Fri Aug 19, 2016 11:24 am
I have never really had any issue diving any double hose, especially the Phoenix and Argonaut, on a charter even in the Keys. Much of it is presentation. If the equipment, that being your entire rig, looks the part, is well maintained and complete I have never had anyone bat an eye. Mostly they think I am on a rebreather. The other part is the diver, if he/she again looks the part they will mostly leave you be, if you fumble about, O-rings popping and hoses and regulator hissing and stuff falling apart you will get the evil eye.
Let me say this now, unless you have some pull somewhere, NOBODY is going to put you in the ocean without a BC, octopus, power inflator and dive marker and spg. YOU CANNOT DIVE SEA HUNT VINTAGE.
What will get attention, pulling out crap equipment with duct tape, no functional BC, no spg, no dive marker and spool (Florida especially on the east coast) and no octopus or reasonable means to share air, no computer. I dived solo for every dive save maybe one where I took a buddy because he did not have one on my most recent SoFla/Keys trip. People love the Argonaut and bright red hoses. I was rigged with a pony bottle for full redundancy since I was solo and I did/do NOT have an octopus on my Argonaut purposely when using a pony. I am also solo certified.
Another thing that grabs the wrong attention, SP Bend-O-Matics and those old computers that look like bricks with vacuum tubes hanging out of them gobbed back together with RTV that seem popular amongst certain of the vintage set, yeah!
If you present yourself as competent, your equipment looks professional and ship shape you will not have problems. Act like you know what you are doing, listen attentively in briefings and come back aboard with the specified amount of air in reserve. If you look like you just came from the thrift store or garage sale and actually show up to dive on a charter without a functioning BC, prepare to get interrogated by the SCUBA police, especially if you flounder about and run low on air. As far as double hoses are concerned, the few who even know what they are think they are AL Mistrals which they have often seen or even had in their (associated) stores.
Occasionally I will have somebody tell me they are dangerous and usually after the first dive they shut up. Such was the case recently when a boat captain from another shop shared the charter, yes, he was diving with another shop on his day off!. He was kind of interested in the Argonaut but told me double hose regulators are old fashioned. The captain put him in first (courtesy) and me second solo, ahead of the main group so we could hopefully photo the rather shy goliath grouper resident on the wreck. I passed that fellow like he was dragging a parachute, beat him to the grouper and got my shots and was done before he ever showed up. Afterwards when I was rinsing my camera at the stern, I noticed him looking my equipment over, then me, then again my rig, then my fins (which are nothing but Mares Avanti cheapies), I think it was occurring to him that his universe had just expanded.
Nem