Where to put octo BP&W

[Ayisha]

...But you can also make a clipped off longhose quick release with a little loop of bungee or the Diverite hose clip retainer...
...This would only really be appropriate if you had an OOG buddy while on your necklaced backup, NOT as a primary means of stowing an octo.

bold added

In the case you mentioned above, with your buddy on your (long?) hose, and you on your bungied backup, it would not be stowed either.

An octo or safe second (secondary donate) is a slightly different concept than primary donate.

A long hose should be either in your mouth, in your hand or clipped off when not in use.
An octo needs to be accessible at all times while diving. It doesn't matter how, but it needs to be able to be pulled free.

 

[sea_ledford]

bold added

In the case you mentioned above, with your buddy on your (long?) hose, and you on your bungied backup, it would not be stowed either.

An octo or safe second (secondary donate) is a slightly different concept than primary donate.

A long hose should be either in your mouth, in your hand or clipped off when not in use.
An octo needs to be accessible at all times while diving. It doesn't matter how, but it needs to be able to be pulled free.

Completely agree. Only reason I'll be on my alternate and have long hose clipped off while in the water is during a safety stop. I make sure I use my alternate regularly to make sure it is functioning as expected beyond a few quick breaths during buddy checks/s-drills, so I'll swap for safety stops. Or if I had an annoyance for the primary (ie a biten through bite tab), but not serious enough to call the dive.

 

[BlueTrin]

Completely agree. Only reason I'll be on my alternate and have long hose clipped off while in the water is during a safety stop. I make sure I use my alternate regularly to make sure it is functioning as expected beyond a few quick breaths during buddy checks/s-drills, so I'll swap for safety stops. Or if I had an annoyance for the primary (ie a biten through bite tab), but not serious enough to call the dive.

Probably worth telling your buddy that you will do this before the dive.

 

[KenGordon]

Good afternoon. I am new to diving with a BP&W. I purchased a Halcyon Infinity BP&W. I cannot really find a good place to put the octopus. Anyone have suggestions? The way Halcyon tells you to set it up, the d rings are near your shoulders making a little harder to reach in a hurry. Where does everyone keep there's at?

I am away from home and diving with people I don’t know. Some of that is shore diving so using a single.

To make my setup easy to understand I took off my long hose and put on a regular 40in yellow octo, routed to the left so it has no S bend when taken by an OOA diver.

It is attached to my left chest D-ring by this octo holder Octo-Quick which is in two bits, one part is held onto the hose by narrow webbing and connects to the other with a clip that goes into an SS ring so pulls out easily enough but not too easily.

My primary is a normal sort of thing but on a necklace so I can always find it. If an OOA diver takes it they will probably leave me with the mouth piece and I will have to feed them to a lobster and pretend they were playing golf that day.

 

[207diver]

Right shoulder d ring with a ScubaPro octo clip seems to work just fine for me. Although I did recently break the clip, with 300 hundred or so dives on it I’m not too disappointed.

 

[seaseadee]

I'm not crazy about the boltsnap secured octo - unless perhaps the the team has a lot of experience or technical-level training. Even then it should only be a temporary clipoff. A panicking out-of-air diver should be able to grab an octo quickly. If it's clipped off they're either going to struggle to get it, or you're going to fumble with it after they grab your primary. If I went for an octo and found it clipped off I'd probably put my mouth right on it and awkwardly suckle air from the other divers chest. Nobody wants that. One of the quick-release holders works better. Or longhose config.

I haven't seen many, but I bet a strong velcro octo holder would work well.

Re: the tech config, I want to reiterate that the benefits of neat hose streamlining and fast regulator access apply to everyone even if they don't ever plan to swim single file out of a burning cave at 300 feet while dodging bullets. Check out the difference in streamlining between MaxBottomtime's gif at the top of this page and Joenill's avatar (sorry to call you out, my rig looked just like that until recently).

Agreed... I think it was late and I was tired when I wrote that post.

 

[Neilwood]

Personally, as a purely recreational diver, I am happy sticking with my "standard rec" set up with my BP&W. The octo hose is bent through the Dring which makes it very easy to deploy (grab the reg and a single tug will deploy it). No relying on octo holders etc which seldom seem to hold a reg properly (I think they are one of the biggest causes of dangling regs). It puts the octo into a highly accessible area for a buddy when in trim while also being readily available if vertical.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Personally, as a purely recreational diver, I am happy sticking with my "standard rec" set up with my BP&W. The octo hose is bent through the Dring which makes it very easy to deploy (grab the reg and a single tug will deploy it). No relying on octo holders etc which seldom seem to hold a reg properly (I think they are one of the biggest causes of dangling regs). It puts the octo into a highly accessible area for a buddy when in trim while also being readily available if vertical.

It also makes one of your D-rings unusable as a D-ring since you’ve made it an Octo holder.

 

[Neilwood]

It also makes one of your D-rings unusable as a D-ring since you’ve made it an Octo holder.

No it doesn't and I demonstrate it to every buddy as part of pre dive checks.

As a purely recreational diver (single tank, not carrying a pony, not doing any deco or carrying any additional gases), I don't have that many uses for my shoulder D-rings so the only things that get attached to them are my 2 lights which are on boltsnaps and snugged down to the harness with snoopy loops (I have no need for a can light so 2 torches is more than enough for me) and a Go-pro type set up if I am not using it.

Never ever had any issues with the reg blocking the lights or vice versa. I can deploy and restow both regs and lights blindfold (or eyes closed /zero vis).

If I ever progress to tech diving, I will need to change my set up but until then I see no reason to change.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

@Neilwood i’d honestly have to see it in practice. Sounds a bit convoluted to me. Glad it works for you.