows he now has at least 1000 in the set. Can then shut off the left valve and repeat the whole process, later ending up with 500 psi in the set. Easy going with no gauge. Steve chose my nice little Divair for the next dive, and for some reason he liked the old Diving Lung better! I think maybe it made him feel like old Jacque. I went with the Diving Lung and used up the remaining air in the 38, staying shallow, and returning with no remaining pressure upon reaching our entry point. My kind of dive... we both came back alive.
So we had a great day of diving and have set another dive for next week with another box of vintage regs and accessories.
I took a few photos in the not-so-clear water, and Steve posted a few along with his comments: Please watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDt-LU5yg2s