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Comment by Mike Wolfe on September 10, 2009 at 12:49am

Yea Spudwrench, you've kickstarted my memory. That was the name, George Wymer of Ponchatoula, Louisiana. That was the only Helmax I ever saw, and Buddy Ayers was the only diver I ever saw dive one. I was just a green tender at the time and never got a chance to try it. One more detail I vaguely remember is that the oral-nasal was from a Canadian Airforce jet, or something like that.

Comment by Bill Gardner on September 10, 2009 at 12:31am

Mike, from what I could dig up in the beginning of the 80's George Wymer designed a clamshell helmet called the Innerspace Systems PP-1 good to 1000'. It was produced in two versions SSB-Stainless Steel + FB-Fiberglass. Safety Sea Systems, Ponchatouna, La. Calling it the Helmax ss20. Be interested to know more about it. Cheers

Comment by Keith J. Sannes on August 8, 2009 at 9:54am

wow

Comment by Mike Wolfe on July 23, 2009 at 2:54pm

Like the title says, it is a Helmax.
I photographed it when I was a tender in 1990
Sorry, but I have forgotten the name of the man that made it.
As far as I know, It was made by a Gulf diver who was a friend of Joe Savoie's. The back half of the hat is made from a fiberglass rock climbing helmet. The hat has a hinge at the top. The diver (in this case Buddy Ayers) wore a hood that had a stainless steel neck damn ring that was vertical around his face (Buddy had painted flower petals around his face so he looked like Sunflower Man walking around on deck until he cammed up the hat). Your ears are wet so the hat had bone conducting speakers that pressed against the divers forehead. The free flow valve supplies air through the bumper ring tubing to the downstream side of the regulator, so if your hat floods for some reason, the free flow air blows directly into the oral nasal. The mushroom valves in the oral nasal pointed out (opposite direction of a Superlight's) so the free flow air could blow out of the oral nasal and de-fog the faceplate. Buddy had told me once that they had tested a spare face plate with buckshot and yes, it was bullet proof.

Comment by Craig Mynard on July 23, 2009 at 10:28am

That hat looks pretty bad ass man...what is it?