Received my NAUI jr. certification in 1975, gear consisted of a horse collar BC (no power inflator) single hose regulator and a spg. The instructor during the class room session explained to us why we should buy a single hose regulator rather than a double hose. We did not get to use a tank until the 3rd pool session. Spent one whole night inflating and deflating our bc’s by mouth in the pool while swimming laps. All of our check out dives were from the beach on the first reef off Ft Lauderdale, we had a pretty good swim. We were taught to pull the regulator out of our mouth to orally inflate the bc while swimming. Course was taught by an ex-navy diver who treated us like recruits. Verbal humiliation in front of the whole class was his teaching method. The last pool session, all the new divers went to the deep end of the pool and 3 instructors harassed us from the surface, turning off our air, pulling the regulator from our mouth, knocking off our masks, ect, sometimes all at the same time. This went on for close to an hour!
My first regulator was a Sportsways W-200, US Divers horse collar bc, Farallon pressure/depth combo. Tri-view mask and a Farallon snorkel (which I still use), fins were Sportsways 707’s (I later changed to White Stag Hydrostreams that I used until the mid-90’s). I than move up to a ScubaPro BCP (wing type bc) with weight tubes that clamped to my steel 71.2 w/J-valve. I sold that bc and bought an Atpac in ’78, with the Watergill regulator and kept that for years. Since ’78 I have always used a back bc. I used a watch as my bottom timer until 1988 when I got my first computer.
When I began diving there was only one dive boat (that I knew of) operating in Ft Lauderdale, 26’ open fisherman!
The picture is of me in 1985, but the gear was bought prior to ’79.
John
