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Post by vance on Apr 27, 2022 14:36:38 GMT -8
Please post some of your favorite vintage scuba equipment like wet/drysuits, masks, snorkels, rebreathers, fins, gloves, SPGs, depth meters, BCDs, etc., ( anything other than regulators, since there's a new thread for them).
Hopefully, this is a chance for the not-so-interested-in-regulators crowd to pipe up. I'm sure there's hella cool stuff out there to talk about.
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Post by tomcatpc on Apr 27, 2022 17:32:10 GMT -8
I don't actually have a pair yet, but I'm diggin' Dacor "Turbo" Fins (The "original" first type, not the Turbo II's from the 70's). ,Mark
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Post by Jim Perdway on Apr 27, 2022 18:23:47 GMT -8
Good idea! So much of the forum is very regulator-centric so the changeup is nice. I'm going to go with this yellow Wenoka knife I got from Alec Peirce (it can be seen in his vintage knife youtube video ) Wenoka knife by Jim Perdway, on Flickr My knife is just before 10 min mark m.youtube.com/watch?v=WkhfRsZ0MJE
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Post by SeaRat on Apr 27, 2022 22:32:15 GMT -8
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Apr 27, 2022 22:45:38 GMT -8
Brilliant idea for a thread, Vance. You mentioned wet/drysuits first, so I'll start with my Golden Tiger Skooba-"totes" drysuit, which I purchased "new in box" at Vintage Scuba Supply. Not only is it fully functional seventy years after it was made by So-Lo Marx of Loveland, Ohio, but there is also plenty of historical documentation to go with it from old newspaper archives. Although I have never visited the midwestern US city of Loveland, this "Sweetheart of Ohio" in Greater Cincinnati strikes this British outsider as the epitome of the small-town American dream image of "a good place to raise a family". In the late 1950s, former advertising executive and later commercial manufacturer Joe Marx headed the So-Lo Marx company there whose flagship product was tough, lightweight, foldable, stretchy latex-rubber overshoes called "totes" (slogan: "tote 'em in your pocket"). The firm was considering diversifying into the drysuit-making business as recreational diving was growing in popularity even in the rivers and lakes of landlocked Ohio. The image below shows not only the Loveland welcome sign with its "Sweetheart of Ohio" motto but also a travel patch celebrating the "Loveland Frog(man)", an urban legend dating from the 1950s about a massive frog causing all manner of mischief. Doubtless already familiar with this local folklore, veteran showman Joe Marx may well have recognised the tale as ripe for exploitation during the launch of his latest product. The image below shows the text and illustrations of Bill Clopton's article "Invasion at Loveland" in the Cincinnati Post of 2 March 1957. In racy mid-twentieth-century journalese, the reporter described how the test subjects trying out Marx's new drysuit looked more like "Martians" or "sea monsters" than human beings; he was also at pains to mention, however, that one of the "guinea-pigs" was a local 16-year-old male high-school junior and that the seamless garment he was wearing would also suit a female diver. Marx wanted and needed teenage boys and girls to be on board with his project too. The first picture in the image below shows another illustrated newspaper article that ended up being syndicated across the USA over the coming months of 1957. This shorter piece consciously accentuated the "monster" dimension by having one tester outfitted with a double-snorkel mask for a "horned-beast" look. Loveland's new frogmen paying homage here to the original but mythical Loveland Frog(man)? You be the judge. The second picture features a So-Lo Marx advertisement in the August 1959 issue of Skin Diver magazine with the same photograph of one of the suit-testers sporting double-hose scuba apparatus this time around instead of a double-snorkel mask. The image below shows the front-cover article of the 10 August 1958 Cincinnati Enquirer Sunday pictorial supplement whose focus was a local 18-year-old female high-school graduate posing with a So-Lo Marx drysuit in a country-club swimming pool. Marx was eager to demonstrate that his drysuits constituted innovative and export-ready aquatic apparel fit not only for each gender of the species but also for a diverse population requiring warm watertight clothing, whether subaqua enthusiasts, water-skiers or indeed anyone routinely using full-body waders in their line of work. The image below shows the "Golden Tiger" version of the So-Lo Marx Skooba-"totes" drysuit in my diving equipment collection. Sold for just $22.95 back in 1960, I paid several hundred US dollars for the suit when I purchased it new-in-box over a decade ago. It remains in remarkable condition today, considering it will now be over 70 years old, and it kept me warm and dry while snorkelling in the cold waters of the North Sea off the North East English coast several years ago. Donning, venting and sealing the suit took no more than a little practice. DRW
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Post by antique diver on Apr 28, 2022 7:35:44 GMT -8
David, great documentation on the Skooba Totes suit!
I was toying with showing my Hydroglove suits as a favored suit as it is the most comfortable suit you can imagine. It's the spitting image of the Skooba Totes except for being black.
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Apr 28, 2022 8:07:23 GMT -8
David, great documentation on the Skooba Totes suit! I was toying with showing my Hydroglove suits as a favored suit as it is the most comfortable suit you can imagine. It's the spitting image of the Skooba Totes except for being black. Please feel free to showcase your Hydroglove. Over the years I've snorkelled many times with Hydroglove modern replica suits in the North Sea because my Skooba-"totes" could never have been replaced if it was damaged. Like the Skooba-"totes", those Hydroglove drysuits never failed to keep me warm and dry. You are right about the colours: Hydrogloves were almost always black (I remember having a green one once, though), while Skooba-"totes" suits came in brown, yellow, red or green. DRW
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Post by nikeajax on Apr 28, 2022 11:54:16 GMT -8
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Post by artc on Apr 28, 2022 13:07:08 GMT -8
Got to be my homemade Hawaiian backpack. It’s perfect for boat dives. Now if I can get Flickr to work I’ll try to post a photo of it.
