5’ – 7” Long hose for a non-DIR configured diver OK?

[donooo]

I think that you have some pretty well rounded answerer's here, and I am sure your question has been answered, but I get pretty tired of the new rec diver asking the BC questions and being jumped on that the only answer is BP/wing and a 7' hose. Notice I didn't say long hose, some people are intent on selling 7' hoses.

I bungied my backup early, that made sense on a 36" hose. I have tried a 5' hose a few times, and it just doesn't make sense to me. I just took a solo diving course where no octo or long hose was used/needed/required and AIR II's were bad. In fact a 28" hose on your reg was right. I carried a pony with a 40" hose on it.

So I think that a lot has to do with your style of diving. I don't tend to dive with people that are going to run out of air and try and grab mine. I try and teach/remind people to check their air often, let me know when they are low, and we surface. If I needed to donate air I would do it like we teach it. Donate and grab on. I don't need 5' or 7' for that.

In fact I often wonder about the crowd that has all of these OOA emergency's and needs 7' hoses. Where they dive ? I understand caves and wrecks and tech and that stuff. But recreational divers?

I think that on any given day there are over 4000 divers on Cozumel, maybe 8,000 dives. Probably a lot of OOA emergency's. ( lots of bad and new divers ) and very few long hoses. ( I spent three winters there ) That being said, I have never been in an OOA emergency and my opinion might change after the first.

So, check your style of diving and your crowd. Maybe it makes sense. If the only reason that you need it is for your profile, you might rethink it.

adios don O

 

[Flightlead]

Do you have that on a leg board or a USAF approved flip chart?

heh heh....where ever my approach plates are. either leg board (stick) or yoke mounted chart holder

 

[wedivebc]

I have no issue with DIR folks using long hoses but should they be recommending this configuration to a typical recreational diver not trained in it deployment, use or routing configuration?

Do see many typical recreational divers, using NON-DIR gear use a long hose?

I am not now nor have I ever been DIR yet I have employed a 7ft regulator hose for several years.

 

[alexxred]

Any diver should know how to use their equipment. Does not matter if it is a longhose or a reabreather.

 

[Mr. Sunday]

I use both the 5' and the 7' depending on my rig. I am not, nor plan on going DIR

 

[Colliam7]

I have no issue with DIR folks using long hoses but should they be recommending this configuration to a typical recreational diver not trained in it deployment, use or routing configuration?

It is, as several have noted, really very simple. But, deployment of the long hose should be (regularly) practiced, as should lots of other basic skills used in recreational OW diving (but, which are generally not practiced, ever, after certification).

Do see many typical recreational divers, using NON-DIR gear use a long hose?

Very, very few.

 

[reefduffer]

Another take on this occurred to me:

Should Air2 gear manufacturers be "recommending this configuration to a typical recreational diver not trained in it deployment" ?

I'm not ignoring all the excellent advice above about being familiar with and training with your gear, whatever it is. Just pointing the original question at a slightly different target. I've seen Air2s on rental gear. Training was one sentence of explanation.

We can debate (and have, endlessly, and let's not do it again) which system is more complex to use. But I think that practically it would be hard to actually find yourself in the water with a long-hose/bungied backup without having had some extended explanation of its use and merits, even if not training per se. Vice finding yourself with an Air2, a short hose to donate, and only a vague idea of what to do with them.

 

[silverfish88]

It certainly isn't, but in my short time diving I've seen quite a few "improperly" rigged long-hoses, not in the "this isn't DIR so it's Wrong" sense but rather that the setup defeats some or all of the purpose of the long-hose.

I am just curious, what were the "improperly rigged long hoses." I don't want to make the same mistakes. Can you describe what was wrong with them? Thanks in advance.

 

[Scubakevdm]

I am just curious, what were the "improperly rigged long hoses." I don't want to make the same mistakes. Can you describe what was wrong with them? Thanks in advance.

I've seen a guy wrap it around his neck a couple of times. I would say that 65-70 percent of the long hoses I see are on non-DIR divers. I would say that 1 percent of these people (the guy that wrapped it around his neck) would have had trouble deploying it. Even he probably could have gotten the gas to another diver, but they would have looked pretty funny.

The original poster apparently feels that DIR divers are doing a disservice to other divers by recommending the 7' hose. As many have already pointed out, the 7' hose isn't a DIR exclusive piece of equipment any more than a low volume mask is.

I would contend that 65 or 70% of these recommendations are coming from non DIR divers anyway.

 

[Belmont]

Before the dive I inform my instabuddy that I will be donating the long hose. I don't want to see him coming to grab my non existent octo in the "triangle"