Hog harness rigging for carrying octo?

[stuartv]

I have a new-to-me BP/W single tank rig, with a Hogarthian harness.

I guess most people that dive these use a primary 2nd stage on a long hose and a secondary on a short hose to a bungee necklace.

But, since I'm newly certified and - for my trip this week, anyway - I'll be letting my g/f use my new reg set, and using a rental reg set for myself, I had my new regs setup with the "standard" Rec setup of primary on short-ish hose and octo on long hose to run under my right arm.

I tried it in the pool yesterday. I have one D-ring on each shoulder strap - right at shoulder level. I hung a regular silicon octo keeper off that and tried it with the octo there, but didn't like it. I thought it was too high and hard to reach with my right hand. It allowed the octo to drag back and be almost in my armpit or on my side below my armpit, where, like I said, it was kind of hard to reach with my right hand.

So, I ended up putting the octo keeper on one of my rubber keepers below the shoulder D ring, so it was carrying the octo down lower. But then, because of the Hog strap routing, the octo was more like at my side than on my front where it would be easy to reach and deploy to an OOA diver.

Is there some other good way to rig it so that, if my g/f has an OOA situation, I will have my octo in a good place to deploy to her?

Should I just put it back to hung off the shoulder level D ring and "deal with it" until I get used to it? I feel like if I had a sternum strap, I would hang the octo off that and it would probably be totally comfortable. But I don't have a sternum strap and most Hog rigs don't seem to have one.

Is it okay to hang the octo keeper off my left side D ring and run the octo hose under my right arm and across my chest? I have felt like I wanted to avoid having anything run that way. It seems like being completely wrapped like that could pose a problem if there were some emergency situation where I needed to shuck my BC quickly (not that, off the top of my head, I can think of a good reason why I'd ever need to do that).

Do I really need to just reconfig my hoses and switch to the long hose primary/short hose secondary arrangement and stop sharing my regs with my g/f?

Thanks for any wisdom you can share.

 

[decompression]

You can lower the right D ring if it feels better.

Ideally, you want it where it can be accessed and deployed easily. Secondly, placed so it isn't uncomfortable.

Try it on a lowered D ring on the right.
Hopefully soon you can get a 5' or 7' hose with a necklace for the octo and practice deploying it. Checkout the Basic 6 videos on YouTube (GUE/UTD) and mimic that.


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[Super Noob 1258]

A longhose and necklace is the right (lel) way to do it. When my old shop made me dive with a std. hose kit I would chickenwing the hose in front of my right shoulder, bend it back around and put a loop of hose through the D ring, like an "n". It kept it nice and sleek.

The second stage would hang right at ribcage level where it was easy to reach, and the hose would pull out of the D ring with no trouble. It looked really sketchy, but after drilling with it a few times it worked well for a temporary fix. It didn't put any noticeable wear on my hoses. Best of all it didn't require any goofy hardware or attachments. You can also use a silicone octo keeper like these with the long tails to sling the octopus lower. Make a "U" in the extra hose and slip it in the waistband (like a longhose without a cannister) so it doesn't flop around.

Full disclosure: I never took this rig below 40 ft. and only used it during calm summers in the upper florida keys. I never used this rig in less-than-beautiful conditions and I never intend to. Use a longhose when possible.

 

[claymore]

A new standard is emerging for the rec setup. Secondary on a 22" or 24" hose on a bungie under the chin and main 2nd stage on a 40" hose coming under the right arm with a 70 deg or 90 deg angle adapter on the second stage. In an OOA situation the reg on the 40" hose is handed off and the bungled 2nd is used by the donor diver.

Same basic principal as the long hose configuration but the primary 2nd does not wrap around the neck. This seup creates a more streamlined profile in the water

 

[AlexL]

A new standard is emerging for the rec setup. Secondary on a 22" or 24" hose on a bungie under the chin and main 2nd stage on a 40" hose coming under the right arm with a 70 deg or 90 deg angle adapter on the second stage. In an OOA situation the reg on the 40" hose is handed off and the bungled 2nd is used by the donor diver.

the wife uses, and is happy with this setup, but i never come across it in the wild. its either 'standard' rec with a donated octo, or straight to 5/7' primary donate.

this would also be the configuration i'd suggest to OP; 1m 'octo hose' on the primary, donated, reg, octo on a short/standard rec primary hose on a necklace.

 

[stuartv]

Checkout the Basic 6 videos on YouTube (GUE/UTD) and mimic that.

I could not find those videos. I searched YouTube and Googled and looked around the DIR and GUE websites.

A longhose and necklace is the right (lel) way to do it. When my old shop made me dive with a std. hose kit I would chickenwing the hose in front of my right shoulder, bend it back around and put a loop of hose through the D ring, like an "n". It kept it nice and sleek.
View attachment 199226
The second stage would hang right at ribcage level where it was easy to reach, and the hose would pull out of the D ring with no trouble. It looked really sketchy, but after drilling with it a few times it worked well for a temporary fix. It didn't put any noticeable wear on my hoses. Best of all it didn't require any goofy hardware or attachments. You can also use a silicone octo keeper like these with the long tails to sling the octopus lower. Make a "U" in the extra hose and slip it in the waistband (like a longhose without a cannister) so it doesn't flop around.

