5' or 7' long hose for open water?

[Mantra]

Hey all! Thanks again for the great discussion. Yes, I have a weight-integrated jacket BCD. It's an oceanic probe. My knife is attached to the left flank of the bcd via dedicated knife attachment points, but I do like to carry shears also, so could perhaps move them to the right spot.

If I were to go with a weight belt, then the rubberized ones sound awesome from the discussions I've read dumpsterdiver and ts&m have about them. The idea of an extra belt just to route the hose seems complicated to me. Does anyone know of a picture of this? Also, if I were to move my shears to, say, a carabiner on my right hip D-ring on the bcd, would that work? Would it interfere with deploying the shears when needed?

 

[peacock62]

I'm not sure about all the hose routing under your can light or knife sheath.
In the event of an air share your primary needs to be quickly and smoothly deployed. If it is behind a light or under a knife you will not deploy it smoothly. The additional hose length can simply be tucked in your waist belt.
No snag points. Your shears can be put in a pocket, no need to hang on a D ring.
Jacket style BC, back plate and wing should make little difference in hose placement. You should also discuss your ooa situation with whomever you are diving with before each dive. Perform an S drill to familiarize both of you.

 

[halocline]

Buying a hose that's 2 feet longer than you need for the environment you're diving in just does not make any sense IMO. You almost certainly will notice a big loop of hose under your waistbelt, at least I do. 7ft is for single file air sharing through restrictions, and its really not necessary in OW, and does not rout nearly as well for anyone even close to a normal size in recreational gear. I agree the 5 ft hose is a few inches short, but I'm about as average as it gets size-wise and it's okay for me. And a few inches extra is nothing like 2 feet extra.

Really the best way to try the long hose is with the coupler; it's only a few bucks and you can join together any length hose you want, then when you find the perfect length, order one. Actually IMO there's no problem just diving with the coupler for that matter, just keep up with the o-rings and it's highly unlikely you'll ever get a leak.

 

[rivers]

I'm not sure about all the hose routing under your can light or knife sheath.
In the event of an air share your primary needs to be quickly and smoothly deployed. If it is behind a light or under a knife you will not deploy it smoothly. The additional hose length can simply be tucked in your waist belt.
No snag points. Your shears can be put in a pocket, no need to hang on a D ring.
Jacket style BC, back plate and wing should make little difference in hose placement. You should also discuss your ooa situation with whomever you are diving with before each dive. Perform an S drill to familiarize both of you.

Not an issue. You donate your primary without deploying the excess hose until the reg is safely in the OOA diver's mouth.

 

[peacock62]

And you have added a failure point with the coupling.

 

[BDSC]

I don't even know if a non integrated jacket can still be found? Maybe somebody who knows can chime in.

ScubaPro makes one called the "Pilot" I think.

 

[kidsdream]

It totally appropriate to route your long hose behind your primary (can) light. Properly trained you can hand it off and move from around the light (and your neck) in one motion.

This is the standard for tech, wreck and cave divers diving backmount tanks.

Jeff

I'm not sure about all the hose routing under your can light or knife sheath.
In the event of an air share your primary needs to be quickly and smoothly deployed. If it is behind a light or under a knife you will not deploy it smoothly. The additional hose length can simply be tucked in your waist belt.
No snag points. Your shears can be put in a pocket, no need to hang on a D ring.
Jacket style BC, back plate and wing should make little difference in hose placement. You should also discuss your ooa situation with whomever you are diving with before each dive. Perform an S drill to familiarize both of you.

 

[PfcAJ]

Not an issue. You donate your primary without deploying the excess hose until the reg is safely in the OOA diver's mouth.

^ This. Its super easy to get in a rush and pull the reg out of the OOG diver's mouth while deploying the long hose. The extra length only comes out after the reg is secured in the OOG diver's mouth, and everyone is relatively calm and collected.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The whole concept of a long hose was developed into a style by tech and DIR based diving. They train heavily on not getting in a rush and getting flustered. They do drills ad nauseum to develop an automatic memory to be able to smoothly and swiftly deploy a long hose reg in a situation and many other skills
This is why I raise an eyebrow once in a while to those who want to use a 7 footer but aren't willing or able to fully understand and train themselves or use the correct combination of gear to be able to properly use a 7 footer. Part of that equation is using a rig that has a 2" webbing so that a can light, which BTW was one of the original components of the system that was an integral part of the configuration not only for light power but as a means to route the hose. The knife went somewhere else.
Some other compromise IMO is not really the best idea I don't think. Yes, then you are asking for problems trying to deploy the reg if the hose is getting all hung up on some rinky dink system that kind of works. It becomes a compromised and bastardized system.
I would say if you want to a long hose just use a 5 footer, maybe a 6, and wrap it under your arm, across the chest, and behind the neck and around to your mouth and forget about trying to hook it under something on the lower right side. With a jacket you cant even stow the extra hose in the waistband because there isn't one.

 

[lamont]

i've only ever dove a 7' long hose. even before i had a can light i used to just stuff it under my waist belt. if you can't afford to experiment with both, i'd say go for 7, but i can't predict what diving you'll actually wind up doing and what you'll like. i think its most likely that the 7' hose will pay off better in the long run if you stick with it, but YMMV.