Hey Guys,
Sounds like you had a wonderful dive day Salty, just the kind of day that makes it all worthwhile. Your real time evaluation of the hose length will help me greatly. My thinking this entire time was having the ability to cut out a hose from my setup, thinking just how often would there actually be an OOA emergency or 2nd stage equipment failure where I would need to utilize my backup regulator.
Of course my own thinking is sometimes my worst enemy. Then I thought (after of course I had bought the BCD with the AIR2) if there is an emergency situation, would the AIR2 work. I could see myself trying to share my 1st stage with a possibly panicked diver, trying to keep a short hose regulator in my mouth, being able to deflate my BCD on accent and be able to survey the entire area around me to insure our safe accent while being basically tied on a short leash to my BCD.
I think you are right on the shorter hose. The last thing I think I would want to add to the above senerio would be an AIR2 with a longer hose that in some way had gotten entangled or kinked. I will check iwth my LDS on the 24 myflex hose and adapter.
After all of your all's imput and more research of my own I think it boils down to one major factor.
KNOW your equipmet inside and out and practice, practice, practice, situations where the equipment would come into play. Cutting a hose out of the setup doesn't do me any good if it keeps me from accomplishing an efficient OOA transfer.
I will let you guys know what I end up with in a couple of days. The BCD and AIR2 are being serviced right now so when I pick it up a will get hoses then as well.
Hey scared, the BCD was a gift my wife bought off of ebay, so the odds of getting the hose from them is probably slim but I will attempt to contact the seller all the same.
Thx all for the time and patience of nubie stupidity