Mix and match.....

[Kim]

Ok. A regular setup.......normal training.......OOA situation, donate the octo and keep breathing your own primary.

Long hose setup......primary hose 5' or 7'......bungied back up on a short hose.....OOA situation, donate the primary and switch to bungied back up.

Recently I've heard about "hybrids". People diving a regular unmodified setup, where the octo hose is slightly longer than the primary, but they bungie their octo for their own use, intending to donate their short primary in an OOA. I can't really see any point in this except that it ensures that your octo doesn't get dragged through the muck....but there are other ways to ensure that.

What's the point of planning to donate your shortest hose in an OOA - thus giving each other virtually no room to move? Is it really a good idea to depart from training and just "pick" bits out of different approaches without really being aware how things interconnect?

 

[captndale]

I teach my students to always donate the regulator they are breathing from - no matter what. I also recommend switching hoses so that you have the longer hose on your primary regulator and the shorter hose on your back-up. I am not the only instructor doing this. Hopefully, we will convert the others.

 

[Kim]

I teach my students to always donate the regulator they are breathing from - no matter what. I also recommend switching hoses so that you have the longer hose on your primary regulator and the shorter hose on your back-up. I am not the only instructor doing this. Hopefully, we will convert the others.

Yes....if you switch the hoses out so that the longer hose is on your primary then I can understand it better, although it seems to me you might then just as well REALLY switch them out and get at least a 5' primary, but I suppose that's personal. What I don't understand is using the hoses for things they're not intended......i.e. donating a shorter hose that was never intended to be the donated one......as on a normal rig configured to conform to, let's say PADI, training.

 

[Xman]

why would anyone donate the shorter hosed reg??? I just don't get it. Are people actually doing this, or is it something you've heard?

 

[superstar]

If you have a short hose reg hanging on your neck, why would you be breathing from the long hose reg if you plan on handing the long hose off. It's like you are breathing off the octo and not the primary. It just seems backwards to me.

 

[Dive-aholic]

It sounds like people with recreational rigs that are trying to adopt technical practices without fully understanding the practices.

 

[Kim]

It sounds like people with recreational rigs that are trying to adopt technical practices without fully understanding the practices.

That's the point of the thread........it's what I think is happening as well, but I don't think it's really a good idea. As you quite correctly point out, IMO it demonstrates lack of full understanding.

 

[Wildcard]

You "donate" what ever reg they rip out of your mouth..... More DIR crap IMHO...

 

[Kim]

If you have a short hose reg hanging on your neck, why would you be breathing from the long hose reg if you plan on handing the long hose off. It's like you are breathing off the octo and not the primary. It just seems backwards to me.

This cuts to the rationale of long/short hose configuration. You breath off the long hose as your primary but are actually ready for a panicked OOA diver to take it as being the first one they see, and KNOW is working. The short bungied back-up is just under your chin. You know exactly where it is, so you would never have a problem trying to locate it in a genuine emergency. The idea of the long hose originally comes from confined, probably overhead environments where you might not be able to easily share air side by side and exit wherever you are.....you might need to swim single file. Normally you'd use a 7' hose for that environment. In open water where it's not quite so important 5' is considered OK.....it gives both divers a little space to work without tying them together due to the length of a shorter normal octo hose. The normal primary hose though is even shorter, so I really can't see why anyone would consider using it.
I have it on EXTREMELY good authority that it's happening though. It seems a rather unsafe practice to me, especially as it appears to demonstrate a basic lack of understanding of the issues.

 

[Michael Schlink]

There was a time when very few people were diving a long hose, and pretty much nobody doing it in OW. Even in cave diving some were wrapping the long hose and breathing the short hose. At this time there was a study demonstrating that handing off the hose in your mouth was the fastest way to donate a reg. So there are divers out there handing off their primary and then pickimg up their "octo". Where the "octo" is held becomes somewhat irrelevant as the donating diver shouldn't have too much difficulty finding where they "store" their "octo".
I agree that there are also divers out there trying to adopt certain techniques, etc. from the "tech" divers and maybe not with all the info required.
I saw a guy that had an AIRII and had bungied his primary in a manor that wouldn't allow the reg to come off the bungee cord. I envisioned someone "tugging" on his primary only to have it snap back into his mouth when the bungee wouldn't stretch anymore!!!! ouch