Long hose for a new diver

[danvolker]

OK, I have BC (5 Oceans to be precise) that I can't attach a pocket to its belt where I could route hose. What are my options? Thoughts?

I just googled your BC, to see what you are talking about...if you can find a way to hang a knife scabbard off of the clip on the side of your flap, all you really need is a way to have something fairly solid you can route "under". Ideally, you need to actually see someone who is routing DIR style with a knife or a pouch, or a canister, and feel how the hose goes under and how it pulls out when desired--and how stable it is the rest of the time. Then you should be able to cobble something together. Maybe even a strap going vertically over and around your side flap, and then mounting a knife or pocket to it....if there is a horizontal strap at the junction between the wing and the beginning of the flap--if you can get even an inch here, this might be another place you could route a normal scabbard or pouch...
Dan

 

[paddler3d]

Just curious why you route your hoses this way. Most are going off the right post under a pocket or canister on the right hip, across the chest over the left shoulder and around the head. (Like the picture in the post above). There is nothing wrong with your way, presuming (as with any routing) nothing interferes with deploying the long hose.

I'm diving a single tank. When guys are stuff it under and around the can light, they've got at least a 7ft hose.

I'm 6ft, 180#'s. With a 5ft hose on a single tank the way I route, I really, really don't feel like I have the hose coming around my neck. It feels like it is coming off the 1st.

As for deployment, it is almost the exact same way as for a 'regular' set up. In a normal donating air to a buddy, you grab the hose adjacent to the 2nd with palm towards you and push away and rotate your hand clockwise. With the long hose, you push up and away. It is really no different.

I think I've attached a photo and you can see most of that 5ft hose.

I found a toilet in the USCG Cutter Spar. Saddly the camera girl did not capture the image appropriately. I love potty humor at 95'.

 

[rongoodman]

I'm personally a big fan of the long hose primary. With a single tank config, my primary is on a 5' hose. My secondary is on a shorter hose, though I cannot tell you the length.

I route my long hose under my left arm, across my chest, around the back of my head, over my right shoulder to my mouth. My secondary is on a bungee and comes over my right shoulder. You just need to take a moment before you dive and make sure you haven't crossed your hoses in case you really do need to donate them.

Did you mean to say that you route your hose under your right arm, etc, instead of under your left? Otherwise, I don't see how the way you describe the routing would work. (In the picture, it looks like it's going under the right arm, which is what I think you meant to say.)

 

[paddler3d]

Did you mean to say that you route your hose under your right arm, etc, instead of under your left? Otherwise, I don't see how the way you describe the routing would work. (In the picture, it looks like it's going under the right arm, which is what I think you meant to say.)

Yes, I absolutely meant to say right arm...

 

[bkotheimer]

This is the newest thread I could find that is on topic with a question I have, but I haven't seen this exact proposal anywhere on ScubaBoard...

For both financial considerations as well as personal preference, I am considering using a long hose in combination with an Air2-type octo-inflator device. In other words, I would use a 5' or 7' hose to simplify donating the primary, but I would like to use an integrated octo-inflator instead of a bungied backup.

Without re-igniting the anti-Air2 flames, are there any reasons why this wouldn't work?

 

[RJP]

This is the newest thread I could find that is on topic with a question I have, but I haven't seen this exact proposal anywhere on ScubaBoard...

For both financial considerations as well as personal preference, I am considering using a long hose in combination with an Air2-type octo-inflator device. In other words, I would use a 5' or 7' hose to simplify donating the primary, but I would like to use an integrated octo-inflator instead of a bungied backup.

Without re-igniting the anti-Air2 flames, are there any reasons why this wouldn't work?

Nope, seems like the smart way to go if you're committed to using an integrated LPI/octo. Dove with two sharp divers in Curacao a few weeks ago and this is how they were configured.

 

[iztok]

What RJP said.

I am just glad I didn't buy SS1 myself.

I just ordered a longhose set in miflex for myself last night. Dang it is expensive!

 

[DCBC]

I'm starting my OW classes this week. I'm putting together my rig and I'm contemplating starting with a 5' hose and bungied spare SP G250v or a "common" deployment using my spare reg and then changing hoses later.
Ultimately I will have a long hose as it makes the most sense to me. My daughter and I are doing the class together and we'll be our normal buddies.

My questions are these:
1.) will deploying the long hose be confusing for me as a new diver?
2.) if I wear a long hose, will the fact that my config is different from the instructor or other nearby divers likely be confusing to my daughter if she get into an OOG situaltion?

Thanks,
Jim

Hi Jim,

Well you certainly have had lots of input to your questions. I don't know how much more I can contribute to the conversation, but I'll try.

In the early days of diving, there were no additional 2nd stages to the regulator. Given that there were no submersible pressure guages to tell you how much air you had left and often a K-Valve was used so when you were out-of-air, you were out. Your Buddy was your lifeline. Students were taught to be within touching distance at all times.

As technology progressed, a second 2nd stage was added. The hose lengths were similar in length to the primary 2nd stage. In an out of air situation, or in the case of a regulator malfunction, this provided a means of more rapid movement out of the situation; Buddy facing Buddy.

The longer hose was introduced, as divers diving in caves and wrecks experiencing an emergency could benefit from a hose which allowed a "You lead, I'll follow" approach. This was especially beneficial in the confined spaces noted.

Preferences of hose length are dependent upon the type of diving you are doing. Some divers have an opinion based on how cool something looks, or decide not to have any extra bulk on them that may become entangled. Whatever that opinion is will dictate what equipment you decide to use. Either way, the opinion can be justified.

Personally I do not support new divers having anything other than what they need to safely complete the dive at hand. Some disagree with this minimalist approach and they are certainly entitled to there opinion.

As a wreck and cave diver I use an extended length hose. I have had to offer it an out-of-air diver, who was narced, frozen in place and hyperventilating my breathing gas. I felt that I was lassoed. At that point, I secretly wished that the hose length was shorter.

Whatever your decision, I hope you will never require the added safety that the device offers!

 

[danvolker]

This is the newest thread I could find that is on topic with a question I have, but I haven't seen this exact proposal anywhere on ScubaBoard...

For both financial considerations as well as personal preference, I am considering using a long hose in combination with an Air2-type octo-inflator device. In other words, I would use a 5' or 7' hose to simplify donating the primary, but I would like to use an integrated octo-inflator instead of a bungied backup.

Without re-igniting the anti-Air2 flames, are there any reasons why this wouldn't work?

The reason you would dive with a long hose, is that you "care" about your dive buddy, and expect at some time in the future, you will be doing an air share during a dive with a buddy. When this does happen, you would be far more comfortable and in control, breathing out of a bungied back up reg, and having your separate inflator hose for bouyancy control--you have used this every day of your diving, in exactly the same way as you would in the air share, so there is no increased stress from having it suddenly difficult at the time you need it to be easiest.

Having to breathe out of your air 2 equivalent device, means controlling bouyancy in a manner quite different from your normal diving, when you have to breathe out of it. Personally, I have tried these systems and found they offered no advantage worth mentioning, only disadvantages--of course, dive shops love to sell techno-junk for big bucks
Dan V

 

[vladimir]

As a wreck and cave diver I use an extended length hose. I have had to offer it an out-of-air diver, who was narced, frozen in place and hyperventilating my breathing gas. I felt that I was lassoed. At that point, I secretly wished that the hose length was shorter.

Whatever your decision, I hope you will never require the added safety that the device offers!

I'm not sure I get your point here. What would the benefit of a shorter hose have been?