Help with set-up of BP/W and long hose

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One thing that I have always considered an oversight of the tech community is not putting a strain relief on the long hose. This might be fine in a cave with no currents and skilled divers, but is a great way to get a hose fitting snapped off from your first stage in open sea.

Think about it. You have somebody on your long hose that may be of unknown or questionable ability and unstable due to panic. That diver is out of reach and air hanging on the end of your hose, the seas have kicked up, and you are trying not to get swept offshore.

It is very simple to install a strain relief on the first stage end of the hose with a snap that secures to your rig. The hose itself has pretty decent tensile strength, unlike the swaged brass fitting when yanked at an angle. Sure you can close that post valve when the hose fitting snaps… but then they might come for that regulator in your mouth… or drift off and die.

This is pretty common in the commercial diving industry. The cleanest way I have found for LP hoses is to take some hollow braided Polypropylene rope with a snap at one end. This is the line that acts like a Chinese Finger Trap and tightens equally under strain.

Shove the first stage end of the hose in the hollow end of the line about 4" and pop it out between the weaving like in the attached image. Then do a Long Bury Splice around the hook. I like to whip the ends with sail twine and cover with electrical tape. Only whip at the end that will allow tightening under strain.
 

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    Hose Strain Relief.jpg
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I have a similiar question, but in the east bay area instead. SJ is kind of a pain for me to get to so anywhere that I can reach via BART is good. I think I'll probably need some webbing too because the previous owner was pretty tiny but not sure what shops up in the bay area would have it. ASW would definitely have it but I really don't want to go to San Jose unless if I really have to.

If you haven't yet, you might give Dolphinscuba in Sacramento a try, free shipping in the 48. And they have tons of stuff including bpw and some components. Frustrating, their site has been slow as sin for the last couple of weeks, like dial-up speeds. How did we survive?
 
I live in Palo Alto and work in San Jose. So the Peninsula and South Bay are good locations for me.

Any recommendations?


There are three local GUE instructors in the bay area. I am sure any of them would be willing to help you out.

Beto Nava
Robert Lee
Susan Bird

Their email addresses can be gleaned from this link: BAUE Members

All come with very strong recomendations.
 
If you haven't yet, you might give Dolphinscuba in Sacramento a try, free shipping in the 48. And they have tons of stuff including bpw and some components. Frustrating, their site has been slow as sin for the last couple of weeks, like dial-up speeds. How did we survive?
It was relatively speedy for me just now :) Checked out the site, no webbing suitable for a bp/w. I already have a set but was hoping to find a place to buy the webbing locally. I did find a shop in Berkeley that says they sell a selection of webbing, Narain's. Probably will head out there soon to pick up some.
 
augurs did you try steele's in oakland? pretty sure you can get webbing/slides/d-rings there. or just order it off DGE.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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