Inspired by the TV Show Sea Hunt and a recent article by guest author John Ratliff, I was invited to do an old school double hose regulator dive by world famous diver Joe R.

Having offended everyone on my last dive because my wetsuit no longer had an ass to it, Dan from Divevets donated an old wetsuit to me.

Dan said, “I bet you’ve never had a $500 wetsuit before?”:

“This is a $500 wetsuit?” I asked.

“Well, it was, now it’s just old and encrusted with piss,” he responded.

Thank you Dan!

Joe offered me the first double hose dive.

“I bet you want to do the first dive, so I’m letting you,” Joe said.

I was given two gifts – a vintage, old school diving mask and a 2015 calendar from PETA, my biggest fan base, especially during lobster season.

Thank you Joe!

I was then told, that not only would I be diving with the double hose, but I would actually be testing the regulator after Jocko of Dive N Surf serviced it.

I think some people would have been a little concerned that they were being used as a Guinea Pig to test recently resurrected dive gear from when Dwight Eisenhower was President…

But then I thought… “What would Mike Nelson from Sea Hunt do?

He would take the challenge – and the scary part is, when I had those thoughts, it sounded like the character Mike Nelson.

Plus, Jocko is one of a couple of people that I trust to service my gear.

So, Joe gave me a briefing on this gear…

“Just keep the regulator in your mouth, because it’s really hard to purge.”

“It is going to be hard to breathe compared to new regulators, and will vary depending on the angle of your position.”

“If you need to purge the regulator of water, lean to the right, so that your left shoulder is higher.”

Holy Fuck!

What was I getting myself into?

I asked Joe, “So, do I at least look macho in this diving set up?”

Joe responded, “You would look macho in a tutu.”

I can’t help that, I guess.

We geared up.

Fitting into Dan’s old wetsuit was like stuffing a boiled sausage back into it’s skin.

I had to suck in my gut while Joe and Dan held the seams together and zipped me up.

I decided to leave my newly acquired vintage mask in my truck, and bring my regular mask – I already had too much new gear to worry about.

We walked down and made an easy entry.

Joe told me, “I will just follow you… stay shallow, go over the shelf, whatever… when it’s no longer fun, just go up.”

I was diving on a steel 64 from the late 1950s, too.

I am weighted for Aluminum, I fucked up and didn’t take any weight off.

Also, there was no fitting for an inflation hose for my BCD, so I would orally have to inflate the jacket on the surface.

Joe did offer to blow air in at depth, if I needed it.

So, onto the dive… we submerged.

Logged SCUBA Dive #487

Dove with Joe R.

Veterans Park, Redondo Beach, CA

In With: 2400 psi
Out With: 900 psi
Max depth: 74 feet
Waves: Flat
Visibility: 15 feet plus
Water Temperature: 59 degrees
Air Temperature: 64 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 20 minutes

Holy fuck!

He wasn’t joking when he said this regulator doesn’t breathe like modern regulators.

It was like taking a drag off a hookah with a clogged bowl.

Slowly breath in… slowly breathe out…

The ironic thing is, when this regulator was made, 75% of the population smoked cigarettes; how the fuck did they manage?

Or maybe they were just used to being Oxygen deprived?

The Sea Hunt Character Mike Nelson didn’t appear to smoke, only because a tobacco company wasn’t their sponsor.

I was way over weighted and kept bouncing off the bottom.

Plus, I had no inflation hose, and couldn’t manually inflate my jacket because I couldn’t flood the regulator.

Joe gave me a few breaths to fill my jacket… but it was really pointless.

I didn’t want to waste his time, or air.

I went down to 74 feet, setting a new record for depth with this regulator and headed back.

I had no compass and was getting lost.

Joe handed me his compass, but all I could do was head East.

After we came up the shelf, it was getting tiring to breathe off that thing.

In 20 feet of water, I signaled to go up… I had a headache.

This was a unique and rewarding dive!

It reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw – “Do you remember when diving was dangerous and sex was safe?”

We made an easy exit, but were off course by about 300 feet.

Degearing, I also forget I was wearing a double hose.

The next dive was Joe’s turn.

Will he break my depth record?

Will he turn purple at depth?

Stay tuned for the next post!

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES ARE CONTAINED IN THIS POST.

I have upgraded to a GoPro Hero – yes, a used original GoPro Hero.

I figure anything that can get flooded or lost shouldn’t cost more than $100; however, the guy I bought the camera from lost the English instructions, and my Spanish, French and Italian are about as good as my Polish skills.

I need to figure out how the camera works, and the best way is from experience.

I arrived a little after 8 AM; the regulars decided the Point was a no-go, but the Cove was doable.

With the “Chipper and PSD diving on the same day means horrible visibility” curse dis-proven recently, Chipper said, “I know visibility will be great.”

We geared up and made and easy walk down and entrance off the Cove.

On the swim out, someone noticed something floating in the water.

We swam over to it.

I was hoping it was a bundle of drugs that fell off of a panga boat – I could sell it wholesale to someone in the ghetto and get new SCUBA equipment and we could debrief for free for the next three years.

Unfortunately, the thing floating in the water turned out to be a dead sea lion.

It didn’t appear to be tangled in anything, and didn’t seem too old – well half it’s face was missing, so who knows?

I said, “It looks like the lobsters here are going to eat well.”

It was decided that this was going to be an “every man for himself” dive.

We descended.

Logged SCUBA Dive #482

SoCal Buddy Diving primarily with Reverend Al

120 Reef, Terranea Resort, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, USA

In With: 2900 psi
Out With: 700 psi
Max depth: 41 feet
Waves: Pretty flat, some small swells coming ashore
Visibility: 10-15 feet
Water Temperature: 58 degrees
Air Temperature: 72 degrees
Total Bottom Time: 52 minutes

I followed Reverend Al.

I turned on my GoPro and figured how to take picture bursts and video…

Visibility wasn’t that great, but it was a lot better than the swim out of The Cove.

Al bags a shell.

Al points out lobsters

Lobsters sunbathe in the open, knowing they are protected here.

We made an easy swim back and exit.

Upon coming to shore, we looked out to where we saw the dead sea lion.

The sun was warming it up and it looked twice the size as an hour earlier.

Reverend Al said, “Wouldn’t it be fun to shoot it and watch it explode?”

Ha!

That reminds me of when a town in Oregon blew up a dead whale in 1970 that ended in disaster – there’s a Youtube video on that here: Exploding Whale – Whale Of A Tale

At least the dead body we found was just a sea lion.

I had taken 189 pictures during and after the dive.

Some of them seemed random, and the last 40 were upside down – I need to some English instructions.

Traditional debriefing ensued.

Someone asked Chipper, “I thought you said visibility was going to be good?”

“I was just fucking with PSD,” Chipper responded.

I’m on a lobster boat next Saturday – stay tuned!