But seriously, a bungied octo really can save your life

[Hatul]

Interesting, because I tried once a 5 foot primary hose with bungeed octo and felt quite uncomfortable with this. I mainly shore dive here in Southern Ca and often have to surface to swim on back. I had this fear of losing my regulator especially in the surf and ended up holding onto it fearing it would get lost.

I went back to my previous system: short hose primary on necklace and longer hose for the octo clipped traditionally to a D ring by bungee. I never have to worry about losing my primary reg or swapping to my octo.

 

[Bob DBF]

I liked the bungied backup but not the long hose so I went back to the old school necklace primary. The secondary is on a D-ring with the only keeper I found that works, could use a bungiee with a similar configuration.



Bob
--------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[Hatul]

I liked the bungied backup but not the long hose so I went back to the old school necklace primary. The secondary is on a D-ring with the only keeper I found that works, could use a bungiee with a similar configuration.

Bob
--------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

That's basically my configuration. I think it's quite optimal for open water, when only occasionally you need to share air and there's no need to follow single file. It avoids the issues with the long hose and keeps the primary air supply where it belongs-- near your mouth

 

[mblazer]

My configuration is a little different. I often dive solo, and use a 30 foot pony slung on my main tank. I have the pony reg on a bungee, but don't like to just leave off my octo (even when diving solo, you just never know). I also got accustomed to a 7 foot Myflex octo hose from cave and wreck diving. So, I have that routed under the pony and then up and around my neck, attached to a magnetic hose holder - Magnetic Hose Holder "Metal Ruby/Black" - so it's very easy to deploy if necessary. I know it's unusual, but it works well for me.

 

[milbournosphere]

I, too, learned this lesson, but in the skill checkout dive for my AOW class.

I was doing an OOA drill with a new octo, one that came with one of those clips that goes into the mouthpiece in the box. I figured that it was pretty slick and threw it on my rig. There was a decent surge that day and we were in the sand at about 25ft, so nothing to bump into; it really wasn't bothering us too much.

Anyways, my buddy swims up, gives me the OOA sign. We clasp arms, I donate my primary, and go to grab my octo. I fumbled getting the octo out of the connector; it was just in there too tightly. I finally got it off but pulled harder than I thought and my octo few straight out and the surge pulled it right behind me and to the left. I went fishing but just couldn't pull it back in after several attempts. My instructor finally handed it back to me after letting me get one last effort into finding it. We repeated the drill without incident. Immediately after that dive the connector was axed and I tied up a shock-cord necklace.

I don't plan to have issues finding my secondary regulator ever again. Thankfully I learned the lesson in a controlled situation; I was a bit peeved at my instructor at first for waiting to get my octo back to me, but in retrospect it drilled the lesson right into my head. From now on my backup will be on a necklace around my neck, right were I need it.

 

[halocline]

That's basically my configuration. I think it's quite optimal for open water, when only occasionally you need to share air and there's no need to follow single file. It avoids the issues with the long hose and keeps the primary air supply where it belongs-- near your mouth

I disagree. To me it's less comfortable because a shorter hose is less flexible and means more push/pull when you move your head around, you have a loop extending out over your right shoulder, if someone mugs you for your primary (that's happened twice to me) you get yanked by the necklace and then dragged by the short hose, and then your secondary is still somewhere else. With the long hose/bungied alternate, BOTH 2nd stages are near your mouth.

It took me a few dives to get used to the 5 ft hose, but once I did it became MUCH more comfortable to dive with, and to share air with. A 7ft hose is, to me, a bit unwieldy and not necessary at all for OW. But the 5ft is great.