What are YOUR hose lengths and why?

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To donate from either cylinder you have to route your 2nd stages directly to your mouth and not around your neck. Routing them around your neck will cause at least one of them to be trapped under the other one. It's really not necessary, though. Proper training prepares you to always donate the long hose reg regardless of whether you are breathing from it or not.
 
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I have taken a sidemount class. In that class I had a 7' hose on the right tank wrapped and what I think was a 40" hose on the left tank hose wrapped. I donated the long hose in drills about 100 times it seemed like during the course. First, I don't see the need for a 7' hose in open water which is where I am right now; therefore, the 5' hose. Although I've been trained to share the long hose wrapped, wouldn't it be even easier to be able to share either hose not wrapped? Overhead environment, I can understand the need for a 7' hose. Secondly, I guestion the need to wrap hoses. I can understand the concept of retaining muscle memory from back mount manifolded doubles to sidemount doubles but have no intention of diving backmount manifold doubles so don't really see that as an issue. It seems to me that a left handed reg on the left tank and a right handed reg on the right tank, not wrapped, would be easier to deal with..... where am I wrong? For the record. Still trying to decide which way to go on this.
 
Please disregard my last post. Just read through this entire thread and got the input I was looking for.
 
A trip report on how much tweaking the Hollis needs to use would be much appreciated. I am trying to figure out if the shop I am working through should stock them, or whether we should just help people home brew.
With about 20 +/- dives on the Hollis now, perhaps I can comment on what I like/don't like, and have tweaked.

- I like the donut wing. I dive the single bladder SMS100 (however, dive buddies with dual bladders just keep the 2nd inflator tucked under the right shoulder loop, and a 2nd 9" inflator hose on the right bottle 1st stage). I keep a 50lb. lift bag (and spreel) clipped off on the rear crotch strap d-ring, for buoyancy redundancy.
- The Hollis definitely runs a bit large (I'm 5'9", 34" waist, 185lbs. wide shoulders, narrow hips, and I'm in a SM/MD -- fits perfectly).
- The dual bungees (as opposed to single continuous that some like, across the back) are pretty serious, and I like having two. Clipped to the top back d-ring, and upper shoulder d-ring, they keep the tanks tucked in nice and tight. No changes there.
- I haven't yet switched the inflator to the bottom dump (jury's still out on that for me), however, as is, the bottom left dump (it's on the right bottom in the dual bladder) is very accessible. Haven't had *any* issues dumping, and I'm using the bottom dump *much* more often than with my single rig (getting used to more micro-buoyancy adjustments with a more negative profile with the dual steels). I'm sure with time, that'll minimize.
- All attach points are good and solid. I added two d-rings to either side of the waist strap. It came with the 2" tri-glides already mounted, but not the rings themselves. I can see using these with more floaty tanks, like AL80's, towards the end of the dive.
- The rig comes with nylon parachute cord for the backup valve snap-bolt connections. I added 1" webbing w/ 1" tri-glides around the tank necks, connected to the included snap-bolts with the parachute cord.
- The door handles on the butt plate are nice and wide. However, for me, they're a bit tough to reach when doing bottle detach/attach in-water. I'm going to add different handles with a 90 degree outward reach. As an alternative, I might end up cinching up the cam bands a bit, using the waist d-rings *all* the time, and using the door handles for accessory connection points. Another 'time will tell' decision.
- The shoulder webbing *is* softer than typical 2" webbing, however I haven't found it to create any issues at all. The sternum strap keeps the straps where they should be.
- I would have liked the backplate to have been just an inch wider (and would have mounted the Nomad weight pocket accessory). As is, I use two XSSCUBA weight pockets with 1-lb. trim weights attached to the rear shoulder straps. I've already got the cam bands as low as I can get get them for trim (I'm foot heavy).
- I like that you can run the bands through the backplate for single tank back-mounting without a STA. If you're traveling, you can easily switch configurations with no modifications (except to your reg setup).

Bottom line, minimal mods so far. I'm *very* pleased with the rig, and would buy it again.
 
With about 20 +/- dives on the Hollis now, perhaps I can comment on what I like/don't like, and have tweaked.


***Great information***

Bottom line, minimal mods so far. I'm *very* pleased with the rig, and would buy it again.

Thanks for taking the time to write that all out.

Two follow up questions:

Have you dove it Back mount? I really need a rig that works transparently between them. I am fighting with the Transpac which works well when actually setup for either, but needs setup time to switch between them, at least for me. (I have another BC which does work for both, but it is not actually designed for it, and will die soon enough.)

What it the SMS 100 method for trapping the wings so they do not float away from you? Still have not seen one in person.
 
why are you fighting the transpac for backmount? The hollis works no better for backmount than the transpac does, it's the same concept. The transpac has the stabilizer plates, which you NEED to dive doubles properly, it's the only thing that will keep them from flopping around on your back.
Hollis traps the wing the same way the nomad does, with the flat slides thru the webbing and bungees. I don't like the 360 wing on it because it tends to lift the BC off of your butt which is really awkward feeling.
 
