Suicide strap for recreational diver

[stuartv]

Regardless of the probability of someone grabbing it (although apparently this has happened to you several times)

Not sure where you got that from. It has never happened to me. I haven't seen a plethora of reports of people grabbing someone's bungeed alternate, either. Those contribute to my feeling of relative unconcern about the prospect.

Also contributing is that I bungee mine as close to my neck as I can without it getting in the way or being uncomfortable. Partly to make it possible to catch it in my mouth without my hands if I have to and partly to keep it as tucked in as possible, to make it a less opportune target for a grab. That reg is on a 22" hose. It's not for anyone else.

Notwithstanding all that, you make some good points and it is rolling around in my head to go back to the other style of bungee necklace.

 

[Kohanbash]

Wow! The harshness of some of the responses!

I took the OP as not really knowing much about the subject and so (I think) somewhat confusing the concept of a gag strap (which is how I interpreted "suicide strap") and a bungee necklace.

To be clear, a gag strap is used by some CCR divers to hold their "mouthpiece" in their mouth, even if they, for example, pass out. It goes around the back of the head and is pulled tight enough to keep the mouthpiece in and maintain a seal even with an unconscious diver's mouth.

That is somewhat different than a bungee necklace that holds one of your 2nd stage regulators just below your chin/throat.

Thanks. Yes I did not realize that gag strap and and bungee necklace were separate items.

When I heard about the bungee necklace it sounded like a great idea. I asked the question here since I (thought) I heard people calling it a suicide strap, and did not know why the configuration would have that name and be that bad.

 

[Kohanbash]

The ideal arrangement will be that the length of the bungee necklace is just right so that you could get your alternate into your mouth without using your hands if you really needed to

How do you do that?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Have the necklace adjusted to the proper length, dip your head, grab the reg with your mouth.
On another note, the gag strap is a new one on me as far as diving is concerned.
Although I think I heard the term used during a rather raucous discussion on certain sexual preferences years ago.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Lean your head forward, pointing your chin at your chest. The backup reg should be within reach of your mouth.

Incorrect. Bungee is too long to grab the reg with your mouth.

Much better.

 

[halocline]

I think the term 'suicide strap' may have been associated with an old strap/snap device to leash the primary 2nd stage to the diver's face. I have a vague memory of some old US divers 2nds that were configured in that way.

I've never heard it applied to the bungeed alternate, which I'm fairly confident was originated, or at least first popularized, by William Hogarth Main's teaching. Then the DIR guys adopted it, as they did many of the hogarthian ideas.

Regardless, it's a great set up for OW, although you certainly don't need a 7ft hose.

 

[Bob DBF]

I took the OP as not really knowing much about the subject and so (I think) somewhat confusing the concept of a gag strap (which is how I interpreted "suicide strap") and a bungee necklace

I have heard the term suicide strap long ago when a gag strap came on double and single hose rigs. The gag strap was affectionately given the name because it impeded ditching the rig in an emergency. Without the BC, one may not have had enough weight, if any, on the belt to drop and acquire positive buoyancy, hence the name.


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

 

[claymore]

I use a bungee on the short hose secondaries on all my reg setups. If I am DMing I use the short hose reg with bungee as my primary, thank you PADI, and clip off the secondary. If I am doing a recreational dive I use the reg on the long hose, 40" or 60" as my primary and the reg on the bungee as the secondary tec style. One advantage of having one of your regs on a bungee is "If in the UNLIKLY event" that your reg gets removed from your mouth accidentally one of them is probably still hanging on the bungee under your chin and makes retrieving it easier.

 

[tbone1004]

I use a bungee on the short hose secondaries on all my reg setups. If I am DMing I use the short hose reg with bungee as my primary, thank you PADI, and clip off the secondary. If I am doing a recreational dive I use the reg on the long hose, 40" or 60" as my primary and the reg on the bungee as the secondary tec style. One advantage of having one of your regs on a bungee is "If in the UNLIKLY event" that your reg gets removed from your mouth accidentally one of them is probably still hanging on the bungee under your chin and makes retrieving it easier.

PADI does not require that regulator setup, though the dive ops may

 

[gbf]

popularized, by William Hogarth Main's teaching
.

well, I have to tell you bill wasn't all about "teaching" though he was always willing to help - it was more of a case of "this is what we have, how can we make it work." None of us had any money and we were all thrashing about, working with what we had. The first "bungeed backups" that I remember were actually done with surgical tubing, which quickly turned into a mass of glop and resulted in the search for something better, i.e. bungee. . I clearly remember sitting around at Devils eye, before there was even a parking lot, discussing whether breathing the 5 ft hose (this was before 7 ft ft hoses were even a gleam in our eyes) was a bad thing because of the increased resistance to air flow caused by the extra lengrh (!!), and maybe we shouldn't be breathing them as primary.

We stuffed the long hose. We wrapped the long hose. We committed all sort of unnatural acts. But we had a lot of fun and bill was at the forefront.

Bill was a gentle teacher. He'd walk up and ask if he could look at your gear. Then he'd say "have you ever thought about doing X?' And after thinking about it for a bit you'd go "damn he's right".

he was (and I guess still is though I havent' seen him since I gave it up) a great guy always willing to help, even "strokes" like us.

and we called him "Hogarth" because it aggravated the crap out of him.