Divair Goes Deep!

[SurfLung]

Divair Goes Deep
- At our annual "Bring the Wives" Fall Colors trip to Fortune Pond, SwimJim showed off his restored Divair double hose regulator. He strapped on a bailout bottle and took no chances... Then proceeded to dive the heck out of that old beauty of a regulator. I'll leave the details for him to describe.


- The weather was cold on this trip. So, we visited the Three Lakes Winery on the way over... It's about an hour away from Fortune Pond. Our wives enjoyed that more than sitting in the car keeping warm! When we got to Fortune Pond, diving was fabulous as usual. Water was warmer than air so suiting up in cold wind was the only challenge. SwimJim made his award winning Chili and it was delicious. Friday night we had a wonderful cocktail and hors d'oeuvres party followed by a formal (dive shirt required) dinner at Alices Restaurant.
- Saturday the Sun came out and the Fall Colors put on a brilliant show of reds and oranges and yellows and greens... Wow!

[swimjim]

The DivAir is a really smooth, sweet breathing regulator. I was as comfortable diving it in 130 feet of water as 60. The pony was required not so much for bail out, but to run the inflator on the dry suit. It was as Eben said, cold and windy up at the pond, but the fall colors were awesome! Pair that with hot chili and fun people to be with and you have a winning combination!

Jim

[Bryan]

Good to see yours in action! Seems like the rest of the guys with them just play diver on the internet.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[swimjim]

Don't know if Jerry Moseman is still around, but he created the diaphragm that made this dive possible! THANK YOU JERRY! He is the true champion of bringing the DivAir back to life. He really liked the DivAir as do I. He said he even did ice dives with it back in a day. Given the chance I will do that this winter. Even at 130 feet my aluminum bodied model C breathed fantastic. When I visit Fortune Pond or any of the other vintage dive events, the DivAir is on my short list!

[SurfLung]

SwimJim's Divair Video...
[video]https://youtu.be/ryA48EePra8[/video]
- I edited together the video we shot when SwimJim deep water tested his vintage Divair double hose regulator. Most of the video is at the 80 foot ledge in Fortune Pond, MI. Jim took it down to 130 feet but the video looking down at him was very dark... Nice silvery bubbles coming up though.
- Interesting fact about the Divair: SwimJim says it doesn't have an exhaust valve like a duckbill. But it was apparently designed not to need one. He says the hoses were dry at all depths and at all angles... Pretty neat!

[swimjim]

The usual suspects on another forum were saying essentially because I had decent trim and frog kicked, I was not in a heads down position and there for would not have experienced the hoses flooding. Well, this came from a guy who almost offed himself in 25 feet of water.... Be that as it may, the video doesn't cover the decent from 70 fow to 130 which was nearly vertical. As long as you have proper mouth piece valves in the DivAir, hose flooding simply is not an issue with it. ALL double hose regulators will get water in their hoses from time to time. A simple roll and clear will take care of that. Truth be told, the DivAir is one of the drier double hose regulators I have ever dove. During the dive in the video there was no need to clear the hoses. None.
I would suggest that the usual suspects whom are so educated and smarter then all of us take up golf. It would be safer for them and the dive rescue personal, like myself, who have to answer the call to remove their remains. Lol

Jim

[1969ivan1]

That reminds me when we had about 4 or 5 Divairs in the water at one time during Portage Legends some years back. We need to dust them off for Next August at Scuba Heritage Days in Ohio! I know I have not had mine int he water is a LOOOOOOng time.