2nd "primary" as an octo?

[PatW]

I know people who have an extra long hose on their donor regulator (usually the one in their mouths). The extra long hose makes sharing air easier because it allows a bit of seperation. Also I have known divers whose back up regulator is a primary because in an emergency, they do not want to fool with a secondary. Often these divers have a second primary for one reason or another and it seems a waste to have it sit around and collect dust.

 

[rpnick]

My thoughts exactly! Just reading up on the bungee method and longer hoses. Seems like a good way to go.

 

[boulderjohn]

Thanks everyone, much obliged. I like the idea of having two "high-performance" regs and using the bungee method. I guess
if I need a new hose, I'll buy a yellow one, but for the moment, I'll just wrap some yellow tape around it!

If you go with the bungeed alternate and the long hose (which is what I do), you don't need a yellow hose or octo. In fact, when I switched to that setup on my singles rig, I had the opposite problem that you have now. I had a yellow-plated alternate, and I did not want people grabbing for it now that it was bungeed around my neck. I therefore bought a new black faceplate for it--it only cost a couple of bucks.

 

[tr3a]

In the tropics it's still yellow.



If you're using the bungee backup configuration you should look into getting a longer primary hose for OOA donations. Preferably 40in or longer. If it's less than 5ft long you'll need an Angle Adapter to avoid bowing of your hose.
I would recommend Angle Adapters and NOT Swivels for 40in primary hoses. Swivels have had a history of separating at the middle coupling (the omni swivel) where as Angle Adapters only rely on the standard hose connections and have not been known to separate in a similar catastrophic failure.

My friend uses a yellow 40in primary with an Air 2 btw. He hasn't really been given any grief for it.

Take a photograph of it without a strobe (ambient light only). Then what color

 

[mathauck0814]

Nothing wrong with using a high quality 2nd stage as an octopus. I have HOG D1 second stages for both primary and secondary. I detune the secondary so that it breathes differently and is less prone to cracking when I don't want it to. As others have mentioned if you employ the long hose + bungee you shouldn't ever have any confusion about which you're breathing out of anyway.

 

[g1138]

Take a photograph of it without a strobe (ambient light only). Then what color

A little bit darker than this Basket Star. This was at 85ft though.
What you capture with your eyes and what your camera captures are completely different. Your eyes takes in light steadily and adjusts to the surrounding darkness. The camera lens takes an instant spot of light and doesn't adjust for it unless you set it so.

We went to 95ft on another day and the color was still detectable and contrasting. Although during that deeper dive there was more detritus in the water after the monsoon had past. This made it a bit harder but you could still see the hose clearly contrasting against our diver's wet suits.

Here's a picture of a green package of Milo @ 90ft. Notice the yellow jersey on the soccer player. No flash used, white balance was set to auto on a Sealife DC800, however it's auto white balance is only rated effective to 60ft.



Admittedly if you're diving cold murky water where there's less light penetration with depth then you probably wouldn't see as much contrast. Might not even have any ambient light at 100ft then.

 

[buddhasummer]

Divemasters and instructors always should have a brightly colored hose on their alternate air source. While others may, they need not. Many people have a low pressure inflater alternate air source these days, and there is no color coding or other demarcation. The important thing is to have an alternate air source that works, and that you and your buddy know where it is and how to access it.
DivemasterDennis scubasnobs.com

An instructor running a PADI OW course I get, but can you tell my why a DM should do so also? I am a DM and as per request from the shopI worked for would use colored hose/plate when assisting with courses but when leading dives switch back to my normal setup, pre dive I explain my set up etc I have not encountered any issues.

 

[Bob DBF]

Regardless of what color it is... The OOA victim more often than not grabs for the one that is in your mouth.

Let's face it Howard, the victim knows it's working perfectly and it's so easy to find. Thats why I breathe my backup for a while during each dive, I don't need to teach someone how to buddy breathe when they really don't want to learn.


Bob
---------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[rpnick]

One heckuva good point...

 

[CamG]

Greetings rpnick I actually have both and have found that my usual buddies already know how I am configured.
When diving with new buddies it is part of our pre-dive brief with usually a practice donation detailing the process.
I have two primary second stages on one rig 6' long hose with a bungeed back up on single tank rig.
Then a straight reg set with a primary second stage with a yellow hosed octo reg that I wear in my triangle.

If I am assisting training OW divers I wear the straight Rec set so I do not confuse students.
If it is a AOW I will wear the long hose version / bungeed back up to expose them to the other configurations out there.
For AOW I will wear BM,SM or the single tank rig described also depending on the instructors wishes.

For me personally I have not dove a single cylinder but once in the past year to recover a friends dock.
It makes no sense to most but I just love to dive two tanks and it is my choice.

If I were you I would consider the diving that I wanted to do and then decide what rig to roll with.
Some places might be pretty remote but the long hose config is getting pretty popular.

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!