In two of the three situations where I have donated air in a real OOA situation, I got mugged for the primary. In the third air share, the diver had a cold water freeze flow at depth and we had already initiated an ascent since we knew the inevitable was close at hand. Consequently I had the reg ready to hand to him when his tank went dry.
So...in my opinion, training to donate the primary is the way to go and a long hose primary just makes a lot more sense especially with a panicked or potentially panicked diver. A 5 ft hose works great for most recreational divers although a 6 ft hose may be needed for divers with larger chests and BC's. A 7 ft hose is too much for a recreational diver as a conventional BC offers no place to tuck in the extra hose lenght. And given that there is never going to be a need for the divers to follow one another out in trail formation through a restriction, you really don't need the extra foot or two of hose.
One of the arguments that is often posed against a long hose (usually by those who have never used one) is that the gas sharing diver will not be close to you. That is not the case as keeping the diver close is always an option - all you have to do is hold BC's as you would do when air sharing with a short hose. The difference is that the OOA diver is not forced to remain close to you out of fear of losing the reg, and fear of any sort is not ideal with a panicking OOA diver and for an about to panic OOA diver it can be enough to push them over the edge.
The advantage of the long hose is not so much that you can swim farther apart, (although this is an option and can make it much more practical to do what amounts to a preemptive gas share while swimming back to the exit point, preventing an ascent in mid water where currents, etc may complicate the exit and allows the near OOA diver to presrve a few hundred psi for an indepndent ascent or safety stop and BC power inflate), the big advantage is that the long hose will not be tugging on the donated second stage and induce the feeling that it is about to be yanked from the OOA diver's mouth. It also doesn't have a sharp in bend in the hose due to having to do a 180 degree turn between the two divers involved and does not have to be held in the mouth by hand.
The use of a bungee for the octo is another issue. The idea in technical circles is to allow the diver to access his own redundant second stage without the use of hands in a cave, wreck or other restriction. It really is not critical to the long hose philosophy as applied to a recreation a setting. As long as a diver can access his or her octo clipped in a normal location in a normal fasion, there is no need for the bungee. Skipping the bungee eliminates the other major critisims of having a long hose in a recreational setting:
1. The potential interference between bungee and snorkel (not found on technical divers)
2. What happens when the OOA recreational diver does not mug you for the primary but instead grabs the bungeed octo. (it really depneds on how the bungee is secured to the mouth piece, it is securted with a loop around the mouthpiece the reg just pulls free, if it is secured under the zip tie securing the mouthpiece, it can get interesting.)
In my opinion, the ideal recreational configuration is a 5 ft or 6 ft long hose primary with a 32" to 40" octo secured in a normal manner. It covers all the bases, works regardless of how the receiving OOA diver was trained, works ideally in the most encountered situation where the OOA diver takes the primary and allows you more options in situations where more options are nice to have. (exits in areas of strong currents and in surf conditions where exiting along the bottom may be preferrable to a surface exit.) And it does not interfere with snorkel use.
So...in my opinion, training to donate the primary is the way to go and a long hose primary just makes a lot more sense especially with a panicked or potentially panicked diver. A 5 ft hose works great for most recreational divers although a 6 ft hose may be needed for divers with larger chests and BC's. A 7 ft hose is too much for a recreational diver as a conventional BC offers no place to tuck in the extra hose lenght. And given that there is never going to be a need for the divers to follow one another out in trail formation through a restriction, you really don't need the extra foot or two of hose.
One of the arguments that is often posed against a long hose (usually by those who have never used one) is that the gas sharing diver will not be close to you. That is not the case as keeping the diver close is always an option - all you have to do is hold BC's as you would do when air sharing with a short hose. The difference is that the OOA diver is not forced to remain close to you out of fear of losing the reg, and fear of any sort is not ideal with a panicking OOA diver and for an about to panic OOA diver it can be enough to push them over the edge.
The advantage of the long hose is not so much that you can swim farther apart, (although this is an option and can make it much more practical to do what amounts to a preemptive gas share while swimming back to the exit point, preventing an ascent in mid water where currents, etc may complicate the exit and allows the near OOA diver to presrve a few hundred psi for an indepndent ascent or safety stop and BC power inflate), the big advantage is that the long hose will not be tugging on the donated second stage and induce the feeling that it is about to be yanked from the OOA diver's mouth. It also doesn't have a sharp in bend in the hose due to having to do a 180 degree turn between the two divers involved and does not have to be held in the mouth by hand.
The use of a bungee for the octo is another issue. The idea in technical circles is to allow the diver to access his own redundant second stage without the use of hands in a cave, wreck or other restriction. It really is not critical to the long hose philosophy as applied to a recreation a setting. As long as a diver can access his or her octo clipped in a normal location in a normal fasion, there is no need for the bungee. Skipping the bungee eliminates the other major critisims of having a long hose in a recreational setting:
1. The potential interference between bungee and snorkel (not found on technical divers)
2. What happens when the OOA recreational diver does not mug you for the primary but instead grabs the bungeed octo. (it really depneds on how the bungee is secured to the mouth piece, it is securted with a loop around the mouthpiece the reg just pulls free, if it is secured under the zip tie securing the mouthpiece, it can get interesting.)
In my opinion, the ideal recreational configuration is a 5 ft or 6 ft long hose primary with a 32" to 40" octo secured in a normal manner. It covers all the bases, works regardless of how the receiving OOA diver was trained, works ideally in the most encountered situation where the OOA diver takes the primary and allows you more options in situations where more options are nice to have. (exits in areas of strong currents and in surf conditions where exiting along the bottom may be preferrable to a surface exit.) And it does not interfere with snorkel use.