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DaveMann
Lung Diver
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 11:12 am
First Name: Dave
Location: Fort Myers, Fla., USA

Another New Old Guy Aiming To Change His Ways

Mon Aug 15, 2016 2:03 pm

Hello, all.

I'm Dave and I'd like to join in the festivities of vintage diving. Like many others, Mike Nelson and James Bond were the two guys who got me interested in diving. I recall as a kid having a plastic set of orange toy twin tanks with a blue double hose regulator. But while the fire may have been lit the water wasn't boiling until the summer of 1975 when I saw JAWS. So it was Matt Hooper who finally inspired me to get certified with Don Brod at the Texas Skin Diving School in Austin, TX in April of 1976. I've been lurking for a day or two and have noticed that my 40 years diving and 60+ years living aught to fit me in pretty close with the bulk of the regulars here.

I'm interested in minimalist diving. A couple tanks, double hose reg, weight belt, a SPG, maybe a safe second, but that's about it. I'm only a few hours from the Fla. Keys and do most of my diving there with commercial dive operations and I'm concerned with the grief I'll get when I show up with this minimal kit. So my desire would be to connect with some of you who are fairly local to me to learn the ropes.

I've been reading the suggested articles for beginners and my wallet is still firmly in my pants pocket, but at some point I'm going to be in the market for some vintage equipment. I've been looking at reefs and wrecks for years, and with exotic locale diving out of my budget I need to find something to make diving interesting again. I hope to make vintage / minimalist diving that something.

Love to hear from some of you local guys with regard to getting together, and I'm always interested in hearing what the more experienced have to say.

Dave

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Herman
VDH Moderator
Posts: 1315
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:45 pm
Location: Raleigh NC

Re: Another New Old Guy Aiming To Change His Ways

Mon Aug 15, 2016 7:22 pm

Welcome to the board Dave. You will find a number of those on Scubaboard are here as well.
Take your time and learn about the regs before making a decision on one. I will say, you should stick with either US Divers or Voit regulators, at least in the beginning. Pretty much any part you need is available for them so getting one back in operations is easy, not so with Dacor or Nemrod, there are a few parts for Healthways to be had but USD/Voit is still your best option. Of the 2, both are fine, basically they (most) are the same internally but Voits tend to run a good bit higher due to them being used on Seahunt and the Bond series and at the same time fewer were sold making them a little more rare than USD models. To get one up to "modern" condition, ie: HP and LP ports, you will need to add a Phoenix first stage to one of the regs as well as replacing all the rubber parts. Old hoses and mouthpieces, no matter how good they look, are not great for a daily diver. By all means, ask questions, there is a huge amount of experience on this board and advise is freely given.
Herman

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Bryan
Plank Owner
Posts: 5279
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 11:40 am
First Name: Bryan
Location: Wesley Chapel Florida
Contact: Website

Re: Another New Old Guy Aiming To Change His Ways

Mon Aug 15, 2016 8:09 pm

Good advice ....Thank you Herman
Doing it right should include some common sense, not just blindly following specs and instructions. .Gary D, AWAP on SB

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antique diver
Master Diver
Posts: 2210
Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2006 12:50 pm
First Name: Bill
Location: North-Central Texas

Re: Another New Old Guy Aiming To Change His Ways

Mon Aug 15, 2016 8:10 pm

Hi Dave, and welcome aboard!

Your mention of old Don Brod caught my attention... wow, talk about a vintage diving "character"! I first met him in 1965, when I was still in college, and he had a dank and dark little shop/"home" right on the San Marcos River, south of Austin. He and his biker buddy partner (dang it I can't remember his name right now) were notorious bad boys of early diving, and surely ran off more customers than they kept. In spite of their questionable natures and gruff personalities, I sorta got along pretty good with them over a long span of years. They are both gone now, but for better or worse, not forgotten!
The older I get the better I was.

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DaveMann
Lung Diver
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 11:12 am
First Name: Dave
Location: Fort Myers, Fla., USA

Re: Another New Old Guy Aiming To Change His Ways

Mon Aug 15, 2016 8:53 pm

Thank you, Herman for the welcome and the good advice.

Bryan. I was reading through some old posts and discovered we're from the same area up North. Looks like you were JoCo on the Kansas side, I was Weatherby Lake north of the river on the MO side. 'sup home boy! :wink:

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DaveMann
Lung Diver
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 11:12 am
First Name: Dave
Location: Fort Myers, Fla., USA

Re: Another New Old Guy Aiming To Change His Ways

Mon Aug 15, 2016 9:00 pm

antique diver wrote:Hi Dave, and welcome aboard!

Your mention of old Don Brod caught my attention... wow, talk about a vintage diving "character"! I first met him in 1965, when I was still in college, and he had a dank and dark little shop/"home" right on the San Marcos River, south of Austin. He and his biker buddy partner (dang it I can't remember his name right now) were notorious bad boys of early diving, and surely ran off more customers than they kept. In spite of their questionable natures and gruff personalities, I sorta got along pretty good with them over a long span of years. They are both gone now, but for better or worse, not forgotten!
Don was a character. I'm not sure who his biker buddy was, I didn't meet him until 1976. It's been a long time but I believe his shop was on Lamar when I knew him. And, he had this place on the water he was developing on Lake Travis. I did my open water dives in that dirty water. I think they refer to it now as Don Brod's Scuba Park.

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Bryan
Plank Owner
Posts: 5279
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 11:40 am
First Name: Bryan
Location: Wesley Chapel Florida
Contact: Website

Re: Another New Old Guy Aiming To Change His Ways

Mon Aug 15, 2016 9:13 pm

DaveMann wrote:Thank you, Herman for the welcome and the good advice.

Bryan. I was reading through some old posts and discovered we're from the same area up North. Looks like you were JoCo on the Kansas side, I was Weatherby Lake north of the river on the MO side. 'sup home boy! :wink:
I'm not from there...Just lived there for a while.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk
Doing it right should include some common sense, not just blindly following specs and instructions. .Gary D, AWAP on SB

User avatar
DaveMann
Lung Diver
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 11:12 am
First Name: Dave
Location: Fort Myers, Fla., USA

Re: Another New Old Guy Aiming To Change His Ways

Mon Aug 15, 2016 9:33 pm

Well let me tell you. It's a good place to be FROM.

How did I ever deal with that cold?

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