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WWII
looking frogman outfit
with single hose rebreather |
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These
images provided by a
customer from the Netherlands. |
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Silent
Scooter.
1251KB Windows Media. |
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| These
images provided by a customer
from the Netherlands. Here my
first experience with the suit.
Diving went well. The first dive
to about 10 feet, the second 30
feet. All the time (even on 30
feet) I had possitive bouncy.
I worked the trapped air into
my right armsleeve. And let it
out under water. At the end off
the dive I found out that I did
not really had done it right,
because the suit (and clothes
I wore) was all wet inside. I
think the next dive I need a bit
of extra weight. (did they use
extra weight in the early days
?) I had trimmed the face opening
a bit so my sight was good. I
used a full-face mask and a Nemrod
Snark III regulator with a high-pressure
connection to monitor the cylinder
pressure.The water was cold. Temperature
about 10 degrees Celcius. Under
the suit I wore a sweater and
a "long underware" to
keep warm. |
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| To
make the waist seal I needed the
help of my wife. It is not easy
to make a nice roll on your own
back. After making the roll I
also used the waist seal band.
I used normal 5-finger drysuit
gloves. I wore the gloves under
the armsleeves in order to be
able to let air out of the suit.
The full-face mask was worn over
the latex hood. So it made a good
seal. All together I am verry
pleased feeling how they dove
in the early days. Learned a lot.
Next time I take some extra weight
and perhaps wear my five finger
gloves over the armsleeves. |
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| A customer from Germany sent in these images
Of his vintage dive gear set up. He owns a genuine Totes dry suit but is
well aware of its fragile condition. Our Hydroglove dry suit has given him the ability to enjoy diving as it was done 50 years ago! |
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Just like divers from the past, many items of gear were home made.
Notice a lead shot filled weight belt made from an inner tube. He also made a custom vent tube for under the seal of the hood. It allows are to be vented into the suit as well as out via the purge valve on the mask. |
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| Rubber
suits are not a luxury item for
the cold water divers. Our rubber
suits are for vintage collectors,
Avid snorkelers, boat owners with
there own hookah and folks who
like to swim in cold waters and
not have to deal with a wet suit!
Points you should know about our
Hydroglove suits #1 They are not
as tough as a modern $1,500.00
dry suit. #2 Scuba diving with
one requires skills not tought
by any agency in the last 30 +
years. |
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| Depths
below 20' is enough to have to
deal with all the issues of gas
compression. One way to cope with
this is to leave just a bit of
extra air in the suit and kick
down to 10 or so feet to compress
the air to the point that you
get pretty close to neutral bouncy.
As you go deeper you come to a
point where you are negative buoyant
and starting to really feel the
vacuum packed sensation of an
under inflated dry suit. Techniques
used 30 some years ago still apply,
venting air out the nose and under
the mask skirt. This will equilize
the hood and the rest of the suit.
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| Getting
back to the surface is the biggest
danger one faces in diving any
vintage suit with no exhaust valve.
Not venting the suit will cause
you to blow up like a balloon
as you accend. The deeper you
were, the more air in the suit
to rocket you to the surface.
Loss of control during ascent
is a danger faced in ANY DRY SUIT,
be it modern or a vintage type.
Venting air from the wrist seal
works very well. Water does tend
to make its way down the arm from
this method. It is however very
little water if done right. |
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| Depending
on how much suit squeeze you deal
with corresponds directly to how
much water creeps through the
waist seal. More squeeze, more
water. The comfort is unlike anything
else. Diving this natural rubber
suit has been the closest to feeling
full freedom of movement while
in cold water. After dive clean
up is easy. The rubber suit dries
off very quickly, turn it inside
out and in less that an hour one
can be putting every thing back
in the gear box. No fabric linings
that take forever to dry, or start
to mold if you do not get them
dry! That makes this rubber suit
a great help for field repairs.
What kind of life span can you
expect from one of these all natural
frogman suits? That depends more
on you than the suit itself. Each
suit comes in a black plastic
storage back with basic storage
instructions printed on the bag:
STORE IN A COOL DRY PLACE. If
your lucky enough to live in a
cool climate and dive on cloudy
or overcast days then so much
the better! |
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| If
you dive in a hot and sunny climate
( like Boise, ID where these suits
are now made. ) then selecting
shady areas to don your suit is
advisable, the less direct sunlight
on the rubber the better. With
some basic care like making sure
the suit is dry inside and out
as well as dusting it with talc
once in awhile I have gotten years
of use with no sign of dry rotting,
cracking or getting sticky. The
rebreather lung in the images
is three years old and made from
the same latex formula as the
suit. I will say that there have
been many times the rebreather
was put away with little more
than a rinse and was not fully
cared for until days later. As
in put away wet and serviced the
next week just before a dive.
Even with the miss treatment of
putting it away wet, the rebreather
lung shows no signs of stickyness
or a need to be replaced. |
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| Just
how tough are these frogman suits?
Well lets think about it, if you
have owned any modern suit with
latex seals on it then you should
have a pretty good idea. Your
basicly wearing one large body
shaped latex seal! Customworks
Limited Co does not market these
suits as a competative alternitave
to any modern suit on the market.
They are soley designed to give
the owner of one of our vintage
style Hydroglove frogman suits
the nostalgic feeling of a long
gone era in diving. |
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