Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
On 2 Dec 95 at 17:00, Steven Lindblom wrote:
> Don't hack apart those USD streamlined triples !! - they're a neat artifact
> of diving history.
> I was told some years ago, and have no idea if it was true, that at the
> time Cousteau was experimenting with multiple very high pressure tanks in a
> streamlined shell, and the USD product was an attempt to create a consumer
> "lookalike" version which ended up somewhat pointless since it had all the
> complexity without the capacity of the real thing.
> Anyhow, they still are a fun piece of hardware. To really appreciate them,
> try a set warm water (no-neoprene) diving. Leave your BC, oct, console,
> pony, etc.etc.. behind, weight like we did in the old days - you'll feel
> like Rocketman.
> Cousteau's divers,incidently, still dive this way, routinely, down to
> 270/80. No BCs or consoles, old SS DH Mistrals tweaked to handle
> preposterous pressures from composite tanks in streamline housings.
Does anybody has definite data on the backpack Cousteau's dive crews
used to show-off with in their TV specials? I mean the sleek
streamlined yellow and black backpacks.
After scrutinizing the abysmally low information content blurbs
emanating from Cousteau, I've only been able to figure out the
following:
- they have at least 3 tanks; material/service pressure unkown,
ditto for manifolding. Diameter is relatively small.
- the regulator would appear to be a wierd 2 stage, 2 hose design;
that is, a first stage is on whatever manifold in the backpack, and
the second stage would be on the triangular chest plate from where
the two large-diameter breathing hoses emanate. At least, by having
the second stage diaphragm right where the lungs are, this should in
theory facilitate breathing a lot, as the air is delivered at the
exact pressure the lungs are - or does this hides a design flaw?
- some information and a bit of movie claim (a diver visibly mumbles
in his mouthpiece) that there is 2 way voice communication; however,
it could be that not every backpack is fitted with the communicating
feature, as I am under the very distrinctive feeling that I've seen
glimpses (always from those TV specials) of normal-looking
mouthpieces - well, they look like the ones fitted normally on Royal
Mistrals and the like...
- there is no SPG/console
- weights would be integrated with the backpack (could those round
knobs on the pack be for quick release? They are certainly not
identified very visibly).
- no provision for buoyancy adjustement
Those things would appear to be designed solely for appearances, for
I've read in a book by Robert Falco that Cousteau would give shit to
his divers while in the Red Sea for showing up in front of cameras
in "normal" (that is, just a tank + masks + fins + bathing suit)
attire, instead of the "formal" suit-and-tie attire; this would
imply that the "special" gear is a pain to dive with, and divers
would avoid to use it.
Also, support divers (that is, those not filmed) would use normal
gear (see "Ontario dive fatality reports" on the Ames archives about
a support diver found dead during a Great lakes dives to film a
shipwreck - at Tobermory?).
Finally, extreme environment diving would be done with "normal" gear
(that is, gear we're accustomed with). It stuck me that when the
Calypso went to Antarctica, everyone were diving in drysuits and 2
stage regs.
-------------------Pour la Republique Francaise du Quebec------------------
In a Democracy, where opinion makes the law, money primes. [...] The image
primes upon the idea, speeches dominates writings and in elections, posters
show the (expensive) colour picture of the candidate rather than his credo
printed in (cheap) black and white. [...] In a Republic, principle, being
something else than a compromises of interests, rules conduct. A political
party, for example, is not a power-grabbing and power-keeping machine.
Regis Debray in "Are you a democrat or a republican?"
--- Marc Dufour -- [\] ACUC 6 31874 & TDI -- http://www.accent.net/emdx ---
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