Long-hose in the time of COVID-19

[Angelo Farina]

For me, it's quicker to grab my primary, duck my head and donate than to fumble for my octo (yes, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I've been in that situation).

Of course this is very fast, and perhaps more safe for the receiver. What I am not sure is that this is also fully safe for the donor...
I have already read a couple of incident reports, in which, after donating the primary, the donor had problem with the alternate. Resulting in TWO divers in distress...
I remember that one of these posts was here on SB, the other was on an Italian forum. In both cases the result was a CESA, which is definitely not a nice thing.
If I find the SB post I will link it here.
To me, it happened at least three times of being asked for air, and I gave them my secondary (or my tertiary, when working I always employed also a full complete reg on the second post, routed the wrong way, on my left shoulder).
Never had problem finding it. Zero delay....
My wife, who usually closed the group, had many more cases than me, perhaps 12. It was very common at the time, as customers were given too small cylinders (10 liters), and someone going LOA was happening every 2-3 dives. In most cases this was happening at the end of the dive, during deco, and they could use the deco cylinders being attached to the deco rod, but sometimes it was happening at depth, and in this case the third reg with long hose on the wrong shoulder was perfect....
At the time no one was using a long hose on the primary, nor donating the primary was expected, so the customers LOA or OOA were searching for the yellow secondary or tertiary reg attached to our shoulder harness.

 

[KenGordon]

Also I’ve discovered that I need a 28” hose for my necklace regulator so I can turn my head to the left while breathing it without it pulling out of my mouth and I’m not THAT big of a guy.

You are gradually discovering that the emperor has no clothes.

 

[Storker]

Of course this is very fast, and perhaps more safe for the receiver. What I am not sure is that this is also fully safe for the donor.

I have two working 2nds. I've checked that before submerging. I can hold my breath for at least some 30-60 seconds, no problem. If it takes me a minute or so to locate a secondary which isn't exactly where my muscle memory tells me it should be, that wouldn't be a big deal.

 

[Jcp2]

It’s not the length of the hose. It’s how you use it.

 

[Storker]

It’s not the length of the hose. It’s how you use it.

That's what he said.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Also I’ve discovered that I need a 28” hose for my necklace regulator so I can turn my head to the left while breathing it without it pulling out of my mouth and I’m not THAT big of a guy.

That seems a little long. I'd first check the hose routing from the left post first stage. 1) is the hose in the best available port?, 2) is your regulator hose positioned above the wing hose coming from your right post?, 3) check the hose is not impeded by any other components and has free movement from 1st to 2nd stage.

 

[StefinSB]

US cave divers are taught to take the primary ? Divers revert to their training.

So you have gone through "US" cave dive training then? Whatever that means anyways.

As far as I know my training taught me to take to reg that is put in front of my face. As it happens the donor was trained to donate his/her primary.

 

[MichaelMc]

Of course this is very fast, and perhaps more safe for the receiver. What I am not sure is that this is also fully safe for the donor...
I have already read a couple of incident reports, in which, after donating the primary, the donor had problem with the alternate. Resulting in TWO divers in distress...

In sidemount, half the time I agree with you, half the time I don't.

 

[EireDiver606]

For my part, based on what I know about him from his posts, I would welcome the opportunity to dive with Angelo. I suspect we would have a thorough pre-dive discussion, we would both dive safely, and competently, and we would probably have some great discussions outside of the actual dive.

I would say the same for Storker, and for PfcAj, tbone1004, tursiops, and many others - people who are thinking about diving and whose commitment to enjoyable and SAFE diving is obvious from their posts. The specific gear configuration is of less importance than their mindset.

We can agree to disagree on certain issues, but the commonality of themes are more important.

Completely agree with this. I’ve become more accepting of others ideas and think mindset is more important than equipment configuration. I still dive with people who don’t use long hoses but I do prefer if they have a long hose. If they don’t have a great configuration (by my standards - BP/w and primary donate longhose) but have a good attitude above the surface, I’ll dive with them.

Even though I don’t agree with people like angelos and their ideas, I’d still dive with him to see how he does stuff and learn his way of thinking out of curiosity and for the bigger picture.

 

[StefinSB]

There is no need to undo a bolt snap if you rig the longhose like us sidemount divers.

There is no "us sidemount divers" unless "you guys" suddenly agreed on a global standard.