rgdiver1
Contributor
Being a certified cave diver, I was trained to keep everything neat, tidy and as streamlined as possible. A lot of open water divers I see are anything but unfortunately. OTOH people can look at you like you have two heads in many typical recreational scenarios if you have a 5 or 7 foot hose. This is still not mainstream in many situations. When I learned to dive in the late 1960's, we only had a single second stage on a fairly short hose, and we dealt with OOA situations by buddy breathing. For recreational diving now, I like to use a 28-inch hose for my primary second stage and a 36 to 40-inch for the alternate air source / octopus / safe second, properly clipped off and ready to deploy. Also I am always ready to donate the regulator in my mouth should the need arise. Training is really the most important thing here. It's not just equipment; it's being ready to use it properly in any situation without a minor problem turning into a real emergency.
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