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Post by sheriffdiver on Mar 9, 2017 9:39:41 GMT -8
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Post by surflung on Mar 15, 2017 8:35:19 GMT -8
- Great video Ron! I am amazed at how well that turned out. - For those who don't know, Sea Hunt Forever 2017 was March 4-5 at Silver Springs, FL. Ron Bentz, Rich Merten, Jerry Lang, Joe Musial, and myself (Eben Brown) were cast members that traveled to Silver Springs Florida from Minnesota. SwimJim Bach wasn't able to attend this year. But, there were 15+ additional divers in the cast who traveled from all over the country to be part of the event. - There were professional photographers from local newspapers as well as the diving community. The second day, several of us were using our personal cameras as well. I got a whole bunch of video of which most of it is not very good... (I think I may only be capable of good video from a selfie stick!). - So, Ron brings down this goofy looking GoPro handle/stand thing and just sets it down at one corner of the Silver Springs pool. And darned if his video doesn't come out capturing everything better than all of my hand held video shots. He even got the cute little fishes that run away when you try to video them. - Right after the beginning there's a brief stretch where we all swim upstream and off camera... This is when we're waiting for a glass bottom boat to come. In the background you can hear Jerry's Porta Sub running. Then, you can hear a choppier sound of the glass bottom boat propeller as it arrives overhead (later it drifts into view). Then you see the divers coming back into camera range doing their knife fights, speargun shooting, etc. Ron is the guy in the silver suit with the twin 72s. I'm in one of the knife fights with Rich notice our great "death spirals" in both directions and underwater judo... We practiced that at the pool before going to Sea Hunt Forever 2017. You can recognize me by the black suit, twin gray 38s with gray bands and very round tank bottoms. Jerry is driving the PortaSub at the beginning. Rich is one of the black suit single 72 tank guys with white hair. I'm not sure if Joe is in this video but if he is, he'll have on triple tanks and silver suit. Toward the end, you'll see a close view of Rich and Ron fighting over a spear gun as I leisurely swim thru the scene looking at my camera. - In the background center left you see three statues. These are remnants of an "I Spy" television episode that was shot at Silver Springs back in the '70s (I think). - BUT... Behind the statues is a "cliff" or ledge that appears in many Sea Hunt episodes... On TV the cliff scenes were usually depicted as very deep even though it is really only 10-15 feet deep. - The whole Silver Springs pool is like an underwater sound stage with props built in. The "cave" that appears in so many episodes is actually the mouth of the spring which is off camera right in this video. The boulders that Mike Nelson hides behind is many scenes are the same ones still present at the Spring today. Remember the episode about catching the prehistoric coelacanth? Those are actually the local bow fin fish which are still present in the spring today. - Great video... Way to go Ron!
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Post by sheriffdiver on Mar 16, 2017 15:03:02 GMT -8
Some other people need to start posting their videos..
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Post by diverdon on Mar 17, 2017 5:12:36 GMT -8
Very cool video. I could see several uses for this film and the stationary style you used to film the various divers. I too hope to see more footage from other sources. Will you be posting any Eben?
DD
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Post by sheriffdiver on Mar 17, 2017 6:20:46 GMT -8
I think a stationary camera sitting at where the dive float anchor was filming towards the cave would have been ideal filming.
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Post by surflung on Mar 17, 2017 6:44:37 GMT -8
I too hope to see more (video)footage from other sources. Will you be posting any Eben? DD - To tell the truth, I am kind of under-whelmed at the lack of forum participation and comments about this VERY BIG EVENT in the vintage equipment diving community. I had not even gotten home yet and the enthusiasm and discussion over the first postings of pictures and video had begun to cool off. - Yes I shot a lot of video and I plan to edit it into something. But I don't know if forum readers realize: 1. What a truly BIG DEAL the Sea Hunt Forever show is for our diving community. 2. How much time and effort goes into producing videos to post on forums that only a few people bother to contribute anything to... Much less share and disseminate outside the forum for the good of the sport. Here Are a Few Thoughts to Consider: - Sea Hunt Forever showed off in broad daylight (and with over 5,800 witnesses) over 160 vintage equipment dives without a single failure of the vintage scuba diving equipment. - Sea Hunt Forever showed the vintage style of diving with no BCD, no Octo, no gauges, no computers... over 160 dives with no incidents from running out of air, no buoyancy problems,... No problems at all. - Sea Hunt Forever showed off a definite "cool factor" of scuba diving that influenced more than a few of the visitors to want to take up scuba diving. We over heard this often as guests came off the boats. - The Sea Hunt Forever CAST made a terrific contribution to the diving public and to the prosperity of the Silver Springs Park and surrounding community by putting on this demonstration. Everyone paid all of their own expenses and donated as much as a week of time for not only the show but the travel to haul all of the equipment down there. And almost all of the divers stepped outside of their comfort zones to walk around in their equipment, visit with the guests, answer questions, let people take their pictures, etc. - The organizers of Sea Hunt Forever contributed even more... Allan Klauda set and enforced the true-to-Sea Hunt equipment requirements and helped the cast coordinate assembling everything they needed. Allan made and brought the props... Anaconda, rubber knives, fake spearguns, etc. Bryan Pennington put in 12 months of negotiating and organizing and meetings with park officials and others, handled legal issues, waivers, assembled the cast, arranged the lodging and meals, arranged the power for the generators, etc. etc. Roger Van Frank brought along a beautiful, enclosed trailer based 8 CFM compressor system with huge cascade tanks and kept everybody's tanks filled. Bryan and Ron also brought compressors. - Alex Pierce hauled his entire Sea Hunt collection from Canada. It took 7 hours to set up and was enjoyed by the over 5,800 guests who visited Silver Springs that weekend. The depth and potential influence of the Sea Hunt Forever event is definitely significant. I am very proud to have been part of it and I think the Vintage Diving Community can take great pride in it as well.
