Sidemount inflator hose routing

spatman · Mar 16, 2012

For those of you sidemounters that run the corrugated inflator hose over your left shoulder, how do you route your lp inflator hose?

I'm thinking of moving my corrugated inflator to over-the-shoulder but can't figure out how to run the lp hose without it forcing the inflator to jut out in front of me or off at a strange angle.

Advice is appreciated. Bonus points for pics.

Thanks.

Dive-aholic · Mar 16, 2012

I'll post here, too, for those who are not on TDS.

Route the hose behind and over your shoulder. That will keep it in place without jutting out. Any other routing will likely cause the corrugated hose to jut out.

kierentec · Mar 16, 2012

flip the inflator around, route the LP hose under left shoulder harness, inflator bends in towards your chest and out of the way. very convenient and comfortable.

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skankpile · Mar 16, 2012

kierentec:
flip the inflator around, route the LP hose under left shoulder harness, inflator bends in towards your chest and out of the way. very convenient and comfortable.

That makes it hard to hand for me to hand off tanks. I just use a bungee and come right out in front, make a u turn an plug into the inflator and everything stays neat and tidy; that way I can unclip, pop my inflator and hand off the tank easily. Some people swap their inflator with the dump (on nomad) so you can run it down as well. I guess it just depends on what you are comfortable with.

Dive-aholic · Mar 17, 2012

kierentec:
flip the inflator around, route the LP hose under left shoulder harness, inflator bends in towards your chest and out of the way. very convenient and comfortable.

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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?i5s43l

Except the OP is specifically asking for routing of the hose with the corrugated hose over the shoulder. He doesn't want to run it from the bottom.

skankpile:
That makes it hard to hand for me to hand off tanks. I just use a bungee and come right out in front, make a u turn an plug into the inflator and everything stays neat and tidy; that way I can unclip, pop my inflator and hand off the tank easily. Some people swap their inflator with the dump (on nomad) so you can run it down as well. I guess it just depends on what you are comfortable with.

There is absolutely no reason for handing off a cylinder. If you hand off a cylinder to a diver that is short on air you are putting yourself into the same predicament that diver was in before receiving your cylinder.

kierentec · Mar 17, 2012

Dive-aholic:
Except the OP is specifically asking for routing of the hose with the corrugated hose over the shoulder. He doesn't want to run it from the bottom.

except I meant flip just the LPI around, so the inflate button is pointed in. sorry if I wasn't clear.

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Hetland · Mar 17, 2012

spatman:
I'm thinking of moving my corrugated inflator to over-the-shoulder but can't figure out how to run the lp hose without it forcing the inflator to jut out in front of me or off at a strange angle.

Dive-aholic:
Except the OP is specifically asking for routing of the hose with the corrugated hose over the shoulder. He doesn't want to run it from the bottom.

Sorry, I can't resist:

When I first set up my SM system, I had the inflator hose over my shoulder. I wanted to keep the SM rig as close to my OW rig as possible, so I could use the same muscle memory for both systems. It didn't work.

I'm certainly no SM expert. I'm still doing dives specifically to work out kinks and improve my system, but one thing I can say for sure is that the bottom-mount inflator just works better.

Try to dump air using your standard set-up in SM (with the dump at the bottom). Do this in the water with your tanks on. Think about doing this in a split-second, and how fun it's going to be to find that pull dump in a hurry. Now try the same thing with the pull-dump on your shoulder, and the nob attached to your harness at the shoulder. At least 100-times easier.

I've actually been thinking about swapping the inflator to the bottom on my OW rig.

CaveMD · Mar 17, 2012

skankpile:
That makes it hard to hand for me to hand off tanks.

Have you ever actually attempted doing this? It is just about the worst idea in sidemount. This is not the same as handing off a stage bottle.

Please name a single instance where this is a better option than buddy breathing off the long hose?

cavemn · Mar 17, 2012

skankpile:
That makes it hard to hand for me to hand off tanks.

DevonDiver · Mar 17, 2012

skankpile:
That makes it hard to hand for me to hand off tanks.

Perhaps he means; at the end of the dive, when de-kitting and handing cylinders up to the boat??

Sidemount inflator hose routing

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