In a 'recreational diving open water' situation, some of us with our own kit (and therefore our own say on how it's configured) have:
1. Hog loops,
2. Octopus on a very long hose, or
3. Octopus routed under the right arm (almost standard practice for us PADI divers).
On the subject of the long hoses (hog or loooong occy hose): To me this seems to have way more risk than benefit in recreational OW. Here's why ...
If an OOA diver takes the long hose (whether that's primary or octopus) then to me this adds a serious risk. An OOA diver will usually be a tad stressed at the very least. He may just want to be on the surface as quickly as possible, regardless of training (it happens!).
So to put that another way: someone holding onto you by a 7' hose is now ascending at an unsafe speed and trying to drag you with him :shocked2: ! I can't think of a worse situation for the donor - you can't reach him to purge his bcd / calm him down / get control of the situation, all you can do is dump air and try to slow him down (hoping he doesn't rip your hose off in the process)!
I know there's an argument that a long hose gives people room to move etc..., but I route my occy from the left, over the top of my shoulder flush with my chest down the side of my LP hose with the 2nd stage attached to my bcd waistbelt (photo's to follow). I don't need to faff about moving my arm to donate it and it's the right way up for the OOA diver, giving them the full (standard) length of the hose. The OOA diver just pulls it and sticks in in their mouth. If I need it for some reason I just do the same with a little twist. The twist doesn't matter to me since the hose is coming from just behind my head and just sits in an 'C' shape on my chest. It's very easy for me to use (actually it's so comfortable that I'm considering just using it and tucking the primary away for me to switch to in case of an OOA situation).
(... and that's my argument against routing the occy under the right arm! )
Additionally, routed like this the OOA diver and I have lots of room when facing each other and the OOA diver can very comfortably parallel swim on my left (giving them unobstructed access to their LP hose, and me reachable access to their right shoulder dump if need be). I know this, because I've done it. Very stress free, I remain in control of us, we both have lots of room and I can easily reach the OOA diver if need be.
What do you think? If you're diving one of those configurations - what's your reasoning?
As always, I am open to being wrong here, but I really wanted to open the discussion up (especially about long hoses - r/h occy's have perhaps been discussed aplenty).
1. Hog loops,
2. Octopus on a very long hose, or
3. Octopus routed under the right arm (almost standard practice for us PADI divers).
On the subject of the long hoses (hog or loooong occy hose): To me this seems to have way more risk than benefit in recreational OW. Here's why ...
If an OOA diver takes the long hose (whether that's primary or octopus) then to me this adds a serious risk. An OOA diver will usually be a tad stressed at the very least. He may just want to be on the surface as quickly as possible, regardless of training (it happens!).
So to put that another way: someone holding onto you by a 7' hose is now ascending at an unsafe speed and trying to drag you with him :shocked2: ! I can't think of a worse situation for the donor - you can't reach him to purge his bcd / calm him down / get control of the situation, all you can do is dump air and try to slow him down (hoping he doesn't rip your hose off in the process)!
I know there's an argument that a long hose gives people room to move etc..., but I route my occy from the left, over the top of my shoulder flush with my chest down the side of my LP hose with the 2nd stage attached to my bcd waistbelt (photo's to follow). I don't need to faff about moving my arm to donate it and it's the right way up for the OOA diver, giving them the full (standard) length of the hose. The OOA diver just pulls it and sticks in in their mouth. If I need it for some reason I just do the same with a little twist. The twist doesn't matter to me since the hose is coming from just behind my head and just sits in an 'C' shape on my chest. It's very easy for me to use (actually it's so comfortable that I'm considering just using it and tucking the primary away for me to switch to in case of an OOA situation).
(... and that's my argument against routing the occy under the right arm! )
Additionally, routed like this the OOA diver and I have lots of room when facing each other and the OOA diver can very comfortably parallel swim on my left (giving them unobstructed access to their LP hose, and me reachable access to their right shoulder dump if need be). I know this, because I've done it. Very stress free, I remain in control of us, we both have lots of room and I can easily reach the OOA diver if need be.
What do you think? If you're diving one of those configurations - what's your reasoning?
As always, I am open to being wrong here, but I really wanted to open the discussion up (especially about long hoses - r/h occy's have perhaps been discussed aplenty).