Back for a return Engagement

[Alan]

Hello every one,

I rejoined here after a great many years of absence. Life and work got in the way.

My brief:

1) Spearfishing at 14 off the north shore, Long Island NY
2) NAUI/YMCA Sport Diver Certs at 15. Wreck Diving in Long Island Sound for a short spell
3) BSAC 2nd Class Diver after moving to the UK at 18
4) Assistant Club Instructor at 19
5) HSE Part 1 Air Diver/Underwater Worker 1989 Fort William
6) Turned Pro and worked for Oceaneering/Ocean Tech/SubSea for 2 years (West Africa/North Sea)
7) HSE Part II Mixed Gas/Bell Diver at 24 at the Norwegian State Diving School
8) Another 12 years doing deep sat diving in the North Sea for Stena, Seaway, SubSea and Comex
9) Retired in 2002 and moved back to the US. 

I kept all my original Scubapro gear from 1980s and still have most of it. In 2002 started to put together the twin sets that the Scubapro Test Dive Team used from the late 70s/80s and it was a mission. Met Dick Bonin down in CA and over breakfast drilled him on the development of the 3 section twin manifolds that they developed for cave and wreck diving. Also talked to Sam Ichikawa (Scubapro Engineer) about the Pilot and same said manifold.
Finally in 2005 all the pieces came together. 

Looking forward to sharing info and getting to know you all... 


~Alan

[vance]

Welcome to the board, Alan! There is plenty of Scubapro enthusiasm here. Please read the instructions for posting photos in the technical section and show us your stuff!

[SeaRat]

Welcome here! Alan, glad you are bock. I look forward to your input.

John

[Alan]

Thank you! Let me figure out how to upload some photos... It is some pretty cool stuff

[Alan]

Okay just tried to upload images and I get an "error" message: This forum has exceeded its limit for attachments. So, I think you need more space or megabytes capacity for the entire site. I even down sized the images into KB to make sure they were each under 1 MB.

[vance]

Please read the sticky in the tech section for instructions about using a third party hosting service like Imgur.

[Alan]

Figured it all out and thank you for all the help! Here we go.. 

Alans Set 1c by Alan Krell, on Flickr

Alans Set 1e by Alan Krell, on Flickr

Alans Set 1d by Alan Krell, on Flickr

Alans Set 1b by Alan Krell, on Flickr

Alans Set 1a by Alan Krell, on Flickr

Alans Set 2 by Alan Krell, on Flickr

[SeaRat]

Alan,

The photos look great! I have that Scubapro backpack, but not the BCD.

You Pilot look great too. Does it have the original innards in it, or was it converted to the A.I.R. I configuration?

Also, it looks like you are using both the Scubapro Mk VII and a J-valve. Do you simply hold the J-valve in reserve?

John

[Alan]

Hello John,

Thank you.. it took a lot of work to get those twin sets together. I think I also spent almost a year finding the original tank boots to go on the 72's which by the way I think were the best tank boots made for cylinders. The BCD is the original Scubapro Stabilzing Jacket.. I think mine was an 1983 model.

As for my Pilots.. they are all original and new. I would never convert them to an A.I.R. 1 configuration... that seems pointless to me. I have 3 fully operational Pilot second stages. I will get photos of them later.. perhaps tomorrow and put them up.

The MKVII is a 1983-87 version and... it fits like it was tailor made for that manifold. It nestles perfectly lower down between the top of the tanks. I understand your question on the j-valve and the use of the MKVII... but why not have two back up low air warnings? I have in actual fact 3 twin tank set ups.. with 3 different versions of that same manifold: Standard J-Valve Reserve, Royal Dutch Navy J-Valve reserve and the standard non reserve. The question is... on what size dive tanks does one decide to use each of the different version of manifold?

~Alan