BSAC haven't banned hog looping. They have just banned teaching hog loop/primary donate in general. Half of my BSAC club hog loops when they're on twins. I hog loop all the time (twins or single). I have yet to confuse anyone with my rig, even trainees on their first open water dives.
Well, it's been a while. They found something about it disconcerting enough to make some sort of directive regarding it. Again, I'm not defending the rationale - just saying there was something there.
As for not confusing. I respectfully disagree. Take a new diver, extremely task loaded and trying to remember and manage many skills and suggest two completely different systems of donating regs. Something I would not do. Again, not looking at it from my perspective (I get it) but from the new divers perspective. Substitute rusty/occasional vacation diver and I feel the same. I would say most posters here don't fall into that category so it's easy to forget how overwhelmed new divers can get by what we consider run of the mill.
The biggest hurdle in using a longhose is not the configuration itself as much as getting used to removing the primary reg from your mouth in times of stress. Without familiarity and comfort in this skill the longhose becomes potentially dangerous because the donator becomes instinctively protective and will balk at giving it away. You have to train past that instinct. Insta buddies don't usually do training dives before doing operational dives. What they know, is based on what they were taught, which rarely is primary donate.
What about hose trapping? Do we explain that to the other diver or not because they are not wearing the rig. But then, aren't we encouraging poor behavior by allowing people to dive with people with systems they don't understand. One dir tenent being, everybody is on the same page.
So, we could say that doesn't matter because you are donating and the taker doesn't care where the reg comes from but there are also times when the taker needs to just locate and take the reg - hence why mainstream agencies teach the triangle and dir divers practice low/no vis donation. Any mainstream diver, properly trained, should be able to access any similarly configured divers reg without communicating with that diver... but not a hog rig. The diver will instinctively go for the bungee'd B/U unless that response is drilled/trained out of them.
New divers also don't complain about things they are uncomfortable with because they are already so uncomfortable. Where would they start. They just nod and say fine and do "trust me" dives.
...downline
---------- Post added April 10th, 2014 at 06:42 PM ----------
Sure, I hand my DPV off to non-BPW wearing buddies all the time because it's a stupidly fun tool/toy. But never have I seen one of them handle it at full throttle without worrying about how it moved their
around.
Good post but I think this all began when J said being configured dir meant something special when a new diver started scootering. I think we can all agree that you probably don't hand off a high power DPV and tell the new guy to gun it on dive 1. In that regard, most divers can handle the initial introduction without having a BP/W.
Found it:
The “standardization” begins with the Back Plate/Wing, continuous harness and 5 D-rings (L Shoulder/R Shoulder, L hip, 2 on the crotch strap), paddle fins, long hose and necklace reg on a down-stream regulator (don’t think I forgot anything). Everything else is added for the particular dive and when added put at a standard location for reasons of functionality. And if you decide to add a scooter or maybe a stage/deco bottle you don’t have to immediately alter your configuration, you muscle memory is already set. You don’t have to “re-learn” everything every time you add a new piece of gear.
How your muscle memory can already be set if you've never used a scooter is beyond me unless what he meant is your muscle memory of everything else. Which brings up the other point I dislike; having to configure yourself in such a way as to be able to eventually do things you may never, or rarely, do. A lot of the dir kit is based on canlights, stages and scooters - something most rec level divers do not use.
For the record, you cannot get further from DIR than me.
