Why not two 7ft hoses when sidemount diving

[The Chairman]

I also use two five foot hoses, but I don't clip them off: I use a bungee that can hold both regs about 3 inches apart. The reg pulls easily enough out of the bungee when you want it. Hoses never go around my neck either. I use bungees on the tanks to tame the hoses.

 

[rddvet]

5footers are fine in ow but I believe anything shorter than 7 foot should be a no go in overhead mixed team diving.

 

[The Chairman]

5footers are fine in ow but I believe anything shorter than 7 foot should be a no go in overhead mixed team diving.

No need to dive with me. My buddies don't have an issue with it.

 

[lermontov]

I have them clipped off on their respective sides, straight up from the tanks and hose retainers. My shoulder d rings are quite high so I can breathe them even if they are clipped so if I donate from the mouth and flub the unclip I can still get gas till I get myself organised.

ok that seems clean enough moved my d ring up higher for the same reason- ive been pondering changing my short necklace hose for longer one for some time for an OAO situation when Im diving with someone who's is just on a single -did a cave course recently and I got the OAO signal when I was on my short hose - went to donate the short hose (in my mouth) and realised those extra couple of seconds could be the difference between ok and panic for a stressed diver

 

[rddvet]

No need to dive with me. My buddies don't have an issue with it.

No need to get snippy I didnt ask to dive with you. I've had this discussion with 3 separate cave instructors. The general concensus is a 5 foot hose is a "selfish" length. Early on my wife dove a 5 footer in ow and when we moved to cave she considered it. Our initial instructor was the one that called it a selfish length and made us try some air share scenarios with both 5 and 7 foot. The issue is once you throw in some minor restrictions or a dpv the air sharing becomes less comfortable for the person receiving a 5 foot hose. More fins in the face when touch contact air sharing and depending on how you choose to share air on a scooter it can make keeping the reg in your mouth uncomfortable. I've discussed t with other cave instructors just for fun since I was already convinced and they agreed. I'm sure theres others that agree with a 5 footer being ok.
At the end of the day if you're only diving with other sm divers in the overhead who cares. Once you throw in a backmount diver the odds of an air share go up, though a rare occurrence. So sure its probably not likely to ever be an issue, but I'd rather be prepared if it does.
Your buddies may not care because they've never air shared on a dpv or via touch contact on a 5 ft hose or they may be very experienced and not worried. Personally my configuration keeps my buddy's safety and comfort in mind as much as my own. I think a great test would be for you to exit cow air sharing on a 5 footer with a buddy. Then do it on a 7 footer and tell me how you feel.

 

[The Chairman]

No need to get snippy

There's nothing snippy in my response. I have found it to be fine donating to a backmounted twinset even through tight restrictions. If you don't feel comfortable with it, don't dive with me. It's not a universal tenet for many of us.

 

[rddvet]

There's nothing snippy in my response. I have found it to be fine donating to a backmounted twinset even through tight restrictions. If you don't feel comfortable with it, don't dive with me. It's not a universal tenet for many of us.

It comes off snippy, but I apologize if that's not how it was meant. Sure, it's not universal, but experience tells me it's not ideal for my buddy.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

No need to get snippy I didnt ask to dive with you. I've had this discussion with 3 separate cave instructors. The general concensus is a 5 foot hose is a "selfish" length. Early on my wife dove a 5 footer in ow and when we moved to cave she considered it. Our initial instructor was the one that called it a selfish length and made us try some air share scenarios with both 5 and 7 foot. The issue is once you throw in some minor restrictions or a dpv the air sharing becomes less comfortable for the person receiving a 5 foot hose. More fins in the face when touch contact air sharing and depending on how you choose to share air on a scooter it can make keeping the reg in your mouth uncomfortable. I've discussed t with other cave instructors just for fun since I was already convinced and they agreed. I'm sure theres others that agree with a 5 footer being ok.
At the end of the day if you're only diving with other sm divers in the overhead who cares. Once you throw in a backmount diver the odds of an air share go up, though a rare occurrence. So sure its probably not likely to ever be an issue, but I'd rather be prepared if it does.
Your buddies may not care because they've never air shared on a dpv or via touch contact on a 5 ft hose or they may be very experienced and not worried. Personally my configuration keeps my buddy's safety and comfort in mind as much as my own. I think a great test would be for you to exit cow air sharing on a 5 footer with a buddy. Then do it on a 7 footer and tell me how you feel.

100% agree. I was trained on sidemount and as cave diver a 7" hose is what I dive. I don't see any value in a 5" hose in sidemount and a cave environment.

 

[RainPilot]

went to donate the short hose (in my mouth) and realised those extra couple of seconds could be the difference between ok and panic for a stressed diver

Exactly my experience. I’m a big proponent of mouth donate for that reason. My muscle memory is very strong with OOG drills and I always reach for the mouth first no matter how I try to remember which reg is which.

I also hate futzing around with breakaway clips and such so I configure for mouth donate whether that is on a manifold or 2 long hoses clipped off

 

[rddvet]

With time it gets easy to know which one's in your mouth in order know where to go to donate. My wife and I pulled OOG drills on each other randomly for months to build the memory. I'm also very conscious during a switch which to go to. I'm sure that donate always from your mouth is a fraction of a second longer than having a necklaced reg, but I think that a conscientious diver shouldn't have any issue at all. As for the breakaway, a snap bolt on a 4 inch zip tie is easy. In the US a 4 inch zip tie is pretty standardized as far as thickness and strength. Even under stress it breaks with minimal effort. The one negative is that it sometimes breaks too easily when unintended, but not often.
My experience with divers with 2 long hoses is that the few I've been around were taught to wrap the hoses behind their neck. It's very easy to get the hoses wrapped wrong so that one constricts the ability to unwrap the other in the donate. If you're not wrapping both then that's a little different.