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Post by diverdon on Mar 17, 2017 8:48:11 GMT -8
Thanks for elaborating some on this, Eben. I'm sure its a greater undertaking than we realize, unfortunately. And thank you for pointing out that credit is deserved by many, even those who may not belong to this forum. I wish I could have been involved but I wouldn't have the correct gear to participate anyway. The criteria to participate is a bit high for most vintage divers that I know. However it is something that any vintage Scuba enthusiast can appreciate. It may be something more vintage divers can strive to become a part of too. Will there be future SHF events in the near future? I think this may have been gone over in other threads, but what is the requirement to be a diver for Seahunt Forever?
DD
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Post by nikeajax on Mar 17, 2017 9:13:32 GMT -8
To tell the truth, I am kind of under-whelmed at the lack of forum participation and comments about this VERY BIG EVENT in the vintage equipment diving community... Eb, I can say this about 99.9% of the participation on the forum. People read, and glean information from it, but refuse to add anything, and yet they're the ones who'd bellyache about it being gone--I've been saying this for years now. Yeah, I'm kinda beyond being PO'ed about; I've grown numb it seems like for many years now the only thing keeping this forum alive are the Healthways-threads... BTW, this isn't aimed at you Eb, so please don't think it is It's more of my way of echoing what you said--GRRRR! JB
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Post by diverdon on Mar 17, 2017 14:21:52 GMT -8
Agreed, Jb, and guilty as charged. I find myself reading the threads here but rarely contributing. If I weren't so busy I'm sure I'd something witty to add But keep posting. I need something to read. DD Or watch. Ahem. About those videos...
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Post by SeaRat on Mar 17, 2017 14:37:43 GMT -8
Eb,
I know this is a big event on a regional basis, but I'm so far away that it is difficult for me to make it to Silver Springs. I would also need to add to my double hose inventory as most of my stuff is Healthways, USD, Nemrod and Sportsways. I have the guts to an AMF Voit 50 Fathom two hose, but not the case. With not too much $$, I could get a plastic case for it from The Scuba Museum, and have thought about that for a number of years, but that's not what was seen on Sea Hunt, and would probably be disallowed by the protocol.
I'm one of those kids who was watching Sea Hunt after my YMCA swim team practice in Salem, Oregon in the 1950s. While Jacques Cousteau was the main factor in my getting into diving, Sea Hunt was fun to watch, and after having dived for a while, critique. We would watch it, and see the scenes where the regulators were switched from the old green straight mouthpiece to the newer grey Voit mouthpiece, in the same dive. Or a diver with twins would suddenly have a single tank on, or the dives continued with the J-valve down. As teenage divers, we would enjoy the series and the stories, but developed a way of looking at them as a Hollywood production which was somewhat detached from reality.
I love seeing these videos of Silver Springs, and the Sea Hunt divers there. Yes, I agree that they are doing a lot for vintage diving. Just talking to the tourists would be fun, and give them an idea of diving in the 1950s and 1960s, and the safety of vintage diving. I have a couple of questions:
--Is the noise I was hearing the props of the tourist boats overhead? I could not see anything that would make such a racket. --Are there three statues in the center of the frame? If so, what do they represent? --There is one guy in the midst of the divers in modern gear. Is he videoing the event? --Was there any or much TV coverage of the event?
That fish (perch?) kinda stole the show for a few moments there. As a diver with a degree in zoology, I am interested in the aquatic life in Silver Springs too.
Please thank all who participated for me as this does represent vintage diving to the public, and is much appreciated.