Full disclosure: I never took this rig below 40 ft. and only used it during calm summers in the upper florida keys. I never used this rig in less-than-beautiful conditions and I never intend to. Use a longhose when possible.

I have one of those silicon octo keepers. That's what I was using. I tried it hung off the D ring and also off a rubber keeper below the D ring.

I will try out the arrangement that you showed the drawing of. That might be just the ticket!

A new standard is emerging for the rec setup. Secondary on a 22" or 24" hose on a bungie under the chin and main 2nd stage on a 40" hose coming under the right arm with a 70 deg or 90 deg angle adapter on the second stage. In an OOA situation the reg on the 40" hose is handed off and the bungled 2nd is used by the donor diver.

Same basic principal as the long hose configuration but the primary 2nd does not wrap around the neck. This seup creates a more streamlined profile in the water

the wife uses, and is happy with this setup, but i never come across it in the wild. its either 'standard' rec with a donated octo, or straight to 5/7' primary donate.

this would also be the configuration i'd suggest to OP; 1m 'octo hose' on the primary, donated, reg, octo on a short/standard rec primary hose on a necklace.

Right. That is what I was actually talking about. I had read the details on the DGX website. They call it "Streamlined OW". That arrangement makes more sense to me than the standard Rec arrangement and is how I would have set my gear up - if I wasn't having my g/f use my reg set for our trip this week. I want her to use exactly what she trained with. This will be our first OW dives since our certification and she's already tentative enough without throwing a new equipment configuration for her to understand.

The Tech long hose config, with the primary wrapped around the diver's neck makes sense for diving where your buddy might have to follow you through an opening or something. But, for our Rec diving use, I really don't see a use for me to have a hose that long.

Now, regarding the Streamlined OW config vs standard Rec config - aren't the hose lengths a little bit different? The Streamlined secondary hose is shorter than the Rec primary hose? And the Streamlined primary hose is longer than the Rec secondary hose? Or is it just the Streamlined secondary hose that's shorter? I'm really just wondering if I need 2 new hoses to change over to the Streamlined OW config, or if I could just replace the yellow octo hose with a black hose and a 70 or 90 degree.

 

[AdivingBel]

Not sure in the long run what type of diving you're planning (my bad, I think you've mentioned it in other posts), so if you are working toward something specific then it's good to investigate your options if you have to make a purchase. Looks like for this trip you're looking at warm water, OW type dives. For that type of diving the standard recreational hoses work pretty well. There are lots of different configurations; all good for different individuals and different applications. I don't know about necessarily the "right" way. I really like the streamlined open front configuration of my bp/w for this type of diving (no wrap around bladders, commerbunds, only the stuff I choose to put there). For that reason a long hose going across my chest and around my neck or the octo 2nd on a necklace aren't my cup of tea. Nothing wrong with them; to each their own, but you don't necessarily have to go that route just because of the bp/w. I use standard hose lengths with my octo 2nd (yellow hose, yellow face) on a snorkel keeper looped on my right hip d-ring. I have my hip d-rings moved forward about 1/3 of the way between my hip and front buckle. This puts the octo 2nd at the lower right corner of my "triangle." It does leave a little bow behind my right arm. If I was going to be in a lot of confined spaces, I might rethink that, but it's very minimal, and hasn't been an issue. I'm able to keep a nice streamlined (at least compared to other rec divers I've seen) profile. I'm pretty anal about console/octo dragging reef divers, so if this config posed a problem, I would remedy it. Just my two psi. Good luck.

 

[decompression]

http://youtu.be/-xluZR2ZgDE


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[stuartv]

http://youtu.be/-xluZR2ZgDE


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Thanks. I saw the link to that in my Google search results, but since it appeared to be in Spanish, I skipped over it thinking that was not what you meant for me to look at.

 

[Super Noob 1258]

I will try out the arrangement that you showed the drawing of. That might be just the ticket!
~~~
The Tech long hose config, with the primary wrapped around the diver's neck makes sense for diving where your buddy might have to follow you through an opening or something. But, for our Rec diving use, I really don't see a use for me to have a hose that long.

Make sure the hoses are flexible enough before you go shoving them places. Do saftey drills on the boat deck, surface and about 5-10 feet down on the descent to make sure it will deploy easy. Don't get complacent. My octo hose was cheap, but still new, a dried out rental hose may not fold the same.

Don't bother with that "streamlined rec" nonsense. If you use the 7 foot hose (it's not technical, that's a misunderstanding) it'll lay closer, more streamlined, and more comfortably. You can also forgo the elbow that ends up being another set of o-rings that can fail. Streamlined rec only exists because people are intimidated by the long scary black hoses .

If you buy a 40" streamlined rec hose, you'll probably find it uncomfortable and upgrade to a 7 footer in six months time, only with a hose you have no use for and less money for diving. Do it right the first time.