Northeast Working Equipment Group
A Whale of a Tale - Page 1
New York Channel 7 / WABC-TV and a Beluga whale
WABC-TV CHANNEL 7 weatherman Bill Evans in Jim Boyd's Viking drysuit
and rigged for Jim Folk's SuperLite 17, ready to check out in the Beluga whale tank.
WHEN NEW YORK TELEVISION Channel 7 contacted the New York Aquarium at Coney Island with the idea of doing weatherman Bill Evans' morning weather spots from underwater in the Beluga whale tank, they contacted local commercial diver (ane NEWEG member) Gene Ritter to locate some communications-equipped diving gear. Gene contacted Jim Boyd and Jim Folk, and we went to work.
The initial idea was to use Folk's SuperLite 17 on the mated Amron drysuit, but the TV technicians needed to get an extra comm wire into the helmet for Bill Evans' earpiece that allowed him to hear instructions from the studio. So we opted to go with a Viking drysuit and use the neoprene neck dam on the SuperLite, with the earpiece wire threaded up through the neck dam. The system worked perfectly. The NEWEG team was on hand at Coney Island at 4:00 a.m. on a bitterly cold Thursday, February 25, 1999, when a phone call notified the Aquarium that the shoot had been cancelled. A surprise snowstorm was pounding eastern Long Island, and Bill Evans had to stay in the studio to cover the emergency weather reports.
THE SHOOT was rescheduled for Wednesday, March 3, and on Monday Jim Boyd met with the WABC technicians in Fort Lee, N.J., to check out the comms on the SuperLite and check the quality of the system. Later that day the Aquarium management decided that it wanted to check the gear out in the Aquarium with Bill Evans to be sure he could handle himself in the whale tank without the cameras rolling. Gene Ritter and Jim Boyd brought the gear to the Aquarium at noon on Tuesday -- sunny and much warmer, thank you -- where we checked Evans out in the gear (top). With technician Joe Tesaro, Gene Ritter and Jim Boyd on hand, Bill gave the "OK" sign (above) before entering the water (below). These photos were made by Jim's railroad friend Craig Willett, who was in town on Amtrak business.
BEING A CERTIFIED drysuit diver, Evans had no problem handling himself in the water, although he did need some help in getting the faceplate clear with the over-ride valve on the SuperLite (above). At this point the Aquarium management agreed without reservation to allow Jim Folk to dive with Evans as a safety diver who was completely familiar with the equipment.
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