Why breathe from a long hose?

[mikemill]

I have the week of Thanksgiving, the week of Christmas and the week following off

 

[kathydee]

Add up your total assets. Divide by divorce lawyer. Hock everything left except the dive gear. Divide by the length of time before they give you up for lost. subtract one day before they declare you dead.

There's your quota. Theres a reason why I'm the Nomad.

That works !

Then you can easily extend indeffinately if you spend a month in Utilia or Thailand where it's cheap to pick up a rec instructors license.

Of course cash for things like insurance or new dive gear is kinda tight and you get use to 8 legged critters in your cold water shower bamboo bungalow - but you get to/have to dive 3 times a day for many years in warm water paradise .

Lots 'o people do it.

 

[Peter_C]

I have the week of Thanksgiving, the week of Christmas and the week following off

I have always taken lots of time off over Christmas and traveled outside the country. Not so sure that is going to happen this year. Most of my friends can not afford to go, or travel with their spouses. Oh well I will just have to plan out the Galapagos trip for the future.

 

[Divenomad]

Yah, I learned that trick climbing and wandering the backcountry. Turns out it works for lots of stuff.

 

[micboucher]

That works !

Then you can easily extend indeffinately if you spend a month in Utilia or Thailand where it's cheap to pick up a rec instructors license.

Of course cash for things like insurance or new dive gear is kinda tight and you get use to 8 legged critters in your cold water shower bamboo bungalow - but you get to/have to dive 3 times a day for many years in warm water paradise .

Lots 'o people do it.

Yup, as soon as I know my kids are self sufficient I might just do that.

 

[LavaSurfer]

There are three basic phases to an OOA.

In the first phase the OOA diver gets a reg. In the training world, the OOA divers swims up, gives an OOA sign and waits for you to hand them the octo.

I have had 3 real world OOA situations where I have donated gas. The first two were to divers who found me before their buddies and the third was a diver in our group with a freeze flow. In the first two situaions they went straight for my primary with no warning, so signaling, etc. When an OOA diver wants air they tend to want it right now.

In my opinon you just as well train to donate your primary as 2 out of 3 times, they are gonna take your primary anyway.

On to the next step. Once the near panicked diver has your short hosed (36"-40") octo, the short hose it is bent 180 degrees around to face the OOA diver and it is more or less on the verge of pulling itself out of the OOA divers mouth. It requires one of the OOA diver's hands to hold it in and it still won't feel secure in the real world once you are no longer just kneeling on the bottomThis does not help alleviate the incipent panic.

Finally, during the third phase you have to get to the surface. With a short hose, your only option is basically a straight ascent to the surface. You'd have to be very coordinated to swim back to the ascent line, so potentially, you may ascend immedaitely in perhaps the middle fo the shipping channel or perhaps just drift away from the boat for the 30-45 minutes left before the other divers are back aboard and they are able to come get you. You can get real small after 30-45 minutes drifting downcurrent from the boat.

With a long hose, it is a lot different.

You are trained to donate the long hose, and the backup is easy to find bungeed under your neck. With 7' of hose, the buddy can free up both hands and he will not feel like the reg is about to be pulled loose and it tends to reduce any panic. Plus you have the option of swimming normally side by side to the ascent line / out of the shipping channel, greatly expanding your options.

In the event the OOA diver panics and bolts to the surface, you really aren't going to get drug up with him. Worst case, he gets 7 ft above you, then you jerk the primary and it comes right out of his mouth. Best case, you still have a full range of options to dump his bc, control his ascent, etc. You also have enough hose to move around behind him, straddle his tank and then control his ascent regardless of the panic level. Try that with a short hose octo.

The ability to swim als gives you soem preventive options. Say you are in the middle of the dive and your buddy suddenly shows up with 300 psi while you still have 1500. You can donate your long hose, share gas ont eh swim back to the ascent line, on ascent and on the safety stop, then send him up to the boat from the safety stop on his own backgas for a normal ascent and exit.

DIR or not is not the issue, the important thing is that there is no downside to a long hose and it works better than a short hose octo in any scenario you would encounter, even in recreational diving.

Brilliant post. What more can be said?
I have been laughed at for my long hose but I bet there are many who would prefer it over a short hose when the time is right.

 

[fobturbo]

I've actually hit my vacation accrual limit but won't be able to take any time off until the Christmas holidays...guess it's gonna be weekend coldwater shore diving in Monterey for me for a while...(not that I'm complaining about the last part)

 

[pacificgal]

You and me both. I keep whining that I want a 3 day Mexican vacation, but I have no one to take it with even if I could take it.

 

[Peter_C]

You and me both. I keep whining that I want a 3 day Mexican vacation, but I have no one to take it with even if I could take it.

That is where I am at too. Most of my friends are broke or married and travel with their spouses. Sometimes being single sucks Then again I get to dive more local and do whatever I want

 

[pacificgal]

Yeah, in the middle of a divorce here. At least it's amicable. But being single after 17-18 years, this is going to take some getting used to!
At least I can spend my weekends diving, but a warm water couple dives would be just perfect about now.