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North East Diving Equipment Group, The Story... |
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Written by Administrator
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THE FIRST "OFFICIAL" FUNCTION of what is today the Northeast Diving Equipment Group was the first Working Equipment Rally on the Labor Day Weekend of 1993. The beginning of the group, however, dates back to 1987 at Lakeland Divers scuba shop in East Hanover, New Jersey. Lakeland's general manager, David Sutton, was a trained and experienced commercial diver. When Dave found a group of local scuba divers interested in diving commercial gear, he purchased a complete MkV hardhat rig (BELOW) and began offering a series of “recreational hardhat diving” courses through the Lakeland Divers shop. The courses were equipment familiarization only and offered no formal certification. With the success of the MkV, Dave expanded the courses to include a variety of lightweight commercial surface-supplied gear. The courses were advertised nationally and brought in students from all across the country.
SOME OF SUTTON'S STUDENTS bought their own gear and assisted in the Lakeland courses. One of the first was Jim Boyd, who bought this Aquadyne AH2 free-flow air hat and mated it to an inexpensive but custom made Aquala drysuit, shown (BELOW TOP) in the Lakeland pool. Sutton's MkV course involved a Friday evening classroom lecture, a Saturday dive in the Lakeland indoor pool, and a Sunday open water dive (BELOW BOTTOM) at the Willow Springs Quarry Park, about 100 miles to the west in Richland, Pennsylvania.  
WHEN DAVID LEFT LAKELAND in 1991 to pursue a career as a commercial airline pilot, a handful of his students (Fred Barthes, John Melnick and Jim Boyd) purchased the surface supply equipment and continued to dive the heavy gear. One of Sutton’s students, Paul Schenk, put the group in touch with the newly formed Historical Diving Society-USA, and the rest, as they say, is history (pun intended).
The Historical Diving Society-U.S.A. gave the group a network through which to communicate with other divers around the world with similar interests. Because of insurance liability potential, the never became officially associated with or endorsed by the HDS-USA, and the official title became “Northeast Diving Equipment Group.” All NEDEG activities are conducted locally by volunteer members who supply their own equipment and dive gear. The NEDEG has no officers or formal organization and does not hold meetings or collect dues. Jim Boyd and Rick Blake maintain the NEDEG websites, and operating expenses are offset by T-shirt sales at the dive rallies. Jim Boyd was honored in 1994 by the HDS with its first "E.R. Cross Award" for service to the society for promoting HDS-USA activities and membership, even though the NEDEG has remained independent of any formal association with the HDS-USA.
The NEDEG’s first organized activity was the “Working Equipment Rally” at Willow Springs Quarry Park in Pennsylvania over the 1993 Labor Day Weekend. The Rally was actually just a slightly expanded version of the “quarry dives” the group had been doing a couple of times a year since the late 1980s, but through the HDS publicity network, a lot of new people became aware of the activity and wanted to participate — including Jim Folk, manager of Scuba Venture Dive Center in nearby Sinking Spring, Pa., with his 1944 Desco MkV, which became the NEDEG logo. A number of working commercial and military divers have visited the Rallies and observed the equipment and safety techniques. The group has received high marks for "professionalism" from these visiting divers while maintaining a pleasant social atmosphere on the dive site.
In addition to its Working Equipment Rallies, the group has displayed at numerous shows like Beneath the Sea scuba expo in New Jersey each March and does dive demos at the Long Island Seafood Festival and Middlesex County Fair each summer.
"JOCKING THE DIVER" is the fun part of dressing a MkV rig. The jock on the weight belt must be very tight on the surface so that it will keep the helmet on the diver's shoulders in the water. Here Gary Smith (left) and Jim Folk work on diver Wayne Jones. |
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