Necklace Octo holder

[Mndiv]

I do, I really like having my octo close! If you want you could always clip your octo to your bcd and use the necklace on your primary.

 

[Hatul]

Go watch the video I posted above and you will see this could be a very unsafe way of doing it. There are many times a panicked OOA person will grab the reg blowing bubbles in another divers mouth. In your case they are not going to be able to get air, or at least they are going to rip your head off trying. Everyone one of us is capable of panic, just for some it is far out.

Nothing wrong with a traditional octo setup, but please make it a traditional setup. That way we all know what to expect. Most today are familiar with donating the primary since AIR II and long hoses are very similar, and taught in pretty much every open water class.

I have no problem with a panicked diver taking my primary reg on the necklace. The bungee will allow the mouthpiece to slip out if yanked as it's not attached around the zip tie. In that case it does not matter as long as he gets air pronto. But one time when I thought I had an OOA situation but not panicked, I grabbed my buddy's octo traditionally attached to a D ring. I felt more comfortable taking her octo rather than going for the one she's using and creating a problem for her.

If the primary is on a short hose donating the primary is a problem because you need to turn the reg around to keep the exhaust port down and there is little slack in the hose. So if you plan to donate your primary you're committed to a longer hose.

 

[MG11]

Finally got back to the pool and tested the octo necklace.

I swam around for a while once settled in began practicing taking the long hosed primary out, remembering to keep breathing by making zzzzzzz's to release air. My standard practice was using right hand take reg out, make zzz's, and hand it to my left hand simulating handing it off to another diver then using rt hand to grab the necklaced backup and putting it in mouth, breath a few breaths and switch back.

I felt really comfortable swimming with the 2nd reg around under my chin and was comfortable swapping regs.

I was extremely glad because the only difficulty I had in training was swapping from reg to snorkel while swimming I seemed to get water in my mouth each time until I learned to use my tongue to close off the front of my mouth.

Also practiced removing my mask while swimming along and intend on making this a regular diving practice just to be ready inthe event it gets kicked off by somebody.

Mike

 

[reefduffer]

...
One little trick for rec(yoke)/long hose configuration: I put a 1" ss split ring on the yoke. Takes a couple of seconds extra to push it out of the way mounting on the tank. But then the boltsnap tied on the long hose that's there to clip to your right shoulder D-ring can clip to the yoke for carrying the regs over your shoulder, or storage, keeping the long hose 2nd stage off the deck.

Many would say adding anything that could be an entanglement onto the tank area is a bad thing. Although it may seem like a simple small split ring, what if you cross fishing line and it slips into the ring? Now you have an entrapment that the only way to clear is to doff your kit and clear it. ...

Thank you! It took me awhile to get around to finding some monofilament line to test with, and I was skeptical that this could really happen. But I was able to get the line snagged on the split ring without much difficulty. And being long convinced of the innate perversity of inanimate objects (See The North Shore Literary Trail: Word of the day: resistentialism and Words, words, words (and phrases): Resistentialism) I know it will happen. I haven't yet personally encountered monofilament in my diving, but I accept the risk is real, and I carry cutting tools.

So, you have caused me to see split rings in a new light, and I agree the tank valve area is not a good place to have one exposed. So again, thanks. My education continues...

But I still want the ability to clip off my long hose to my first stage. I have identified more than a half dozen alternatives that don't involve an exposed split ring, the most minimal of which would just be a knotted single loop of cave line through the yoke with a half inch of slack, but I think that would fray too quickly. For now, I threaded a 3" piece of 3/16" heatshrink tube onto the split ring and then hit it with the heat gun so it can't move on the ring. Entanglement risk is gone, I believe, and I think it will be robust. See photos.

 

[windapp]

I recently posted about an smb practise where the line got tangled on my primary. One of the reasons I am going to a necklass for my octo is so that it is conveniently located if something happens to my primary. We are taught in OW how to retrieve a regulator when it gets kicked out, but the whole process is a lot more relaxing if you can pop your octo in your mouth while you are reaching for it.

 

[Peter_C]

Reefduffer, great that you are willing to realize hazards are out there, and find solutions around them. What you did looks like a viable solution. I am not sure why you are trying to hook the long hose to the yoke fitting? Just to get the reg off the ground? Cave line is always a good solution, and bungee tied on with cave line is even better since it can be easily cut off but holds a circle shape. A couple more things if I might.

On your bungee backup, where does the loop connect to on the reg? It looks like it is pretty far down the reg with the white zip tie. FWIW Home Depot and the like have zip ties with metal tangs that are much strong than a standard zip tie. What is the bungee loop made out of? Looks like it has a big knot on the right hand side of it?

With your primary second stage do you ever clip it off to the right side d-ring when not in use? That is what many of us do. We set the bolt snap to fall between our fingers when reaching up to grab the reg from our mouth. Thus when clipped off the reg will be kept from bouncing off the ground. In other words it looks like your bolt snap is too far from the reg. I do understand wanting to keep everything clean on a dive boat though.

Hose protectors are often a hot topic too. Many of us feel inspecting the hoses is important and therefore the hose protector would need to be removed often. Yet every time you go to removed the hose protector, it severely stresses the hose, pulling, tugging, and twisting on it. They don't really do much to protect the hose, so we leave them in the garbage can.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Add one more to the fold that uses a long hose set-up with a bungee. I am rec only and am not sure if I will ever make the jump to tech. With a 2 year old boy at home, that money will likely go to him instead. When we both go tech together, I'll go tech .

