Long hose and octo with necklace for rec diving

[Insta-Gator]

You should also think hard about the length of your primary hose. The standard long hose is 210cm/7'. That length means that you should have a cannister or something else to stow the hose loop behind. I use a 150cm/5' long hose, which doesn't need stowing. And seriously, you don't need a 210cm long hose unless you need to swim single file while sharing gas. And if you need to swim single file, you're most probably in an overhead environment, where we rec divers have no business being.

Agreed. I now use the 5' primary (yellow hose & yellow reg) with a black octo on a necklace. I love it. No issues at all. I've always heard panicked divers will grab your primary rather than give the OOA signal and wait for you to donate your octo, so I may as well assume that is the procedure and configure my kit accordingly. I've been diving 29 years, so being at depth without a mask or a reg in my mouth does not trigger instant panic.

 

[Cowfish Aesthetic]

I'm going to throw this out there with the expectation of being flamed: my (rec) setup is a 7' primary and necklaced octo. Since I don't have a canister or weight belt, I use one of those $4 Trident hose clips to secure the primary hose to a hip D ring on my BC. I can deploy the primary to a buddy with it clipped, and in a real OOA scenario, would unclip it for the ascent or swimout.

 

[Diver0001]

I'm going to throw this out there with the expectation of being flamed: my (rec) setup is a 7' primary and necklaced octo. Since j don't have a canister or weight belt, I use one of those $4 Trident hose clips to secure the primary hose to a hip D ring on my BC. I can deploy the primary to a buddy with it clipped, and in a real OOA scenario, would unclip it for the ascent or swimout.

I don't want to flame you but I have a slightly different point of view. I believe in the Hogarthian principle that if you don't need it then you don't bring it.

Faced with the same challenge, my solution was to tuck the long hose into the waist strap. Therefore no extra gear or steps are necessary.

So.... two questions.

1) have you tried that?
and
2) if you have tried it and found that a hose clip does the job better then why?

Ultimately, in terms of safety I don't think you're running a big risk with the hose clip. Let me be clear about that. What I'm challenging you on in this post is "optimization".

R..

 

[Cowfish Aesthetic]

I don't want to flame you but I have a slightly different point of view. I believe in the Hogarthian principle that if you don't need it then you don't bring it.

Faced with the same challenge, my solution was to tuck the long hose into the waist strap. Therefore no extra gear or steps are necessary.

So.... two questions.

1) have you tried that?
and
2) if you have tried it and found that a hose clip does the job better then why?

Ultimately, in terms of safety I don't think you're running a big risk with the hose clip. Let me be clear about that. What I'm challenging you on in this post is "optimization".

R..

I haven't tried it. On my BC (Aqualung Dimension) it seems like it would be awkward because there isn't very much waist strap except in the front unless you tuck it behind the weights/pockets. But, I'm open to the idea and will play with it on my next dive.

 

[Marie13]

What to do with the extra is why I went with a 5ft hose. Wraps around my body with no extra length to deal with.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I keep my shears on my right hip. I route my seven foot hose under the sheath and it holds just fine.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

5ft hose is fine too, just doesn't go into the waist belt and still gives you room away from the other diver so you can be comfortable in an bad situation. If you want to keep your rig the same no matter what the dive then that's one thing (7ft for both). If you have a rec and a tech rig and they are slightly different but using the same principles, that's fine too (5ft for open water, 7ft for confined spaces where you may have to do single file). That's really the difference. 7ft hose with no light or something else to tuck it under, fine, just tuck it into the belt. Rather a 5ft hose, fine, just tuck under the arm. No swivels or other failure points needed.