John
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Post by SeaRat on Mar 17, 2017 15:08:48 GMT -8
To tell the truth, I am kind of under-whelmed at the lack of forum participation and comments about this VERY BIG EVENT in the vintage equipment diving community... Eb, I can say this about 99.9% of the participation on the forum. People read, and glean information from it, but refuse to add anything, and yet they're the ones who'd bellyache about it being gone--I've been saying this for years now. Yeah, I'm kinda beyond being PO'ed about; I've grown numb it seems like for many years now the only thing keeping this forum alive are the Healthways-threads... BTW, this isn't aimed at you Eb, so please don't think it is It's more of my way of echoing what you said--GRRRR! JB Hi JB, Sometimes I think you get frustrated, but if you look at the first page of our General Discussion section, you'll find the following topics: --Healthways (5 threads) --Dive gear from Jaws --Cleaning a double hose regulator --Farallon Fins (the Fara-fin) --Aquala dry suits --The USD UDS-1 (U.S. Divers Company Unified Diving System-1) --Personalities Charlie McNabb and Frank Denblacker --A long time ago (vintage photos) --Conshelf XI second stage --I'm bummed out (winter, floods, etc.) --Retro Rig --Snark III regulator --Voit MR-12 --Masks, vintage and modern --Rebuilding tank valves I think for one page, that's a pretty healthy mix of topics. Add to that the various threads, such as this Sea Hunt 2017, and I think we have a pretty healthy site. John
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Post by nikeajax on Mar 17, 2017 17:01:09 GMT -8
Hmmmmm: perhaps we can agree to disagree here! My big gripe is how many people are on this site, and there's what, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe five of us who post on a regular basis, and you and I do the majority of those I don't expect people to post every day and be yippe-skippy about it, but if you look at all the PM-ing as opposed to actually posting on a thread, the percentages are embarrassingly lopsided... Maybe we should rename this the Healthways forum That was totally in jest BTW! JB
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Post by tomcatpc on Mar 17, 2017 22:17:07 GMT -8
To be honest, I had played around with asking if we should have separate Healthways section? I'm not complaining or being really stoked about the Healthways saturation as of late... It seems like we get a couple new people interested in the subject and it just grows from there?
If I had more money, time, etc. I'd love to attend to Sea Hunt Event. Maybe in a couple years? I have met most of the divers there I think, and one or two I almost met at a couple vintage events in my local area. I'd love to see us Divers who are interested in diving vintage gear get together more often in my local area.
As for this forum...this is the only vintage scuba site I really go to. I am registered at another vintage site and I registered on Scuba Forum back when I was getting certified, but got disenchanted with both sites and only really share here anymore. I've tried to share this site with a couple other Divers who were interested in learning the ways of our ancestors, maybe they will show up someday? Mark
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Post by tomcatpc on Mar 17, 2017 22:56:31 GMT -8
I also like what Eben said along the lines of showing others that Divers can safely dive and dive great with kit that was around in the earlier days of the sport. Being an ambassador to the world of vintage Scuba is a good thing and it sounds like there were more people interested in the sport when they left than when they showed up. Getting people interested in Diving is a good thing, showing them that it is possible to dive with older gear and be "successful" with it is a great thing. When ever I dive with vintage gear and no BC (which is actually the norm for me now) I get looks and sometimes comments. I try my best not to be a dork about it and come off as a safe, sane person. Mark
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Post by sheriffdiver on Mar 18, 2017 18:17:35 GMT -8
I like to share my videos so people can see what it was like there sort of from a behind the scenes look. That's why I placed my video camera off to the side. I have started pushing my diving back to the basics and I look for ways to re-create things from the past. I've taken the time to start reproducing decals for tanks that aren't available. I'm actively supporting the Sea Hunt Forever event and there should be a full page article soon in our local newspaper. I didn't grow up in the Sea Hunt era. I grew up around Cousteau and a lot of my time and effort is focused on that era but I've grown now into the Sea Hunt equipment. I'm trying to save some very important dive equipment so they don't all get destroyed such as the UDS-1 unit. It was really fun to talk to Alec and Herman about them and learn from them.
I brought a LOT of gear to Sea Hunt and I was able to almost fully equip another diver who got involved late and didn't have the equipment. I kept myself busy at the event and I know I was pushing my comfort zone and believe me I had a lot on my mind after getting interrupted at Saturday's dinner with tragic news about a loved one's death. I kept my focus and did what I had to do to promote this sport.
I'm more of a reader here and I try to contribute when I can. I'm very late getting into the vintage game but that's OK because I've taken a brand new diver and showed her how to dive safely, she now is excited about the vintage game and wants to use the Heavy Yoke Royal AquaMaster I gave her for Christmas. She doesn't want to use the modern equipment now.
That's kinda my two cents here. I contribute when I can but I'm always looking for answers and without places like this and the people who spend time here the answers go unanswered and that is frustrating for people.
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