Octo on bungeed necklace?

[Mayor]

January I did my PADI Rescue class with the long hose / bungee. In all the dives we did the long hose was by far a much easer system. The other divers even made comments to that effect. This is the one idea that got me to take a hard look a the GUE/DIR. I'm glad I did! :cool2:

When I was on vacation the PADI instructor/divemaster/tour guide wanted to loan me a short hose. I told him you got to be kidding. He really never got the concept of the long hose even after we sat and talked about it.

 

[halocline]

The guy who uses a bungie on his primary is using it kind of like a cord that keeps your glasses from getting lost. He's the first diver I've ever heard of doing that, and personally I would not, but to each his own. If an OOA diver were to mug you for your primary, you'd want to make sure that it could release easily.

There have been times when I've thought that both the primary and the alternate should be on relatively long hoses for DMs/guides in caribbean and/or tourist settings. That's because you're responsible for a group of divers with a varied background and they're likely to be unpredictable in a bad situation. You'd just have to configure a decent way of stowing the octo hose, but what I did was just rout it down and tuck in the extra in my waist belt. As it turns out, the only person that ever mugged me for a regulator was another DMT during my training, and she went right for the primary.

For regular diving with a known buddy, the 5-6ft long hose on the primary and bungied octo works great. Once you try it, you'll like it. For those using octo/inflators, adding a long hose on the primary works really well.

 

[muddiver]

The guy who uses a bungie on his primary is using it kind of like a cord that keeps your glasses from getting lost. He's the first diver I've ever heard of doing that, and personally I would not, but to each his own. If an OOA diver were to mug you for your primary, you'd want to make sure that it could release easily.

That is exactly what I was thinking. I knew a shop owner at one time that also made little loop lanyards with a fishing swivel on it that was use to clip off your mask when shore diving. A mask is light weight and if pulled off your face in a surf tumble it would not yank on your neck, but with the little leash it never got lost. The down side is that divers that like to pull their mask off as soon as they surface would find it annoying. And there are those that will say it is just a snag hazard.

Yes you can use a standard reg configuration. The bugied octo can be used regardless of long hose or standard hose. It is not exclusive to the long hose setup. As I stated prior and was called narrowminded for my thinking. This is the primo example that you can use the BUGNIED octo on a standardset up...keep things neat and simple and ready for deployment.

You can even bungie your primary as well. This keeps your regs out of the way while setting up. Keeps your regs right where you want them..at hand and ready to go.

It is this narrowmined thinking that I ahere to...Longhose or not DIR or not...the bungied set up works for all configurations even if you dive a FFM...you can have your octo close at hand. Simple.

Ok, I fell into the narrowminded trench right with you. My apologies. The necklace system sounds like a good solution to "where is my back up?". I don't think it is the cure for the octo dragging, wide eyed underwater tourist. The fix for them is proper education on ways to secure all the extra hoses and dangling stuff, and straightening out of the rental operators that pass out dive rigs that do not have the appropreate means of securing octos, gagues, computers, etc. Thus I digress because that is not the original topic.

 

[JohnQPS122]

Here, I blew up part of that photo a little.

I went through the PADI OW course with my wife last year as a refresher, and they do teach that you give the OOA person the reg that's in your mouth, and then you grab the octo for yourself. That's the opposite of what I learned 20 years ago.

So it would seem to make a lot of sense to me that the primary hose would be longer and the secondary shorter, if you're going to hand off your primary to someone else in an OOA situation. I don't remember if the PADI manual talked about hose length. In class pool session, we used BCs with the regulator built into the inflator hose. I didn't like that at all. So far, we have not had to use those on any of our dive trips where we're using rental gear.

 

[Clammy]

Just please remember to CHECK that your long hose is free before the dive. Do a test donate. Otherwise you might have your necklace OVER your long hose or your long hose looped through your straps which won't help AT ALL!!

 

[elan]

The guy who uses a bungie on his primary is using it kind of like a cord that keeps your glasses from getting lost. He's the first diver I've ever heard of doing that, and personally I would not, but to each his own. If an OOA diver were to mug you for your primary, you'd want to make sure that it could release easily.

I believe in that case they are not talking about the bungie that is fixed to the reg hard but rather about this one.

http://www.divegearexpress.com/media/regulators/manta/FXNLBL_1-250.jpg

The reg comes out very easy from tihs one

 

[Just another Cinderella]

I am strictly a warm water diver, use a standard BCD and almost always dive with a large camera [with dual strobes]. Would have to be a bad situation for me to let that sucker go!
Having just bought a new reg. I have read all the posts about this set up. Would you still rec. it for me and would a 5 ft. hose suffice? Already planning on ditching my Alt.Air insuflator combo,
never liked it, and would like to use MiFlex hoses. Use a wrist mounted computer and a SPG back up.

 

[ptyx]

I am strictly a warm water diver, use a standard BCD and almost always dive with a large camera

In the case of a SLR, the necklaced octo does get in the way when you look through the viewfinder if the necklace is too short. Let it hang a bit lower and you should be fine (it works for me in any case).

For warm water and without a hood, shock cord might cause some chaffing. Surgical tubing or thick line is another option.

I'll be burned at the stake by the DIR police, but if you don't want to go with a long hose, a Miflex 40-44 inches hose with an elbow - routed under the arm - works perfectly for a main. Stay away from the swivels - they're scary.

 

[vjanelle]

Just make sure if you're in an insta-buddy situation knows that if they're OOA that you'll be offering your primary and switching to your octo as part of your double checking hand signals buddy checks (or just always dive with the same people).

This came in useful the other day for me, practing deploying an SMB and lost track of my primary after inflating the bag. I was able to switch to my octo within a few seconds of realizing my primary had drifted and was ok (had buddy watching me and standing by in case I had problems).

 

[Just another Cinderella]

Stay away from the swivels - they're scary.

The Atomic Reg comes with a swivel and may not be usable with MiFlex.
Have to work on that.
Do they make longer bungies? We are a little material challenged here in Curacao.
Does the 40" hose remain streamlined and out of the way?