 

[rhwestfall]

I just finished up a Rescue Class a few weekends back, and in preparation for the class the shop personnel said they prefered me having a conventional set-up. During the academic section, I re-affirmed with the instructor (different individual) what the expectations were for the gear configuration, and the sparkle in his eye that appeared when I said "long hose and bungied octo" was almost blinding. He is a caver, and occasional tech instructor (not much tech training goes on in this shop). Anyhow, when we got to the in-water sessions, he spent about 5-10 minutes expounding on the benefits of the gear configuration I had.

When we were doing some of the air share drills, the people paired with me were really liking the experience of being handed the long hose when compared to having to do the same drill with them being the donating diver on a 40" or less octo.....

As I have said before, I just can't believe that this configuration hasn't made it to standard recreational instruction.

 

[reefduffer]

OK, I'll play, maybe I'll learn something more. I'll take these in a different order, easiest first:

... I am not sure why you are trying to hook the long hose to the yoke fitting? Just to get the reg off the ground? Cave line is always a good solution, and bungee tied on with cave line is even better since it can be easily cut off but holds a circle shape. A couple more things if I might.

With your primary second stage do you ever clip it off to the right side d-ring when not in use? That is what many of us do. We set the bolt snap to fall between our fingers when reaching up to grab the reg from our mouth. Thus when clipped off the reg will be kept from bouncing off the ground. In other words it looks like your bolt snap is too far from the reg. I do understand wanting to keep everything clean on a dive boat though.

I'd have thought my OP would answer those: "... the boltsnap tied on the long hose that's there to clip to your right shoulder D-ring can clip to the yoke for carrying the regs over your shoulder, or storage...", but I'll amplify:

The long hose second stage is only clipped to the first stage when the yoke is not mounted on a tank, and the dust cap is in place, topside. I.e., when the regulator set is cargo. In that situation, whatever entanglement risk might still exist can probably be dealt with without cutting tools. I'd think that many people with a long hose setup, yoke or din, would find the functionality useful, however implemented.

Yes, when the scuba unit is assembled but the primary second stage isn't in my mouth, it's clipped to the right shoulder ring, unless it's in my hand, or in transition while gearing up, draped over my shoulder.

The boltsnap is currently 2" down the hose from the maximum snug against the regulator body that it could be. I like it there.

Hose protectors are often a hot topic too. Many of us feel inspecting the hoses is important and therefore the hose protector would need to be removed often. Yet every time you go to removed the hose protector, it severely stresses the hose, pulling, tugging, and twisting on it. They don't really do much to protect the hose, so we leave them in the garbage can.

As you say, I've read numerous threads on SB debating them, with pretty informed-seeming people taking both sides. You've made your preference clear. Given that you know I'm aware of the differing opinions and have made a choice after reading them, let's not open that one again here.

On your bungee backup, where does the loop connect to on the reg? It looks like it is pretty far down the reg with the white zip tie. FWIW Home Depot and the like have zip ties with metal tangs that are much strong than a standard zip tie. What is the bungee loop made out of? Looks like it has a big knot on the right hand side of it?

This is more complicated. My bungee necklace attach is quite non-standard, and I'm aware of that. I used the conventional attach using a zip-tie around the mouthpiece for a couple of years, and didn't like it. It was always threatening to come loose, and did a couple of times. And I didn't care for the necklace so close to / integrated with the mouthpiece. So I did it differently, in a way that's my own design, that I know is not how the rest of the world does it. It's been configured this way for 3+ years, I like it, and it's been trouble-free. But I have not attempted to advocate anyone else adopting it for several reasons.

But since you've noticed it and asked, I'll explain: The necklace is a complete loop of 3/16" bungee tied in a knot. As with most knots in bungee, I finish it in heatshrink so it cannot come untied. Before closing the loop, I threaded a piece of very tough flat tubing about 3.5" long onto the bungee.

There's just enough space in the tube beside the bungee to thread a large zip-tie. That zip-tie goes around the second-stage housing, forward of the hose attach, holding the tubing snug on the top of the reg housing. This regulator is conical in shape, so the zip-tie can't slide forward, and it can't slide backwards because of the hose. It could rotate, but there's a second zip-tie around both the bungee just above the knot, and the hose-attach fairing on the housing. So the knot is held near the hose attach, very much out of the way of anything.

I know a verbal description, however detailed, will be misunderstood by some, so there's a photo attached.

I've read enough SB threads about this so I'll do the cons I've thought of:
- I can't grab the backup with my mouth without using my hands.
... I couldn't with the conventional setup, and it seems only a minority of divers can. Not important to me.
- I can't just rip the reg out of the necklace in case of entanglement.
... But it just pulls over my head to remove. And I could cut it if necessary. And I like it secure.
- It requires the necklace to be longer.
... Actually, not really, or maybe an inch. Meh.

It wasn't the reason I did this, but an added benefit is that the reg hangs mouthpiece-down, so the occasional freeflow at the surface that happened with the conventional setup, doesn't now.

So, there it is. I'm not telling anyone else to do this, just explaining my configuration variation that you noticed. I hadn't floated it for comment before because I didn't want to start the inevitable flame thread. But it's time for SB to tell me how I'm Gonna Die^TM. I've demonstrated I will listen, but not to just "it's different".

 

[Griffo]

Btw. It IS possible to buddy breathe off the bungled secondary. I know because my sneaky instructor made me during my rescue course, where the first ooa diver refused to let go of my donated long hose, when the second ooa diver turned up. You have to go vertical, but the 22" hose is long enough to do it.


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