Diving the long hose on a REC rig

[lamont]

Anyway, my thought, (which hopefully won't generate more heat!) is to really think how and why you would need a long hose for recreational diving.

my reasons so far:

#1: you always know where both of your regs are at all times. with an octo it could get caught, pulled free of its holder, and dragged around behind you. that's going to lead to a bad day if your buddy happens to pull an OOA on you.

#2: it allows for horizontal and vertical separation while doing an OOA. if the diver who is OOA sees that he's starting to leave his air source he's likely to get his buoyancy under control.

#3: it makes recovery from having a reg knocked out of the mouth really trivial (go to the backup and then track down the long hose).

i'm sold on it.

 

[lamont]

For all your help this "vacation diver" could get hurt or hurt someone else.

Lamont, I'm suprised you didn't tell him to rap the long hose twice around the neck.

You are such a troll.

But anyway, the biggest thing is just making sure that the regs aren't tangled in anything. The things that are likely to bite you are clipping your drysuit inflator on over the long hose, or putting your necklace on last. You should always test on the water before descending that you can go to your backup, and that you can deploy the long hose at arms length. If you do just that much you'll be able to dive at least as safely as any just certified open water diver on an octo.

Of course it really does take training to get to the point where OOAs and management of the long hose is a reflex. But we're talking about achieving a level of competency there which is well beyond what OW or AOW certified divers learn in how to respond to an OOA. And that is what GUE's DIRF course is really good for (it does help to have at least around 20-30 dives in before DIRF and be able to hover, but you don't need to scare beginning divers off from it). Beforehand you should buddy up with someone who can start to help show you the finer points of the long hose.

 

[SDAnderson]

Please be polite with each other.

This conversation is getting a little heated and we'd appreciate it if everyone dialed it back a notch. Discipline yourselves lest the job revert back to the Moderators.
:kopfab:
Now, back to the fracas...

 

[novadiver]

Please be polite with each other.

This conversation is getting a little heated and we'd appreciate it if everyone dialed it back a notch. Discipline yourselves lest the job revert back to the Moderators.
:kopfab:
Now, back to the fracas...

I can take a hint, I,m on my way to the curb now. I guess I'll clean off my shoes when I get outside !!!