Long hose techniques

I'm a dedicated BPW fan, and a DIR sympathizer (love the philosophy, but haven't been able to take the course).

If I move out and set my regulators up on the long hose and bungee, how hard is it to deal with when you are putting your gear on? I already have trouble getting my BPW on when the boat is rocking and there's no one helping me out. It's doable, but a pain in the behind. I've got the shoulder straps tight so it stays close, and that's a bit hard to get on or off.

If I add a long hose to the mix, how is this going to complicate things? Am I really going to look like a fool? Is there a trick to keeping your hoses straight while putting on the BPW? The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to make a mess of it without some sort of education in the matter.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to meet the schedules of local DIRF courses, and I don't know any DIR people that I can talk to and watch how they do it. We are having a ScubaBoard party June 18th, maybe I'll be able to check it out then. I was hoping to have the hoses for that day, but I'm not sure it's a wise purchase at the moment until I know more. Better the equipment I'm comfortable with, maybe.

Thanks for your time to respond.

Wijbrandus:

I'm a dedicated BPW fan, and a DIR sympathizer (love the philosophy, but haven't been able to take the course).

If I move out and set my regulators up on the long hose and bungee, how hard is it to deal with when you are putting your gear on? I already have trouble getting my BPW on when the boat is rocking and there's no one helping me out. It's doable, but a pain in the behind. I've got the shoulder straps tight so it stays close, and that's a bit hard to get on or off.

If I add a long hose to the mix, how is this going to complicate things? Am I really going to look like a fool? Is there a trick to keeping your hoses straight while putting on the BPW? The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to make a mess of it without some sort of education in the matter.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to meet the schedules of local DIRF courses, and I don't know any DIR people that I can talk to and watch how they do it. We are having a ScubaBoard party June 18th, maybe I'll be able to check it out then. I was hoping to have the hoses for that day, but I'm not sure it's a wise purchase at the moment until I know more. Better the equipment I'm comfortable with, maybe.

Thanks for your time to respond.

Click to expand...

I don't usually respond in the DIR forum, but, like you, I am a "sympathizer" as well who has not yet taken the class.

Anyway, I just made 18 dives from a boat in Cozumel with mt BP/W and long hose with no problems. In fact, I was usually waiting for the other standard rigged divers.
With the primary clipped to the D ring, the crew didn't have to worry about the hose routing. Once I slip on the rig, it takes about 15 seconds to slip on the bungeed 2nd and wrap the LH around and re-clip it to the D ring.

What makes all the difference for me is diving with other, better divers who can mentor me (even if they don't know they're doing it) until taking the class.

Find a mentor.

Wijbrandus:

I'm a dedicated BPW fan, and a DIR sympathizer (love the philosophy, but haven't been able to take the course).

If I move out and set my regulators up on the long hose and bungee, how hard is it to deal with when you are putting your gear on? I already have trouble getting my BPW on when the boat is rocking and there's no one helping me out. It's doable, but a pain in the behind. I've got the shoulder straps tight so it stays close, and that's a bit hard to get on or off.

If I add a long hose to the mix, how is this going to complicate things? Am I really going to look like a fool? Is there a trick to keeping your hoses straight while putting on the BPW? The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to make a mess of it without some sort of education in the matter.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to meet the schedules of local DIRF courses, and I don't know any DIR people that I can talk to and watch how they do it. We are having a ScubaBoard party June 18th, maybe I'll be able to check it out then. I was hoping to have the hoses for that day, but I'm not sure it's a wise purchase at the moment until I know more. Better the equipment I'm comfortable with, maybe.

Thanks for your time to respond.

Click to expand...

There are numours ways to keep the long hose out of the way. I roll it a few times, pass the second with a clip back through the coil to hold it there and clip it to my right chest d-ring. You leave it that way while the tank is in the rack and once you are in it, you properly stow the hose for diving.

Loosen your shoulder straps, no need for them to be that tight.

One thing that my friend Grateful Diver does when getting his rig on the back of his car is to clip the secondary bungie to the primary and then clip that off to his right, onto the side of his car's back window support.

What this does is to pull the second stages away from shoulder strap and tank by 18" or so.

The common problem that I've had is that I will run my waistbelt over the longhose or to somehow get my secondary under my right shoulder strap. The best way to avoid the latter from happening is to put your arm through the strap and gently hold onto the bungie. As for the long hose - lean forward when you adjust the waist strap and do a quick S drill after you have everything on and before you jump in the water.

It takes a bit of getting used to.

if you're stowing your gear one thing you can do is wrap the long hose down and then back up around the back of the tank and clip off to the right d-ring, and then hang the bungee around the tank valve. that keeps your regs from flopping around (and there should be multiple pics of gear setup like this around the net).

when i'm gearing up, first thing is to make sure i've got my weightbelt on first. it sucks when you get everything ready and realize you don't have your weightbelt on. next, i've got the light and the long hose clipped off on the right d-ring and i go through and make sure that there's no rats nests in the hoses. like OE2X said, its particularly easy to get the long hose under the belt, so make sure that the long hose and the light cord aren't going to get trapped. make sure that the backup isn't fouled up in the long hose and that you should be able to reach the backup after you get into it. make sure that the SPG and drysuit inflator aren't all fouled up either, and that the crotch strap and the belt looks okay. then i get into it. i usually try to run the drysuit inflator through the arm strap first and it almost never works, so usually before i try to stand up when i've still got slack in the arms i make sure to feed the drysuit inflator properly. then stand up, and make sure that the long hose hasn't gotten under the belt. then the belt can go on. drysuit inflator gets clipped in. hood goes on. then reach back and grab the bungeed backup and put it on -- make sure it hasn't managed to get fouled up in the long hose again. then route the long hose under the can light and around and clip it off again to the d-ring. last thing is to take the light cord and tuck it under the long hose and under the left side of my belt.

that's what works for me. helps to have someone debug the process with you the first several times.

make sure that you can deploy the long hose and go to your backup. its fairly easy to get the hood, backup and long hose all fouled up, which is why i always gear up hood first, backup next, long hose last. you do have to be a little more procedural when gearing up with the long hose...

Many thanks for all the input. It will be much easier than I think I'm making it out to be in my head, once I get the setup completed and have someone around to help me out with it. At least, you all make it sound that way...

Does anyone have any links to picutes of long hose routing, placement of clips, and bungee setup. I've read alot on here about it, saw some using it on my OW checkout dives, but was concentrating more on what I was doing at the time.

Thanks

i am still new to my long hose, about 25 dives with it. i concur with what was said about gearing up becoming more procedural. your first time have someone with you to help you prevent it getting all fouled up. make sure you take your time and dont forget to have a clip attached before you go out, that will make your life easier. hope this helps, just my 2 psi

Robert, if we can ever get together and dive, I'd be happy to show you my simple tricks. Pretty much what the other guys have said so far. Sounds like you have your backplate a bit too tight. Clipping off the primary reg to the right D-ring when it's not in your mouth is the best habit to get into.

Set some time aside for the next fundies class we have scheduled the 4-6 of November in Albuquerque and then OW at Blue Hole. Joe Talavera is coming around again. He was terrific the last time!

shark.byte.usa:

Does anyone have any links to picutes of long hose routing, placement of clips, and bungee setup. I've read alot on here about it, saw some using it on my OW checkout dives, but was concentrating more on what I was doing at the time.

Thanks

Click to expand...

As they say "a picture is worth a thousand words..."

http://www.baue.org/images/albums/equipment/diverfrontlight.jpg

Lots of images here too:

http://www.baue.org/images/galleries/view_album.php?set_albumName=equipment

Tim