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rhwestfall
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Curacao (The Dive Bus) and vintage?

Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:25 pm

So, I have procured and resurrected a 1960 DA (now a PRAM) with the intention of using it with warm water destinations. I reached out to the operator we are using in Curacao (The Dive Bus) as to any issues with using vintage gear with modern implements (spg, octo, wing), and got a "sketchy" response. Anyone have any experiences with them?

Thanks.
Bob

No Longer Awaiting my Kraken.....

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ScubaLawyer
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Re: Curacao (The Dive Bus) and vintage?

Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:45 pm

A friend of mine used them in Curacao a while back but he was not diving vintage so I guess that isn't much help to you. He did say he liked their operation.

When it comes to using vintage gear at resort operations I always follow the mantra that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Usually (YMMV) as long as you look like you know what you are doing there is not a problem. I always take a backup single hose with me just in case, although I did have a divemaster on a boat in Akumal, Mexico tell me last year she wouldn't permit a dangerous old double hose to be used on her boat even if it did have new red hoses (a Kraken no less) and that my ScubaPro MK5/R109 backup was just too old to have been recently serviced properly so no on that reg as well. I walked off the boat at the dock, went to the operation next door and dove my Kraken without a hitch.
"The diver who collects specimens of underwater life has fun and becomes a keen underwater observer. .. seek slow-moving or attached organisms such as corals, starfish, or shelled creatures." (Golden Guide to Scuba Diving, 1968) :D

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luis
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Re: Curacao (The Dive Bus) and vintage?

Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:48 pm

This is from another thread, but it also applies here.
simonbeans wrote:
Thu Mar 15, 2018 6:19 pm
Most of us have learned to never ask for permission. Just set-up your gear like you know what you are doing. They may ask questions, but give answers to those questions only. Don't be braggadocios nor self-conscious. Just go dive. Never a problem anywhere I have been.
I am sure most of the places you are planning to go to have seen DH regulators before and recently.

This is very good advice.

When you ask for permission, you are right up front opening the door for them to say NO. One way to look at it: Why would they even consider saying yes to something they don’t know anything about, when you already gave them the option to just say no.

The VDH Argonaut Kraken is just another modern regulator of a different brand name.

The way I see it, I would not ask for permission to dive a Kraken, any more than I would ask for permission to dive a side breathing regulator like a Poseidon Cyklon or a Jetstream. They are all different and the shop may not be familiar with any of them, but that would be my choice, not the dive operator.
Luis

Buceador con escafandra autónoma clásica.

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georgeaustin
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Re: Curacao (The Dive Bus) and vintage?

Fri Mar 16, 2018 5:19 pm

I never ask permission and I’ve never been refused service - anywhere. Quite the contrary to be sure. From Fiji to Honduras, Cozumel to Croatia - everyone ooo’s and ahhh’s the shiny chrome Royal Aquamaster and the V66

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Ron
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Re: Curacao (The Dive Bus) and vintage?

Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:17 pm

We should be clear though too. There's vintage and then there's vintage. I've never once been nagged when I had a doublehose, BC, etc. I have been nagged or asked not to come back 3 times when I was diving a cotton harness, a true vintage doublehose regulator like a Mistral, no BC, no octo, no SPG, etc. All 3 of those times were on Florida dive boats. I've never been turned away anywhere overseas or anywhere else. All 3 times it was because "there was too much liability in letting me dive without a BCD or safety sausage, or without a SPG to track my gas."

All 3 times were straight cattle boats as well, the type of boats where they say moronic things like, "be back on the boat with 500 PSI" and consider that a gas management plan.

YMMV.
The impossible missions are the only ones which succeed. -JYC

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Bryan
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Re: Curacao (The Dive Bus) and vintage?

Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:41 pm

I always follow the mantra that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Doing it right should include some common sense, not just blindly following specs and instructions. .Gary D, AWAP on SB

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ScubaLawyer
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Re: Curacao (The Dive Bus) and vintage?

Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:45 pm

Ron wrote:
Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:17 pm
.... consider that a gas management plan.
What is this gas management plan you speak of kimosabi? You suck last breath, pull J- Rod thingy, swim up. Simple. :D
"The diver who collects specimens of underwater life has fun and becomes a keen underwater observer. .. seek slow-moving or attached organisms such as corals, starfish, or shelled creatures." (Golden Guide to Scuba Diving, 1968) :D

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