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Post by tomcatpc on Apr 29, 2022 16:40:15 GMT -8
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Post by tomcatpc on Apr 29, 2022 16:45:31 GMT -8
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Post by SeaRat on Apr 29, 2022 16:56:45 GMT -8
I'd like to showcase three masks that I really like. The first is a really old time mask, from the early 1960s. This is the Champion mask produced in France for U.S. Divers Company. Broxton Dive 8-10-2015-2 by John Ratliff, on Flickr This is an oval mask without the nose inserts, and also without the double-edged skirt. It fits so well and so comfortably that it is hard to detect that it's there. It has wonderful down-vision too, something that some modern masks lack. fullsizeoutput_2304 by John Ratliff, on Flickr Here you can see that Champion mask as #9 in the photo. Masks-1 by John Ratliff, on Flickr Here the two masks on the lower left are the Farallon three-window masks. The one in silicone is actually branded as a White Stag mask, but it is the original Farallon mask in silicone for White Stage. Again, great down vision along with wonderful periferal vision. I now have two versions, both of which I've had to rehabilitate. The silicone version (#5) had a rip in the nose which needed a bunch of silicone glue to cover and make water tight. The neoprene version (#4) had degeneration of the neoprene on the nose, which I covered with new neoprene cement, so that it is also now watertight, but with a dimpled nose. Version 2 by John Ratliff, on Flickr The other four masks in the second photo are ones I have used and like, but not in the way of the Farallon masks. Winchester Reservoir 041 by John Ratliff, on Flickr This is a photo of my other favorite three-window mask, the Scubapro Supervision mask, but I like it without the huge nose exhalation valve. In fact, this particular mask I'm wearing on a research dive in the North Umpqua River in the 1980s is one of three that I melted off my face. I saved the front glass, and have used it over the years in a number of the Scubapro three-window masks, as you cannot buy it anymore. John with Scubapro mask and MR-12II by John Ratliff, on Flickr Here is that front glass on a neoprene mask, before that mask also melted and needed replacement in about 2010. John with Scubapro's Supervision silicone mask. by John Ratliff, on Flickr And here is that same front lens on my current, silicone version of this mask. I also have another silicone one which has the front nose exhalation valve. Why do I like it without the exhalation valve? Well, because it has wonderful down vision in addition to the peripheral vision. IMG_2705 by John Ratliff, on Flickr There is one more mask that I use a lot, and that is a modern black silicone mask with a nose pocket, __________________ , that have my SeawiscoupEY mounted to. You may have seen it on some of my videos. Why? Because this device allows very close-up viewing of the bottom and of very small animal aquatic life that I see in the Clackamas River all the time. As an amature naturalist, I love seeing small things that others don't even know are there. I once observed a hydra about the length of my thumbnail snatch a particle out of the water when it was attached to a leaf. I see these wonderful events all the time, and others miss a lot by not looking. John
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Post by nikeajax on Apr 29, 2022 17:16:57 GMT -8
I do love me a good wrap around mask. Here's my Healthways Scubarama: JB
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Post by artc on Apr 29, 2022 18:32:31 GMT -8
Got to be my homemade Hawaiian backpack. It’s perfect for boat dives. Now if I can get Flickr to work I’ll try to post a photo of it. Well, I’m an idiot and can’t do Flickr properly to post photos. For some reason, I can do it on the other board, but not here. It’s my fault and im doing something wrong. So, I’ll try to describe my Hawaiian backpack. It’s really simple with no moving parts. Basically, it’s all aluminum with a plate and a bucket attached to it. The bucket only fits a steel 72, but I prefer them anyway. Holding me into it are two shoulder hooks and waist strap webbing with a quick release buckle. The shoulder hooks are bent aluminum with air conditioning insulation for comfort. Lastly, the tank is held in place by a surgical tube loop pulled up and around the tank valve. I hope I’ve described the backpack sufficiently. It’s pretty much bullet proof in that I only have to replace the shoulder insulation and surgical tubing. Like I said, it’s great for boat dives in that I can take off the gear in seconds, hand it up to folks on the boat and climb aboard without carrying the gear with me. Or, I can stay in the water and have the folks onboard quickly change out the tank and hand me the gear and I put it on in the water and go.
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Apr 30, 2022 5:55:14 GMT -8
As a vintage diving gear collector, I am always on the lookout for online auction items that will complete a particular set of historical basic gear. A while ago a winning bid enabled me to add a pair of 1950s Heinke System Hans Hass fins to the 1950s Heinke System Hans Hass mask and snorkel set I already had in my possession from a previous auction: There is always a degree of satisfaction when chancing upon an item missing from an existing set and then securing it at a reasonable price. There is a bonus too when the full snorkelling kit, including the fins, is a good fit and in usable condition, as all the items are here. Having "Hans Hass" embossed on them with all the diving history that name conjures up must also be a plus. DRW
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