Chest mounting a double hose

[Gomez' echo]

Quote from New Mistral Thread: "Fourth, and most intriguing, is the potential for front-mounting the second stage of the new Mistral. This would completely eliminate the water pressure differential between the regulator's second stage position (usually on the tank for a double hose) and the center of the diver's lungs. So if you look at overall breathing resistance, a chest-mounted regulator would out-perform a similar regulator that was back-mounted."

I am sure someone has thought of this idea, if so, I appologize. If not, I also appologize because it is probably wacco. Seeing as how I like the way my doubles breathe and probably don't understand the advantages of a chest-mount regulator, I wondered on this concept. Mount a balanced first stage from any modern reg on the tank. Modern 1st stages have lp and hp ports for the alternate and SPG. Route a lp hose to the hookah port of a DA or RAM and mount the DA or Ram via some sort of harness to your chest. The double hose reg is now the second stage. You will have to flip the mouthpiece for comfort. Will it work, don't know. If it does, it sort of solves the BC/SPG issue of dive boats. Anyway, it is a thought.

[jrvance]

I am tryinng to think were i saw a picture of a cousteau diver using a chest mounted regulator, its somewhere outhere and ill look around for it

[jrvance]

modifying an aqua-master for this purpose could be done pretty easily, by removeing the yoke and placeing a cap on the regulator where the yoke nut was, the only problem is that the exhaust would be closer to the lungs, also shorter hoses might be desireable

[kgehring]

Cousteau used a chest mounted LaSpiro Mistral in the 1960's. Ryan Spence might have more info?

[SeaRat]

Actually, it was Jacques Cousteau used the chest-mounted LaSpiro Mistral, but it wasn't in the 1960s, it was in the early 1990s when the team was trying to keep Cousteau in the water. If you want to see clips of this, look here:

www.cousteau.org/en/cousteau_pics/film_excerpts/

There are several clips that show the interesting triple tank system Cousteau used for his last dives.

The Cousteau team used the chest-mounted Royal Mistral in their unified rigs that were bright yellow. I think they still preferred the tank mounted system, as that was what they used for the camera divers. If you will look at the drawing that we have posted on the Instruction area, you can see the advantage of the chest-mounted regulator:

vintagescuba.proboards2.com/index.cgi?board=instruction&action=display&n=1&thread=1141

I have temporarily abandoned my attempt to buy a New Mistral (not really compatible with my twin tank systems; I would have to reconfigure most of my tanks to accomodate the New Mistral in a tank-mounted system), which I was going to use to try out the chest-mouned system. I have taken my tanks off in the pool, and put the regulater on my chest to see how it would feel, and it is pretty nice breathing with it. At one point I will come back to it and try again.

SeaRat

[JES]

searat said:

Actually, it was Jacques Cousteau used the chest-mounted LaSpiro Mistral, but it wasn't in the 1960s, it was in the early 1990s when the team was trying to keep Cousteau in the water. ...SeaRat

Actually, it was 1966 not the 1990's when Cousteau brought together his best divers, engineers and designers to provide Calypso with sophisticated equipment they called streamlined scuba. This new equipment reduced fatigue and consequently air consumption, allowing the divers to move about more quickly and for a longer time. The regulator was positioned on the chest, closest to the center of the volume of air in the lungs. (Information obtained from the Cousteau Society Website)

[Ron Hearn]

Hi

Cousteau's chest mount double hose regulator was designed for him because he was having breathing problems in his later years, it delivered a larger volume of air.

Ron

[JES]

Here is a quote from Ryan Spence regarding the Cousteau Hydrodynamic Suit:

"With the success of Cousteau’s first television special in 1966 came the opportunity to film The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. Cousteau insisted on doing twelve initial episodes of the series which was twice the number of shows they were interested in paying for. Cousteau knew that he needed the money from twelve shows to finance the outfitting of the Calypso with new equipment and supplies necessary for Cousteau’s grand vision. The development of the Hydrodynamic was the beginning of Cousteau’s futuristic aesthetic that would dictate much of the equipment developed from 1966 on. It is important to note that most of Cousteau’s most functional designs were developed prior to his television career. These innovations included the Aqualung, the Diving Saucer, Sea Fleas (2 mini submersibles) and the Series of Conshelf undersea habitats.

