HT, I have never thought that there was a problem with people with different hose lengths diving with each other. Up until now I've had short hoses, yet I've been diving uncountable times with divers with long hoses. Some of them have been full DIR divers, others have just been people who've adopted the long-hose configuration because it made sense to them.
To me, the key seems to be simply ensuring that you do a proper pre-dive buddy check. I know that if I'm diving with someone with the long-hose bungied-octo config, they're going to donate their primary to me and breathe off their octo. And they know that I'm going to donate my octo to them, because it's on a longer hose than my primary.
My husband, on the other hand, has (well, had!) an Air2 so, even though he didn't have the long-hose config, he would donate his primary and breathe off the reg on his inflator hose.
Point being, I don't think there is anything INHERENTLY wrong with DIR and non-DIR (short-hosed) people diving together -- as long as they know what each person has, and what to do in an OOA situation. That's what buddy checks are for.
I also don't think that Ross-O was saying that long hose/short hose doesn't work well together. I think he was just pointing out that a diver trained in GUE practices, but diving with someone who is NOT, needs to remember that their buddy is not necessary going to do what we learned in class. I think that's good advice - especially for someone fresh outa class who has just been through four intense days of hammering those skills and practices into place.
I think your post only serves to perpetuate the "Us vs Them" thing, which the DIR community seems to be working pretty hard to end. It really doesn't have to be that way. It's NOT a religion, it's not a cult. It's just a style of diving.
