Long hose and octo with necklace for rec diving

[Trace Malinowski]

The long hose is also more versatile. You do not have to deploy the entire hose although that is the proper way to use it. In training situations, I use a 7 foot long hose to perform old-fashioned buddy breathing with the donor on the right by leaving the hose looped around the neck.

In real-life working as a dive guide, I've used the long hose for recreational divers who were trained to hold onto the buddy when they've run low on gas in the same manner, leaving the hose looped on the neck and donating very similar to a standard recreational octo. I believed they'd be more confused, stressed, and task-loaded if I deployed all 7 feet of hose in some situations.

To deploy the hose, just dip the head as you push the reg toward the OOG diver and the hose will deploy. Tucked into the belt the entire hose will pull free. Tucked behind the light you need to clear the hose from under the canister. The OOG diver gets a working reg right from the mouth. Like in this video:


You can also donate with the light in your right hand like in this video although the light on the left hand is preferable. Recreational single tank divers benefit from lights to make the dive more enjoyable (see vivid colors) and safer (signaling).

 

[CJS]

I have a 5ft long hose and bungie backup (also bp/W). I have been diving it for 4 years (before that I used the traditional rec setup). I like knowing that my second reg is just under my chin and the space it gives in an air sharing situation. I have only had to share air in training. In my recent Rescue Course I was buddied with the only other guy diving the same setup for most of the course. Compared to the others on the course, the air share drills higlighted the benefits of having more space between divers, etc. The flip side is, that was the only time in 4 years (outside Fundies) that I dived with someone else using my configuration. If I blow a hose or end up out of air for some other reason, I am constrained by the gear the other guy is diving, so I always have a good look at how their octopus is stowed, because they all do it differently!

The 5ft hose works for me, but I would consider 7ft if I needed to replace a hose.

 

[1000RR]

I hadn't thought about what @tbone1004 mentioned about spitting out your reg and basically not loosing it (becaues it's around your neck on a 7' hose)... makes great sense. I was using a 40" hose and it was connected to my 1st stage on the bottom of the turret (Deep 6) and therefore doesn't "bow out". My 2nd stage has a fixed 110* adapter which also helps. That said, my 40" hose would "hang up" on a buckle on my Ranger LTD BCD when I'd look down and then back up. So last trip out I put a 48" hose on and it was heaven. But if I loose my reg, it's not hanging right there as it would be if I were on a true "long hose" - 7'er (like Tom mentioned). So if you do change to an in-between hose length that is longer than you normally use, always good to revisit some of your safety techniques for reacquiring your reg in case a fin kicks you in the head or something.

 

[tbone1004]

the biggest thing to remember before you go mucking about for wherever your primary ended up when it gets kicked out is to get your secondary in your mouth. We teach to slowly exhale while you go find it as a worst case scenario, but the reality is your secondary is right there so just pop it in. Once you are breathing, then you have all the time in the world to go find it

 

[Mexile]

Throwing my 2 cents in...
(I dive technical and recreational, I'm also an SSI AI so I occasionally team teach on open water and also run a lot of scuba skills updates)

A couple of years ago I crossed over to RAID and at that time (not sure if it is still the case) they were teaching that everyone should be diving with a long hose.
Having had to to an air share on the long hose, I can say that it was much easier to control having the donee on the long hose. I had the secondary reg in standard configuration, i.e not on a bungee around the neck.
I prefer diving with the long hose on my rec setup when i'm diving just for myself. It is a pain when packing / moving gear etc because the long hose flaps around everywhere and you have to make sure nobody crushes your second stage. When underwater, it tucks in the exact same way it does into my tech gear - it comes around the front, wraps once around my neck and the slack is tucked under the velcro waist band in the same config as my tech gear.
In saying all of that - Up until recently, I had been running a standard recreational rig with a long hose (7'). I have changed it back to a standard hose due to the amount of updates I am conducting. I am unable to properly demonstrate reg retrieval on the long hose, and it makes it too confusing to change regs to the octo for the demonstration.
So, in short - I prefer it and it works for me, however it does not work when demonstrating skills where I need to have the same setup as the student.
I have come full circle and now run a standard setup on my recreational setup.

 

[PfcAJ]

The long hose is also more versatile. You do not have to deploy the entire hose although that is the proper way to use it. In training situations, I use a 7 foot long hose to perform old-fashioned buddy breathing with the donor on the right by leaving the hose looped around the neck.

In real-life working as a dive guide, I've used the long hose for recreational divers who were trained to hold onto the buddy when they've run low on gas in the same manner, leaving the hose looped on the neck and donating very similar to a standard recreational octo. I believed they'd be more confused, stressed, and task-loaded if I deployed all 7 feet of hose in some situations.

To deploy the hose, just dip the head as you push the reg toward the OOG diver and the hose will deploy. Tucked into the belt the entire hose will pull free. Tucked behind the light you need to clear the hose from under the canister. The OOG diver gets a working reg right from the mouth. Like in this video:


You can also donate with the light in your right hand like in this video although the light on the left hand is preferable. Recreational single tank divers benefit from lights to make the dive more enjoyable (see vivid colors) and safer (signaling).

“Myth than you’ll blind your buddy - busted!”

Yeah in the most sterile environment imaginable.

Meanwhile, in reality...

 

[Michael Guerrero]

I dive with a 7' hose and a bungeed 24" or 26" backup (can't remember) in my recreational setup. If I don't have a light, I just tuck the extra hose into my waist belt. If you have to swim along with someone in an air share situation, it's nice to have the extra length so you don't crash into each other constantly and the reg isn't pulling out of your partner's mouth all the time. It's not always a matter of going straight up. Sometimes you need to get back to the anchor line or past a swim through.

 

[lv2dive]

When I first saw this thread i immediately thought of TSandM (Lynne).* When it popped up in "New Posts" this evening, it prompted me to search for similar threads to see what Lynne contributed, as there was no doubt in my mind that Lynne has spoken to this topic at some point in the past!

I found the following thread from a few years ago, where this topic was discussed at length: Necklace Octo holder

I imagine a lot of the information in the two threads is similar, but I enjoyed Lynne's perspective, as well as that of others who are no longer active on the board.

*For those of you who are newer to ScubaBoard or otherwise not familiar with the name, Lynne was a much beloved member/moderator who passed away unexpectedly a few years ago. She had also met (in real life) a truly substantial number of people from ScubaBoard.

 

[JohnnyC]

I dig the long hose in a recreational setup. I dive with a long hose in sidemount, and RB bailout, so it's natural for me across the board. I loop mine under my "get out of jail free" canister just like I would the light canister. Only difference is that my rec light is cordless, so the canister is full of "come get me" goodies like a PLB, chem light, dye marker, etc. instead of a battery.

Light always on the left hand. I've blinded people in training to prove the point, and been blinded as well. It's just too easy to keep it on the left hand on a hard goodman handle to faff about with any right hand procedures.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

“Myth than you’ll blind your buddy - busted!”

Yeah in the most sterile environment imaginable.

Meanwhile, in reality...

Just because you can't dive AJ ...

Seriously, though, light discipline means focusing on not blinding your buddy with any hand or method. Here's a standard deployment I did inside the space of a doorway where lack of light discipline would have blinded a buddy multiple times during the skill.