The Hydrodynamic suit consisted of the classic black and yellow wetsuits which were developed for visibility on film, a series of 4: 200bar tanks housed in a streamlined housing that also contained a canister light connected to a lamp in the divers helmet and communications system. In many ways this design was Cousteau’s most fanciful and least functional developments. The cumbersome design was heavy and uncomfortable and surprisingly negatively buoyant as was discovered when one of Cousteau’s old friends stepped off the Calypso in the new rig and promptly sank to the bottom plunging almost knee high in to the sediment below. Upon returning to the surface he proclaimed he would never wear the contraption again. On of the most unique aspect of the Hydrodynamic suit was the chest mounted mistral that was connected to the tanks via a LP hose routed to a single hose regulator first stage in the thank.[/b] There were only about a dozen of these systems made. The aesthetic was developed by Jean Charles Roux from Monaco un the direction of JYC. The first black wetsuits were made by Beuchat in Marseille, and the tanks were made from a special alloy developed for the diving saucer called Vascojet 2000. The units were assembled in France by Dominique Sumian." (Information obtained from the Vintage Double Hose website)

[Ron Hearn]

If you ever saw the film "Cousteau the first 75 years", there is mention of this unit as a special device that was built to deliver more air volume for Cousteau.

Cheers

Ron

[SeaRat]

I think we are saying the same thing; I mentioned in the second sentence after the one Ron quoted that the bright yellow unified rigs had a chest-mounted Royal Mistral, although I did not give a date for that. But what I was pointing out was the actual use of an intact Royal Mistral regulator, chest-mounted; that was what I thought the question was all about.

I see in my National Geographic Magazine that Cousteau also used a very much oversized, chest-mounted regulator (with hoses to the habitat) for their Conshelf Three project. Cousteau is shown trying out the chest-mounted system in this April, 1966 issue of National Geographic, page 500 ("Working for Weeks on the Sea Floor"). This was not "scuba" as such, as they had hoses going back to their Conshelf Three habitat. They had a pressurized line with heliox, and a second line which recirculated the gas back to the the habitat. The yellow hose was compressed heliox, and the black hose brought back their exhalations to be purified.

The first chore ws to bring in the ends of the 200-foot breathing hoses, strapped outside on the chassis, and expel water from them. Philippe put on a three-bottle Aqua-Lung filled with heliox and slipped into the cold, concealing water.

"As soon as I venture away from the mai-son sous-marine," he said, "I am struck by one overwhelming fact--we have lost the surface. It is far above us, out of sight, buried in treacherous night. The surface means death. Here on the bottom is safety--life itself. I reach down and tough the ground, our friend, our salvation."

Philippe passed the heavy hoses up to his companions. Taped together were each man's yellow inhalation pipe and a black hose to carry his exhalations back into the house. The oceanauts were forcedto recover their helium, purify it, and replace expended oxygen. They could not, like compressed-air divers, blow bubbles into the sea. Three of them would have drained the house of gases and flooded it in a matter of hours.

A compressor forced heliox through the yellow pipe, and a "depressor," or reversed compressor, pulled the gas back through the black pipe. The oceanaut at theend of this giant respiratory system wore two heavy foam-rubber wet suits; on his chest was our new two-way regulator for high-pressure heliox; and on his back he carried a conventional Aqua-Lung filled with heliox. Like a provident parachutist, he had a reserve pack.

Between wet suits the oceanaut wore an incompressible vest, the armor with which we hoped to overcome the ocean's main threat to deep fish men--sheer cold, exaggerated by pressure and the heat-stealing effect of helium.

Thanks for a history of the hydrodynamic suit; it is interesting that they were so prominently displayed, and yet only about 12 were ever made.

SeaRat

[Yank Down Under]

Historical Thoughts.....

Chest mounts way go back. A British magazine, like Popular Mechanics, illustrated a home made "aqua lung" which was chest mounted in the 50s. Early on, La Spirotechnique would not sell scuba to Australia, as they had licensed Siebe Gorman to manufacture and sell to Commonwealth nations. Siebe could not meet the demand. HDS articles show pictures of Siebe Gorman hookah copies, chest mounted, with the diver using inverted twin tanks. About a dozen of these copies were made in Sydney, and featured in an Australian movie called: 'King of the Coral Sea' starring Chips Rafferty. You can see pictures of these chest mounted units being dived around Sydney, in Tom Byron's book available from hds.org/books.html.

There are disadvantages to chest mounted demand valves. The first is, they free flow badly when you remove the mouth piece in the upright position. They also place bubbles in your face when upright, even worse than the single hose regulator. The bubbles scare fish and make photgraphy harder. They are difficult to mount on the harness front, or bcd and require a reduction valve on the tanks, or the use of a high pressure line to the regulator. Finally, it is annoying to have something more sticking out from the chest.

[technidiver]

So today I spent a good part of my lunch and evening researching the DA Aqua Master, and I came across this thread and earlier on in the thread it was mentioned that it's POSSIBLE to mount an Aqua Master on your chest. How would one use the Hookah port to adapt the regulator?

TD