Josh the diver
Contributor
What are peoples thoughts on diving with two long hose in sidemount?
sidemount diving with two long hoses
- Thread starter Josh the diver
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Why do you want two long hoses?
OP
Josh the diver
Contributor
Rob Neto has a great SM book. A second edition is coming out shortly. It’s double the size of the first edition, which was very helpful for me. If you’re serious about SM, highly recommend you pick it up.
OP
Josh the diver
Contributor
There’s still a few people that teach it as such. Vast majority of active instructors that are cave and technical diving in sidemount teach 1 long and 1 short hose. There’s a few hundred threads on SB and CDF discussing it.
halocline
Contributor
One of the big benefits of donating the reg you're breathing on is that the receiver knows it's working because you-the donor- were just using it. In side mount, you are constantly switching regs so the disadvantage of donating a possibly non-working reg is more or less eliminated. Even if you're not using the long hose at the moment an out of air diver needs it, you were using it 10 minutes ago so chances are it's working fine.
Having 2 long hoses raises some problems, one is that it's customary to have one regulator on a bungee necklace, for several reasons, but the main one is it is always immediately accessible, even with no hands if you practice. That would be gone with 2 long hoses.
Mike1967
Contributor
There's also an argument for two short hoses, I stuck with a long and a short.
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It can be done but it's not really necessary. Gas management is going to be more of an issue depending on how you were trained to do the switches. With one long hose on the right, it's fairly simple to remember to keep the larger reserve in that cylinder. This accounts for the increased usage an OOA diver may have based on an accelerated breathing rate. There is also the question of hose management. Add a bottom deco cylinder and it gets more interesting. Top mount the stage or deco bottle? Eases the issue a little bit. With a short hose on the left side that comes around the neck and has a bungee necklace, the configuration is clean and tidy. No fussing with another long hose. Also, if you are taking the hose around the neck and not using a left handed second stage, it is going to be under the right side hose when you try to donate it. How's that going to complicate things?
Sidemount is hugely personal and what works for you. However, how often do you feel like explaining your set up to new buddies? Also, what about your S drill? Two hoses to donate means you should be doing the S drill with both of them. If nothing else, in order to build muscle memory and see how donating and re-stowing the hoses works. That's going to add time to the drill.
Sidemount is hugely personal and what works for you. However, how often do you feel like explaining your set up to new buddies? Also, what about your S drill? Two hoses to donate means you should be doing the S drill with both of them. If nothing else, in order to build muscle memory and see how donating and re-stowing the hoses works. That's going to add time to the drill.
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