Just wanted to say howdy from the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific. As some of you may have seen over on Scubaboard, i discovered a complete anti-magnetic second generation Aqua-master among a shelf full of stuff I got when I bought a local dive shop here. I expressed an interest in trading it for a working restored dh reg, and Luis stepped up with a beautiful Phoenix HPR Royal with an Argonaut DSV. Pretty much the Rolls Royce of DH regs, except for the Kraken, as far as I can tell. I took it for its' first dive with me yesterday and enjoyed it thoroughly, with no issues whatsoever, despite having no experience with DH and getting all my info from Luis and this website. I can only assume that Luis had it set up perfectly. I made my backplate by smashing flat a stainless doubles plate in a 50 ton press then cutting out a half circle for the reg and new slots (I have lots of stainless back plates). This seemed to work perfectly with a 30 lb. Scubapro donut wing and a Dive-Rite harness. I don't fly to dive so don't worry about the weight, in fact I prefer a heavy plate. I used an 8 litre steel tank and the can was touching right between my shoulder blades as it should.
So i had a very positive first experience with DH diving, despite having no mentors nearby. Fish seemed more approachable. The novelty and cool factor were appreciated, as with 2500 dives over 35 years I get a bit jaded. I guess this will be my go-to rig for simple, bimbling around dives, which I can do year-round in 87 degree water.
I will probably have questions from time to time but just wanted to introduce myself and say thanks for maintaining such a great website and a special thanks to Luis for hooking me up with a great regulator.