Long-hose in the time of COVID-19

[Jcp2]

It’s not the length of the hose. It’s how you use it.

 

[Storker]

It’s not the length of the hose. It’s how you use it.

That's what he said.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Also I’ve discovered that I need a 28” hose for my necklace regulator so I can turn my head to the left while breathing it without it pulling out of my mouth and I’m not THAT big of a guy.

That seems a little long. I'd first check the hose routing from the left post first stage. 1) is the hose in the best available port?, 2) is your regulator hose positioned above the wing hose coming from your right post?, 3) check the hose is not impeded by any other components and has free movement from 1st to 2nd stage.

 

[StefinSB]

US cave divers are taught to take the primary ? Divers revert to their training.

So you have gone through "US" cave dive training then? Whatever that means anyways.

As far as I know my training taught me to take to reg that is put in front of my face. As it happens the donor was trained to donate his/her primary.

 

[MichaelMc]

Of course this is very fast, and perhaps more safe for the receiver. What I am not sure is that this is also fully safe for the donor...
I have already read a couple of incident reports, in which, after donating the primary, the donor had problem with the alternate. Resulting in TWO divers in distress...

In sidemount, half the time I agree with you, half the time I don't.

 

[EireDiver606]

For my part, based on what I know about him from his posts, I would welcome the opportunity to dive with Angelo. I suspect we would have a thorough pre-dive discussion, we would both dive safely, and competently, and we would probably have some great discussions outside of the actual dive.

I would say the same for Storker, and for PfcAj, tbone1004, tursiops, and many others - people who are thinking about diving and whose commitment to enjoyable and SAFE diving is obvious from their posts. The specific gear configuration is of less importance than their mindset.

We can agree to disagree on certain issues, but the commonality of themes are more important.

Completely agree with this. I’ve become more accepting of others ideas and think mindset is more important than equipment configuration. I still dive with people who don’t use long hoses but I do prefer if they have a long hose. If they don’t have a great configuration (by my standards - BP/w and primary donate longhose) but have a good attitude above the surface, I’ll dive with them.

Even though I don’t agree with people like angelos and their ideas, I’d still dive with him to see how he does stuff and learn his way of thinking out of curiosity and for the bigger picture.

 

[StefinSB]

There is no need to undo a bolt snap if you rig the longhose like us sidemount divers.

There is no "us sidemount divers" unless "you guys" suddenly agreed on a global standard.

 

[leadduck]

As long as the situation starts with a diver being only low on gas and notices it in time, gas sharing can be done calm and easily with any method.
I see the advantage of the usual octopus setup for the majority of occasional vacation divers with little experience. Every group member knows that the guide and each of his groupmates has a yellow spare regulator that he can grab anytime without endangering his buddy, and where to find it. The equally inexperienced gas donor likes to have a spare reg that he can donate, without having to switch his/her main regulator in a sudden stressful situation. They like this setup.
If an experienced instructor tells you how a student once stole a regulator from his mouth and how that was no problem at all because he just switched to his backup, that doesn't mean much. Stealing an infrequent vacation diver's regulator won't end well no matter how easily a cave instructor can handle it.

 

[saxman242]

If an experienced instructor tells you how a student once stole a regulator from his mouth and how that was no problem at all because he just switched to his backup, that doesn't mean much. Stealing an infrequent vacation diver's regulator won't end well no matter how easily a cave instructor can handle it.

Isn't that the point though? If we acknowledge that in an actual ooa emergency (as compared to a freeflow or low air situation that allows for a more casual air sharing interaction) divers may go for the one place they know isn't going to kill them, rather than rely on cool heads prevailing, one could train to not be taken by surprise? Perhaps a method that addresses this issue, while being consistent with training further down the line, includes a regulator that one always knows if working, etc?

 

[KenGordon]

Isn't that the point though? If we acknowledge that in an actual ooa emergency (as compared to a freeflow or low air situation that allows for a more casual air sharing interaction) divers may go for the one place they know isn't going to kill them, rather than rely on cool heads prevailing, one could train to not be taken by surprise? Perhaps a method that addresses this issue, while being consistent with training further down the line, includes a regulator that one always knows if working, etc?

I recently got to see up close the effects of a near drowning. It was not at all pretty, involved ambulances, blue flashing lights, police, O2, mess, a good period of wondering if the victim was permanently damaged and so forth. And an incident report form. No fun at all.

It seems to me that trying to train people to have a regulator stolen will have results like that now and again. And when the police ask, as they did, exactly what happened and the drownee says ‘Ken came from behind me and took a working regulator from my mouth while I was inhaling.’ where do you think the conversation goes next?