9 Foot Hose for Extra Tall Diver?

[ScubaTerp]

Hi all.

I'm curious as to what the DIR folks feel about a tall diver using a 9' hose instead of a 7' one. I'm 6'9" and currently when I use my 7' hose it ends up going underneath my armpit instead of around my belt where a canister light would be. I understand that the logic behind avoiding a longer hose is entanglement concerns, but what choice do you make if the extra length is needed to properly route it?

 

[JeffG]

What do think the answer is?

 

[ScubaTerp]

I imagine the answer is "do what's safest and works best for you," but I wanted to see if anyone had any experience on the matter.

 

[rjack321]

Normal height people route 5ft and sometimes 6ft hoses as you route a 7ft.

The length of the hose is more important to your buddy and your touch contact (or not) than it is to you and the particulars of your routing choices (assuming its deployable).

Use a 7ft hose to avoid having big loops of it waving around during an OOA.

 

[fisheater]

The more interesting question is "should your buddy have a 9' foot hose?"

If you are OOA and need to swim single file in front of your buddy, a 7' hose won't cut it.

 

[lowridersvt]

I now how you feel at 6.5ft the 7 ft hose is just about too short for me so for you it must be short.

couple things that i found that helped me out was usaing a piston reg gave me a little more length ie mk25/atomic. Better house routing gives you about 3-4 more inches over apeks or mk17. i also push my light canister little farther forward so its not looped under as far back gives me another couple inches.

As for using a longer hose i really dont see and issue just that i have never seen one before must be a custom length .

 

[crlavoie]

Your height really shouldn't affect the hose length as the distance from the reg to the waist belt is going to be the same if you're using a standard sized plate (and I think you are based on your earlier post). If anything, your waist belt just sits higher on your waist than on a shorter person which is a set of issues unto it's self with respect to trim.

My local shop makes custom lengths. If it's properly routed and still not long enough, you can probably call them and have one shipped. United Divers - Scuba Diving Instruction, Courses,Lessons, Training, Boston, equipment, rental, Snorkel, Skindiving

 

[PfcAJ]

I doubt you have it routed properly.

A common mistake that makes the hose appear too short is to route it down from the right post (correct) under the can light (correct) across the chest (correct) behind the left arm/shoulder (incorrect) then around the back of the neck and into the mouth.

You're a pretty tall person, but the variation in torso length (and resulting distance between your right post, can light, and your face) between individuals isn't all that much.

Fisheater, in trim position, your knees are bent 90Deg (give or take) which makes a 6ft tall diver more like 5ft in length, of not shorter. If you are exiting single file, huge bounding frog kicks are not the technique of choice, so needing a real long hose is a bit of a non-issue.

 

[RJP]

I imagine the answer is "do what's safest and works best for you," but I wanted to see if anyone had any experience on the matter.

Yeah the mantra of "do whatever works for you" is pretty much what I think of when I think DIR.

 

[ScubaTerp]

I doubt you have it routed properly.

A common mistake that makes the hose appear too short is to route it down from the right post (correct) under the can light (correct) across the chest (correct) behind the left arm/shoulder (incorrect) then around the back of the neck and into the mouth.

Nope. Right post, under light, across chest, around neck, in mouth.

I'll just route it underneath my arm then. If the extra length is more for the other diver then myself I'll stick with the safe approach.