Best way to stow/ restow 7' hose on sidemounted bailouts

[Wookie]

I'm still curious about that one too. Last I checked in CCR you have 2 options for bailout. Individual or team. In team bailout you pass the bottle off, in individual bailout, you have no need for a hose that long..... 5' might be necessary if you're a big guy and want to wrap it around your neck and still have it go down, but if you have a turret first stage a 40" with a 90* adapter is plenty to go from sidemount position behind your shoulder, to in front of your shoulder, around your neck, with enough room to look all the way to the left. Even without a turret, you are going to be mostly there. You can find 48" hoses that are fine as well and the nice thing with those is they still stay in the top hose retainer so you can stow them easily. 7' is too long to stow with one loop, 5' is pushing it, especially on smaller bailout tanks. 48" works pretty well and allows you to have a hose retainer at the top and bottom of the tank. On restow, the top band still has the hose inside of it, so you can push it down through there, swing the bottle forward and tuck the loop into the bottom. 40" works for most normal sized people, but I'm pretty big, so I prefer the slightly longer hoses.

Again, I'm not a rebreather diver or a cave diver, so I speak only from having observed hundreds of the same doing wreck dives in OW, but many of the folks who dive with me have a BOV and their offboard bailout plumbed into a gas block into their BOV. I can understand someone not wanting the weight of a BOV in their mouth, so many use an actual O/C bailout as Tammy is describing. I've never seen any sort of rebreather diver wrap their long hose. I've never seen a long hose on a rebreather bailout, so that's why I've never seen it wrapped.

 

[tbone1004]

I agree, most plumb into a BOV if they have one, many don't like them, and it depends on the diver as to what they do. Most that I've been around use 40" hoses which is pretty standard for deco/stage bottle regs to keep everything configured the same. Some go as short as 32, but I've never seen bailout longer than 48" and that was on a big guy where the 40" didn't wrap around like it does on normal size people. Will be interesting to see her reasoning behind the long hose on bailout....

 

[Garth]

Even in side mount configuration I don't see the reason to have a long hose unless diving very different style steel cylinders. I'm sure there is a specific reason but not sure of that right now.

People like Steve Martin dive without the long hose.

People like UTD will dive a long hose ... Forever.

 

[tbone1004]

Garth, if you're diving mixed teams you really have to. One of my primary cave buddies dives backmount so it has to stay on. Though I do actually find that a 9' routes better for me, but that's splitting hairs at that point. Steve uses the Apeks sidemount kit which is a 7' hose on the right bottle. In open water situations the long hose comes off though.

 

[Garth]

Oh. Thanks tbone. I always carry redundant bailout (2 bottles, two 1st stages). If I was diving with someone in backmount and me on my rebreather I would hand off one of the bailouts. Once 1/2 empty I would swap with the other.

Either way mix teams are definitely more complex in the predive.

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[tbone1004]

yeah in a breather it is different, but in sidemount you can't exactly pass a backgas bottle off to a guy in doubles. He has nothing to hand back to you, so you'll be very floaty, and he'll be very sinky..... Not a good situation. funny though because you'll both be listing heavily to the side you have a tank on. With backgas it's just easier to leave the long hose on there and go out normal exit style

 

[tstormdiver]

Also another consideration for the long hose/ sidemount bailout configuration whilst in a cave.... How about a gas emergency in a tunnel that is too small to do a bottle swap or 0 vis- doable but certainly not easy & could waste more time than it is worth.

 

[Wookie]

Also another consideration for the long hose/ sidemount bailout configuration whilst in a cave.... How about a gas emergency in a tunnel that is too small to do a bottle swap or 0 vis- doable but certainly not easy & could waste more time than it is worth.

Again, not a caver, are most, many, or even enough caves so restricted that needs to be a skill practiced? Remember, the pictures I see are of lovely open caverns with 3 or 4 strobes lighting them up.

 

[tstormdiver]

I've been in tunnels that are only 3-5 ft across & maybe 4- 5 ft high,... it does not lend itself to turning around easily or quickly, as may need to be in an emergency situation. The more likely scenario would be 0 vis, with the excitement of an emergency.

 

[tbone1004]

in those situations would you not have individual bailout for that situation and then team stages? Never heard of doing team bailout while in restrictions. You would typically plumb a BOV into your dil tank if you have one, then have usually an AL40 as on-board bailout for you. If you are planning team bailout in those situations you're crazy, I have no issues with team bailout, but not when you're in any sort of restriction.