Fortune Pond May 16-18

[SurfLung]

- SwimJim and the Deep Sixers are doing a dive trip to Fortune Pond the weekend of May 18th. Sea Hunt Jerry is heading up there Thursday the 16th and 17th with a fews divers from the Twin Cities. I'll be making the 7 hour drive from Alexandria... got a room reserved for Thursday and Friday nights so hopefully I'll dive all three days.
- Here are some videos of our previous trips to Fortune Pond:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR8MhHqLPO0[/video]
Faux Jet 2000 at Fortune Pond... The Movie!
Click Below to Run Our Fortune Pond Test Dive Movie


And here's Jim Bach's Video
[video]http://vimeo.com/30378348[/video]

[swimjim]

I can't do Thursday, but I will be there Friday and hopefully dive Friday. I'll definitely make Alice's restaurant Friday night. I will also be diving on Saturday. Even if we have to saw a hole in the the water!!! Ha

Jim

[SeaHuntJerry]

MOOOOOOOOO will be there!

[1969ivan1]

I wish I could join you guys.....

[SurfLung]

- Sea Hunt Jerry the Kemps Cow is bringing 2-3 divers with him. I'm coming by myself... But that adds up to 4 of us from Minnesota. SwimJim's got a similar sized group coming from Wisconsin... Should be fun!
- I'll be bringing a set of USD Twin 38s I recently acquired! That's 76 cf at only 1800 psi...
(Yeah that's right... They're JUST like Mike Nelson's tanks only yellow...)

- Gonna play with these a lot... I'm bringing four 80 cf tanks to refill my Twin 38's from! I'm gonna dive 'em with a Mistral, then a DA Aqua Master, Then maybe even with my Voit VR2... Oh Yeah I've got some good plans...
- Also bringing USD Twin 50 cf Aluminum tanks to compare. 100 cf at 3000 psi.
- Twin 50s are almost 10 lbs heavier than the Twin 38s!
- Got my ZOOP dive computer and NAUI No-Deco tables to handle the Fortune Depths.
- Got my GoPro charged and ready to film the action.
- It's 4:26 and almost time to go home and pack for the trip...

[swimjim]

Been an up hill battle at work this week. But Friday I'll be on the road arriving at the pond mid day. I walked Dave, aka Smoothfin, through rebuilding the DA he scored from Bryan. It breaths like a champ now and will make it's sea trials at Fortune.
I'm doing the Heinz 57 thing this time. At least two set's of twin 72's configured modern with double iso manifolds to practice deep. I just got FFM trained with the dive rescue team and I'll be putting some time on the new mask. Naturally there's my Phoenix and other vintage goodies. I've recently acquired a DA which I dove at Sand Dog. Perhaps I'll put the three way on the Hooka port and give that a spin.
FWIW, my tech dive buddy who will be joining us Friday afternoon, wants to night dive at Fortune Pond. I'm all for that even though that forces me to behave myself. Ha. Anyone who is interested is more then welcome to join us!

Jim

[swimjim]

I missed Seahunt Jerry by a couple hours, but did a couple dives with Eben and his sweet set of 38's!



Dave Job recently purchased a project DA from Bryan for his first double hose reg. I helped him with the rebuild last Monday night. I am pleased to report that the reg breathes like a champ and Dave could not be happier! Here's a pic of Dave and his new reg on their maiden voyage together.



I got some video of both Eben and Dave in action with their gear. I'll put something up as soon as I can edit it together!

Jim

[swimjim]

https://vimeo.com/66534868 Here's a quick little video I put together that features Eben and his 38's and Smoothfins maiden voyage with his new (to him) DA Aquamaster.
I used Sony Vegas Pro 10 on my Windows lap top to edit this. There's a couple hiccups due to my inexperience with the software, but overall, I liked the software. I won't be retiring the old Apple and it's Finalcut anytime soon though.

[8dust]

Great video, Jim. Looks colder than a polarbear's ass, but like yall had a fine time. Got to love that clear northern water!

Very pretty pond-side birch trrees too! They make a nice backdrop for the toasting brats!!!

Fred

[Bryan]

Thank you for sharing Jim....Too cold for me

[SurfLung]

- Thanks for the great video SwimJim. I'm glad to see Dave diving his double hose DAAM. We visited a little and he asked about fixing up labels, new silicon hoses, etc. Like most of us, he had never worked on his own regulator before and I could tell he was intrigued by it and proud of what you showed him.
- Thanks for doing the video of me and my twin 38s... I need to be a better on camera actor! Geez those are neat little tanks... Does anybody else think I look JUST LIKE Mike Nelson? (Photo by SwimJim)


Well, not so much:



Eb says, "Hey, who slipped that photo in there?"

[swimjim]

You need to paint your wetsuit silver and you'll have it! With regs, we all start somewhere. In my case I like the old Dacor Olympic 400 regs. That was the one to have in my area when I started back in a day. Of course nobody would work on them so I ferreted out a manual and studied it. Then I started working on them. And what do you know, I could get them to not only work, but work well. About that time I ran across a Dacor Double hose. That was my first double hoser. Shortly there after I bought a DAAM and I ordered the manual on CD from this place called Vintage Double Hose. Hey they had parts for the DA too. What a score. I read the forums and picked up a lot. I've emailed Bryan questions over the years and he's always been happy to help. It would have been a big help to have somebody to show me the ropes and that's why I'm always happy to help when a buddy of mine like Dave gets interested. I can teach him in a few hours what took me considerably longer to pick up. In the end it's a win win. He learns a lot and has a reg that works better then new and I've got yet another dive buddy who also happens to dive vintage.
Like a lot of people on this forum I try and give back where I can. Video's, coming up with the can press. It's amazing what an old feller can do once he sets his mind to it.

[swimjim]

Thank you for sharing Jim....Too cold for me

Perhaps if we could get you up there around Labor Day when the top 30 feet is around 70. Worse case scenario, you could be topside support. You know, bartender, grill master, etc.... Upper Michigan is a really beautiful place. The locals are decent people and they know how to cook! The food is generally very good and not too pricey. The lodging is reasonable too. When I go up there it's like stepping back into the 70's. Too bad it's such a hike for you to get up here.

Jim

[gj1963]

Eben, your twin38's are too cool for words.

[1969ivan1]

Nice looking 38s Eben and as always great video work by SwimJim.