Introduction to the
Northeast Working Equipment Group
THE NORTHEAST WORKING EQUIPMENT GROUP (NEWEG) is an informal organization of members who are devoted to the preservation and recreational diving of historic and surface-supplied diving gear. The nucleus of the group was developed around David Sutton, the manager of Lakeland Divers in East Hanover, N.J., in 1987.. David was a trained and experienced commercial diver, and when he found a group of local scuba divers interested in diving commmercial gear, he purchased a complete MkV hardhat rig and began offering a series of �recreational hardhat diving� courses through the Lakeland Divers scuba shop. The courses were equipmnent 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.
DAVID SUTTON tried out his recently acquired U.S. Navy MkV rig
in the Lakeland Divers indoor pool in 1987. On one occasion a local
Boy Scout troop was given a demonstration of the MkV in the pool.
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 in the Lakeland pool.
Sutton's MkV course invovled a Friday evening classroom lecture, a Saturday dive
in the Lakeland indoor pool, and a Sunday open water dive (below) at the
Willow Springs Quarry Park, about 100 miles to the west in Richland, Pennsylvania.
The tall fellow at left is Paul Schenk, who now runs the Gulf Coast Working Equipment Group.
When David left Lakeland in 1991 to pursue a career in aviation, 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, and many of the NEWEG members joined the HDS-USA. Because of insurance liability potential, the NEWEG never became officially associated with or endorsed by the HDS-USA, and all of the NEWEG activities are conducted locally by volunteer members who supply their own equipment and dive their own gear. The NEWEG has no officers or formal organization and does not hold meetings or collect dues. Jim Boyd publishes The Nor'Easter newsletter at his own expense, which is offest by T-shirt sales at the dive rallies. While the NEWEG and Jim Boyd have been honored by the HDS with its first "E.R. Cross Award" for service to the society for promoting HDS-USA activities and membership, the Working Equipment Group has remained independent of any formal association with the HDS-USA.
The Northeast Working Equipment Group was developed around Sutton�s surface-supplied divers, and its first organized activity was a �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 NEWEG logo. Jim Folk's enthusiasm and willingness to let others dive his MkV resulted in his teaming up with Jim Boyd of Newton, N.J., to function as co-"Coordinators" of the officially unorganized NEWEG. A number of working commercial divers have visited the Working Equipment Rallies and observed the equipment and safety techniques. The group has received high marks for "professionalism" from these visiting commercial and scuba divers while maintaining a pleasant social atmosphere on the dive site.
In addition to its Working Equipment Rallies, the group has put on MkV classes for the students at the International Commercial Diving Institute in Wilmington, Del., and has displayed at numerous shows like Beneath the Sea scuba expo in New Jersey each March, Tek �96 in New Orleans, Dive Expos at the N.J. State Aquarium at Camden and the annual tent sale at the Mar-Vel dive shop in Camden, as well as the Inland & Offshore Convention of the Association of Diving Contractors. The NEWEG also publishes The Nor�Easter newsletter about three times a year. One of the NEWEG members, Greg Platt from Chicago, has formed a Midwest Working Equipment Group and held his first heavy gear demos over the 1997 Fourth of July weekend at Joliet, Illinois.
There is no charge for the Memorial Day and Labor Day Rallies other than the $10 per day per person admission to the park. Through prior arrangement through Jim Boyd, a limited number of Certified scuba divers are welcome to dive heavy gear and surface supplied lightweight commercial helmets after appropriate instruction. For information contact Jim Boyd at [email protected].
"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 at the Willow Springs dive site.
Bob Martin was 20 feet deep in the quarry (below) when his photo
was snapped with a Nikonos TTL with the strobe pointed into the helmet's top light.
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The Russian Connection!
TWO MEMBERS of the NEWEG now own complete Russian former Soviet Navy
hardhat diving rigs: Rich Riley and Dave Sutton. Here Sutton poses in
his Russian rig with a Soviet Navy dive flag. The NEWEG dives the Russian rigs
with MkV air control valves and weight belts, rather than using the Soviet
practice of surface air control and breastplate weights, The Russian helmets
do not have automatic exhaust valves like the MkV or most commercial hats,
and the diver must continually use the rear head button to vent air and
control his buoyancy. The green canvas dress, with attached gloves, however
stays very dry and comfortable in the water.
DAVID SUTTON not only owns a Russian diving rig, but he is also a dealer in former Soviet military aircraft. For details on David's diving experiences and his aviation venture as "Red Star Aviation," GO TO HIS WEBSITE at [email protected].