Thanks for taking the time to write that all out.

Two follow up questions:

Have you dove it Back mount? I really need a rig that works transparently between them. I am fighting with the Transpac which works well when actually setup for either, but needs setup time to switch between them, at least for me. (I have another BC which does work for both, but it is not actually designed for it, and will die soon enough.)

What it the SMS 100 method for trapping the wings so they do not float away from you? Still have not seen one in person.
No, haven't dove it back mount, yet, however, since I plan on taking it on a few remote trips, I'll be testing that this spring. Of course, it only accommodates a single tank in back mount, however, the transition is almost too simple: the included cam bands slide through pre-slotted positions on the rig. The only thing you'd have to remember for your kit is a longer inflator hose for the single tank configuration.

I wasn't sure what you meant by the wing "floating away." If you were concerned about the wing taco-ing, it is secured with a zig-zag bungie configuration on the front facing aspect of the wing. If you literally meant detaching itself while diving side mount configuration, it's attached directly to the harness both with webbing, and trapped by the rear soft plate (which has the door handles and multiple d-ring attach points). The soft plate is attached to the harness directly by webbing, and two included sex bolts.

I don't agree at all with saxplayer, above, about the 360 wing creating too much lift in the butt. First of all, most divers I've seen in this config are actually foot heavy (including myself), and if anything, they use shoulder, or tank valve, mounted weighting to get *more* lift in the butt. Secondly, once you've been diving this for a while, you begin to get a feel for 'parking air' anywhere in the wing, on demand. The 360 wing, IMHO, gives you greater flexibility in being able to move that air bubble around. Additionally, the bottom of the wing is further secured by the crotch strap, which wraps from the front waistband under you, and *over* the bottom of the wing, to an attach point on the soft backplate.

Again, everyone has their own best ideas for fit and function, which is why most side-mounters do very basic to extensive mods, as I will, over time. However, as a beginner side-mount diver, I was exceptionally pleased with the thought and design of the SMS100. And other than a *big* screw up on one of my air drills, during my SM class (which we won't talk about here...), it's been an awesome experience...
 
why are you fighting the transpac for backmount? The hollis works no better for backmount than the transpac does, it's the same concept. The transpac has the stabilizer plates, which you NEED to dive doubles properly, it's the only thing that will keep them from flopping around on your back.
Hollis traps the wing the same way the nomad does, with the flat slides thru the webbing and bungees. I don't like the 360 wing on it because it tends to lift the BC off of your butt which is really awkward feeling.

I probably will never back mount doubles again, so that's not really a factor. For me that is the point of sidemount: eliminating the need to have to bolt tanks to my harness and to have tanks stuck in doubles sets where I cannot use them one by one. Although it does not take 'much' time to screw the doubles to the Transpac, that is the sort of time I am trying to eliminate, and I do not have to dedicate tanks to doubles only.

Ideally I want a rig that allows me to side mount, and then when someone at the beach says they need me for a dive I just put a tank in back and go with out any time for setup, or futzing. I have basically worked out how to make it so the left reg can be moved in an instant from sidemount to single back mount with just a din adaptor. I have to use their yoke tanks for the backmount. (I am considering switching my left reg back to yoke to eliminate the need for the adaptor, but I don't like not being able to swap first stages from left to right, underwater since I have actually need to do that a few times.

The Transpac takes time (not much time, but it is not immediate) to switch to backmount. It's not a fight to use it either way, but it is a little bit of a fight to switch between setups, at least the way I have it setup.
 
No, haven't dove it back mount, yet, however, since I plan on taking it on a few remote trips, I'll be testing that this spring. Of course, it only accommodates a single tank in back mount, however, the transition is almost too simple: the included cam bands slide through pre-slotted positions on the rig. The only thing you'd have to remember for your kit is a longer inflator hose for the single tank configuration.


I wasn't sure what you meant by the wing "floating away." If you were concerned about the wing taco-ing, it is secured with a zig-zag bungie configuration on the front facing aspect of the wing. If you literally meant detaching itself while diving side mount configuration, it's attached directly to the harness both with webbing, and trapped by the rear soft plate (which has the door handles and multiple d-ring attach points). The soft plate is attached to the harness directly by webbing, and two included sex bolts.

I am using converted regular gear (Transpac and wings), and (BCD with a sewn on wing), and the one with the sewn on wing stays put better. It's just the way it feels, more than any specific problem. Even with the front bungies the wing just 'feels' loose compared to the sewn together rig. I have been tempted to sandwich a wing between two back plates to lock it in place better but I like soft harness instead of webbing and plates so I have never really liked BP/W styles. Tshirt and rash guards are all I tend to wear underneath
 
hard plates don't work particularly well for sidemount, so don't do that. If you are only diving singles some of the time, just buy a cheaper regulator set and call it good. The transpac switches to singles real quick by using your sidemount cam bands, unthreading them and threading them thru the transpac, takes 3 minutes. For the regulators it's only a few minutes with an adjustable wrench, so it's not that bad.
 

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