For divers contemplating using a long hose configuration

[dflaher]

Thanks, I am clearly trapped in a recreational diving perspective

 

[Adobo]

Thanks, I am clearly trapped in a recreational diving perspective

For recreational diving, you will always have your primary reg in your mouth under water. Unless you are out of gas and your buddy is sharing gas with you. Still, it is good to have a bolt snap for the reasons you mentioned.

Some would argue that you can be diving stage bottles in recreational dives. I would think that is rare for a purely recreational diver. For tech divers, its not uncommon for them to do a second dive (recreational profile) on a stage bottle using nitrox after a tech dive. The reason this is the case is likely, their backgas is some form of trimix which is not ideal for a recreation dive for several reasons. But again, this is not a purely recreational profile diver.

 

[Barefoot_Lawyer]

Thanks, I am clearly trapped in a recreational diving perspective

I was only proposing you clip it when out of the water - for the same reasons you clip yours now. Stepping on it, setting a tank on it, dragging it through the sand on the way to the dive or the way back… You can get away with being careless before/after a dive with a reg on the end of a 40” hose a bit more than 7’, so if you weren’t in the practice of clipping it off, I wanted to make sure you started.

Sounds like you already have that routine down though!

 

[BlueTrin]

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[SlugLife]

This video is cross posted in the technical diving section. But since the subject is also applicable to recreational divers thinking about going to a long hose configuration, I am also posting it here. If you find this video helpful, please subscribe. The channel has 70+ videos related to diving.

Great video, I endorse everything about the necklace here. Breakaway, inexpensive, and adjustable. I dive side-mount, and my left-regulator is on a necklace, while the right is clipped to my upper-chest-d-ring.

While it's not very common, if I ever feel my regulator slipping or feel a little funny, I do tighten/snug the regulator such that it won't fall out of my mouth in the rare case of an emergency. I've also been "kicked" by a fin a few times, and it has never come out. Even on the surface, there are times people pass out after an emergency-ascent, and having that regulator secured in your mouth could save your life.

You could even do something similar, combine with a bolt-snap, to make a "breakaway" retainer for your octo, clipped to your chest.

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As far as the long-hose, I hated it with back-mount, but I started side-mount soon after, and long-hose is just fine. I tuck the majority of the hose is tucked under bungies, so it's effectively a short-hose, until it needs to be a long-hose. You could easily do the same with back-mount. I just can't stand the wrap-around-head hose routing and having to do it in a particular order.

As a recreational diver, how often do you share air? In almost 200 dives, I've shared air once - not an emergency situation - just in order to extend a dive. Wasn't that fun diving linked up by a 40' hose, sure, it would have been much easier w/ a 7' hose.

But, I dont feel the need to configure my gear according to an extremely rare situation. Not worth it for the added hassle of routing the hose around me on the other 99% of my dives.

A 40' hose will work fine in that rare emergency.

Then again, I know I will never willingly be in an overhead, confined environment. I get claustrophobia in dry caves, cant imagine going in one on scuba.

Somewhere over 200 dives, and I've never air-shared yet, except as practice or training. (edit: Though I often solo-dive).

Aside from emergencies and training scenarios, normally, I would consider that kind of air-sharing to be unacceptable. The exception would have to be pre-planned, long-hose, and doubles/sidemount (2 tanks), and great visibility.... and even then, I'm not comfortable with it. You're greatly increas

 

[doctormike]

Yeah, I think that's right. If you've ever donated or received a 3' - 4' hose and then tried to go anywhere but up, you will have noticed that it is quite difficult. The length works for a face-to-face, vertical-trim ascent, and doesn't work well for anything else. If you are in an OOG emergency, in an environment with no overhead, that is perfectly sufficient.

This^

7 foot hose, primary donate, is the way to go. Far superior. No matter how much you plan on "controlling" the victim, there is potentially a lot of motion in any rescue scenario. Donating gas with a short hose means the victim is more likely to lose that reg when it gets pulled on with any sort of separation or rotation. In the words of Mike Tyson, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

This exact scenario happened to my group last week. Shore dive, with the dive site a long swim from the beach. One diver ran low on gas, the team turned back, but halfway there we made the decision to put the (single tank) "victim" on his buddy's long hose, to keep his back gas from getting too low, in case of separation. Buddy was in doubles with plenty of gas. Didn't want to do a direct ascent into possible boat traffic.

