Fall Colors Sept 24-25 Fortune Pond

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Fall Colors Sept 24-25 Fortune Pond
- We've scheduled our annual "Fall Colors" Trip to dive Fortune Pond Michigan one last time for the Summer. Rich and I are bringing our lovely wives... Plus all of our vintage dive gear. Ron will be bringing his James Bond Thunderball outfits, Cousteau style UDS-1 and Cousteau wetsuits. We'll have 3 DPVs (scooters). I will have all four sets of my Bless-ed 38s as well as a selection of my favorite vintage double hose regs to dive.
- If you like clear water and craggy cliffs and mountainous underwater structure... If you like diving vintage scuba gear... If you like hanging out with fellow vintage equipment divers... And enjoying the Fall Colors... WELL, THIS IS THE DIVE TRIP FOR YOU!

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Huge Turnout Thanks to Sheriffdiver Ron!
- Holy cow... The parking lot was full. There were little kids running around screaming and hollering in the background. And I think we had 12 or more divers visiting, comparing equipment and diving. I apologize that I don't remember everyone's names. There was a young couple newly certified that came up with their kids. They brought Chili for everyone because they saw on one of Ron's facebook pages that Swimjim brought Chili in years past. Ron set the guy up to dive a Phoenix and we believe he is now hooked on Vintage. That couple brought along some of their diving friends.
- Ron had pre-advertized that he would be diving his complete 1980s Cousteau outfit... So he gets all decked out in the UDS-1, Yellow Helmet, and custom reproduction Cousteau suit... And all the kids wanted their picture taken with him. I think our community kind of takes this stuff for granted... I was just planning to go diving with him and suddenly realized I really need to get behind a camera and shoot photos and video of the dive. That stuff is coming as soon as Ron gets it all edited together.
- Our usual group was diminished somewhat. Our fearless leader SwimJim is recovering from hip surgery and couldn't come. Rich is struggling with a back problem and will face surgery in a month or so. He still made the trip and he managed to make a dive with our lightweight "Single 38" scuba tanks. He dives an original "DogBone" backpack that's been upgraded to a back BC. Rich bar-b-qued a bunch of bacon wrapped shrimp for us Friday night... Mmm... GOOD! Our resident tech/rebreather diver Eric came up and dove despite having a pinched nerve. I dove my bless-ed Twin 38s and usual 3mm vintage wetsuit. Ron and I drove the heck out of the scooters. Oh and there's a new kid named Riley that's joined us the last couple of trips. He's probably learning some bad habits from us vintage divers but he's been great company and a valuable addition to our community. This time Ron and I took him on a scooter ride along the "Cliffs of Dover"... He held on to my ankles and the UV-26 "Little Boy" scooter dragged us both on a great ride with Ron flying at wingman position. Oh and of course Ron dove some of his other movie theme outfits (Thunderball, etc.)
- Ron added some more fun with Door Prizes... And he had enough of them for all the divers. Apparently the new people have been seeing our vintage diving trips on two of Ron's Facebook pages. One is about Vintage diving. The other is about diving in Fortune Pond. I am getting a vibe that's similar to the public reaction to our Sea Hunt Forever events. Ron posts photos and videos of all of our interesting equipment and they want to see it up close. I don't know if that's it but I DO know they found us on Ron's Facebook pages and not through our vintage forums.
- I kind of got a kick out of a little incident... I was going in the water to dive with Rich and Ron and my regulator mouthpiece was giving me problems. So I had to ask a couple of the divers on shore to help me change regulators. They never got to handle a double hose before and almost put it on upside down! But I think it removed a little of the mystery (and maybe fear) for them to see how it just goes on the tank like any other reg.
- I think we got in 6 dives altogether... The water was crystal clear as usual. And, we all had a fabulous good time!

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Nice Pics of SurfLung... by Ron Cousteau

Above: SurfLung is descending down to the "newstand" on a ledge at 133 ft deep. Vintage "Twin 38" bushing
tanks with single stage Voit Lung DH. Wearing a 3mm Elios Vintage style beavertail wetsuit.

Above: Nice photo of SurfLung with the USD "Twin 38s" that started it all. Using the same single stage Voit Lung double hose reg.

Above: Same dive, SurfLung is picking up a "safety rock" for extra ballest on his Safety stop.

Above: SurfLung is under the floating pier about to drop some safety rocks on the photographer!

[sheriffdiver]

Same thing here...crickets...chirp, chirp...