Great article Thal! What great gear memories. The good news is the hetero sex is still as safe today as it was back then in spite of what the media misleads.

You have me beat by two years on the certification thing. I too had the revolutionary U.S. divers triple pane mask, and Dacor backpack. I couldn't afford the At-Pac and fiberglass fairing they tried to sell me, nor could I afford the honking ScubaPro regulator or Fenzy horse collar BC, so I settle for a new England Divers branded horse collar BC. But i did something nobody else in the class who bought gear did-I bought it with an added power inflator instead of what everyone else did. Boy was I the cock of the walk with a power inflator.

But what really made my peacock feathers spread was my resistance to buying a ScubaPro wristmount deco computer, because I managed to get the updated version of it from the manufacturer, SOS.

Keep those stories coming, we're glued to our screens!