7 foot hose made for a very easy swim back to the beach. Seriously, I don't understand the objection to the 7 foot hose. Don't use it any more on CCR, but when OC I found it to be absolutely no problem, routed easily, donated easily. I'm never going to be a cave diver, but the 7 foot hose isn't just for caves.

 

[RobPNW]

As a recreational diver, how often do you share air? In almost 200 dives, I've shared air once - not an emergency situation - just in order to extend a dive. Wasn't that fun diving linked up by a 40' hose, sure, it would have been much easier w/ a 7' hose.

But, I dont feel the need to configure my gear according to an extremely rare situation. Not worth it for the added hassle of routing the hose around me on the other 99% of my dives.

A 40' hose will work fine in that rare emergency.

Then again, I know I will never willingly be in an overhead, confined environment. I get claustrophobia in dry caves, cant imagine going in one on scuba.

Have you ever used the longer configuration? You mention the "hassle". There's more to it than just the share air situation. Some people actually find it more comfortable and even though you have more hose, it's actually more streamlined around your head and neck area. In other words, for me, even if I didn't care about the share air situation, I would probably prefer it anyway. On the share air situation, I don't think I would argue the "rareness" of something happening as a reason to ditch the idea.

 

[rongoodman]

As far as the long-hose, I hated it with back-mount, but I started side-mount soon after, and long-hose is just fine. I tuck the majority of the hose is tucked under bungies, so it's effectively a short-hose, until it needs to be a long-hose. You could easily do the same with back-mount. I just can't stand the wrap-around-head hose routing and having to do it in a particular order.

The issue with tucking the hose under bungees is restowing it after you've deployed it, which essentially means no S-drill, which means you are assuming that you will be able to deploy it in an emergency with no issues.

 

[Wibble]

Open water, why are you looking at a "long hose"? A long hose was decided as an appropriate method for sharing air in a confined space, like a cave. I have no scenario in mind that would come into play that a recreational diver would need a long hose.

Ease of use? Longhose is a lot better than folding the "octopus" in half and stuffing it in a spare dangly ring piece, or letting it just drag unnoticed along the bottom.

Safer? Longhose with necklace is so much easier to use and a lot safer than a 90cm/3ft hose and octopus. Ohh, do the lost regulator sweep for that great panic feeling... or gently reach the necklaced regulator and stuff it in your gob.

 

[SlugLife]

The issue with tucking the hose under bungees is restowing it after you've deployed it, which essentially means no S-drill, which means you are assuming that you will be able to deploy it in an emergency with no issues.

(Standard disclaimer that everyone should do whatever they're comfortable with, and follow instructions when in classes.)

There are zero issues with either deploying or re-stowing a long-hose under bungies when doing sidemount, because you can easily access the tank, hose, and bungies.

With backmount, deploying should be fine, I don't know why you think there might be issues. The alternative is, someone annoyed enough with long-hose decides it's not worth it, and switches back to a standard hose. A tucked long-hose is never worse than a standard length hose, even if for some weird unknown reason it doesn't deploy.

Stowing back under bungies wouldn't be practical backmount, so you'd probably want to revert to the standard wrap-around-head style. Since air-share is relatively rare outside training or practice, a mild-annoyance putting the hose away in a super-rare scenario shouldn't be an issue.

Another advantage of stowing the hose under bungees, is it reduces the time and complexity to don gear and get in the water.

Safer? Longhose with necklace is so much easier to use and a lot safer than a 90cm/3ft hose and octopus. Ohh, do the lost regulator sweep for that great panic feeling... or gently reach the necklaced regulator and stuff it in your gob.

My observation is that many divers leave their Open-Water training, with their octo & spg dangling, or loosely tucked where it'll fall out. The arm-sweep is vital to know, but ideally something you should never have to do in an emergency. I didn't really know about breakaway clips, retainers, and necklaces until I had more than 50 dives. Having one around your neck, and another clipped to your BCD where you expect 100% of the time is something I never expect to stop, excluding discovering better ways of securing a reg.