Diving the long hose on a REC rig

[cdennyb]

I fully support the use of the long hose. However, I would suggest you find yourself a real person (read as real life) you can talk to face to face that knows and dives with this kind of setup. They can help you figure out the best way to route and use the hose based on your other equipment.

There's one way to route the long hose...
the correct way.
It isn't dependant on your "personal preference". You become proficient with it routed that way. You don't adjust "IT" to suit your idea of the 'correct way'.
and...in my honest "26 years of diving" opinion, 'right now' is the best time to get started on the right track. Not after the diver with 1 oW dive has managed to learn stuff the wrong or unsafe way because they didn't have a proper instructor.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I was not a real long hose fan until I had an OOA air situation with my spouse. Actually it was a very, very, very low on air situation on a deep dive and I initiated the switch to prevent any potential surprises, panic, etc. In my experience a high performance reg can give you virtually zero notice that you are on your last breath until you exhale and discover there is nothing there. But I digress...

The point was we were on a deep dive and fairly close to the ascent line and it made more sense to swim to the line (and the gas at 20 feet on the line) than it did to shoot a bag while sharing air, make a direct ascent and share air through the whole ascent and saftey stop.

But I discovered what a total PITA it was to navigate and swim approx 100 ft over the bottom while buddy breathing with a short hose reg even with a diver with good bouyancy. A 5, 6 or 7 foot hose would have made the evolution much easier.

So if you can envision any situation where a direct ascent may be less than the ideal situation or where you will have to swim together under water for any distance at all, a long hose makes a lot of sense even in recreational diving.

 

[lamont]

A newbie with one ow dive has more to think about than the routing of a long hose. he or she would get tangled in the long hose. and gue is the worst advice this guy needs right now.

Every dive I've done beyond my open water cert has been on a long hose and actually, speaking from personal experience, the long hose is the best advice this guy could get.

 

[TX101]

George Irvine doesn't dive a 6' long hose in open water.

http://www.wkpp.org/images/pina_equip/OW_rig2_r.jpeg

 

[novadiver]

The deeper water and deeper wrecks fascinate me and thus I want my diving to start moving deeper and want to begin taking Tech courses (TDI is the only option in Colorado I do not have a GUE instructor any where close). I like the idea of the long primary (7'/5') and the short secondary on the "necklace".
My question is this:
Being so land locked most of my diving is on vacation and thus much of it is on rental tanks. I would be suprised if many places offer H valves. I would like to convert my normal rig (single first stage on a yoke) to the long hose set up to get used to it (as well as my dive partner/girlfriend) ? Is there a down side to doing this ? Do you switch your regs back and forth from single 1st stages for non-technical vacations to independant valves (H or manifold) or do you ultimately wind up with your travel rig and a Tec rig ?
Thank you for all your experience.
Michael

I'd like everyone to read the original post again.

If I'm not mistaken, this diver wants to excede his training. you all have done a real nice job telling him to "go for the long hose" but not one of you has told him "how and why"

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.

Wendy, why don't you advice this diver to ram helium in his tanks to make deep wreck diving safer.

Has it dawned on any of you that this was Micheals first post on scuba board, He hasn't responded to any other post, and this might be a puppet troll.

And in conclusion, If you can't figure out your own gender,please don't blame it on me.

 

[The Kraken]

Novadiver,

Perhaps you should read the post again.
First he makes a STATEMENT that he wants to expand the scope of his diving abilities and therefore is giving consideration to taking a course to help him meet the parameters for doing so.
He makes a second STATEMENT that he likes the concept of the long primary hose.

He then asks a QUESTION regarding negative aspects of converting to a long primary hose.

He then asks a second QUESTION asking basically if switching to a long primary hose will allow him to use one regulator set up or two, depending upon his tank setups.

You posted, "If I'm not mistaken, this diver wants to excede his training."

Nowhere in his post did h2oyak state that he was going to make his desired dives without training.

Perhaps you should read and comprehend the posts before you start responding to respected members of this board in such a vitriolic manner.

 

[kramynot2000]

More heated discussion on this topic than I would have thought.

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. Personally I had a long hose but converted back to a standard shorter hose because most of my recreational diving is done with relatively new divers. I assist in a lot of classes and there is no way I'd donate my primary without holding on to that person to make sure he or she didn't bolt. For non-class non-tech dives, I dive with my wife, who is a great diver although still a little skittish. I know in an OOA emergency she would feel much more comfortable with contact between us.

I really do like the idea of a long hose though and it really is easier during OOA drills when both divers can keep their head and maintain good bouyancy. I've never been in an actual OOA situation though.

 

[Wendy]

Novadiver,

Perhaps you should read the post again.
First he makes a STATEMENT that he wants to expand the scope of his diving abilities and therefore is giving consideration to taking a course to help him meet the parameters for doing so.
He makes a second STATEMENT that he likes the concept of the long primary hose.

He then asks a QUESTION regarding negative aspects of converting to a long primary hose.

He then asks a second QUESTION asking basically if switching to a long primary hose will allow him to use one regulator set up or two, depending upon his tank setups.

You posted, "If I'm not mistaken, this diver wants to excede his training."

Nowhere in his post did h2oyak state that he was going to make his desired dives without training.

Perhaps you should read and comprehend the posts before you start responding to respected members of this board in such a vitriolic manner.

ditto

And if you were to go back and re-read my first post in this thread, you will see that I told him " Just make sure you are routing the hose correctly and know how to deploy it."

Also I had brought up GUE because the poster did first when he said "I do not have a GUE instructor any where close". So I offered advise on that.

Novadiver if you don't like what I post, then don't read them. And what exactly does"Wendy, why don't you advice this diver to ram helium in his tanks to make deep wreck diving safer" supposed to me. If you got a problem with me, oh well, I could caer less, but hopefully this diver can benefit from some good advise that has been given to him in this thread. My good advise to you is to learn to read a read, because obviously you have a problem somewhere between reading and comprehension. No offense intended.

 

[The Kraken]

Thank you, Miss Wendy.

 

[h2oyak]

Thanks to all for the info, I did not mean to start a war on diving semantics. I actually thought about flying down to Flordia and making a vacation out of the training then heading down to the Keys afterward. Regardless of the courses I chose I will always respect the level of training and thought that goes into GUE instruction.
I think that I will make the conversion, now I just need to fit the hose length to see what feels best. Thanks again.
Now I will go fill out my diver profile so I get permission to talk on the advanced forums... Just kidding
*ducks flying reg*
Dive safe.

Why? Even a newbie ow diver with 1 dive can use a long hose.

Yes, I switch my regs from single set up and doubles set up. Not hard to do. Just make sure you are routing the hose correctly and know how to deploy it.

Since you travel to dive often, then why not travel to take a GUE course if that is what you interested in. Also some GUE instructors travel to do courses.