Primary Long Hose Length: 5' or 7'?

[Instructor_Tom]

update on 7ft versus 5ft hose. I had an advanced trimix class this weekend and had to do BLAST drills with a student using a 5ft hose. what a pain in the A$$. the hose was too short for me to take the lead on a single file exit swim without having to hold the regulator in my mouth. this is a situation I would not feel comfortable with in an overhead environment.




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[danvolker]

Here is an exercise....do an easy dive with your buddy, using a 7 foot hose, you wear no tank, just neutral weight....and do the whole dive on the 7 foot donated hose...have a 3rd buddy if you want to be DIR version buddied/safe backup...

Then try the exercise again with a 5 foot hose....then decide if the 7 foot hose provided a superior experience to the 5 foot hose trial....

 

[buddhasummer]

update on 7ft versus 5ft hose. I had an advanced trimix class this weekend and had to do BLAST drills with a student using a 5ft hose. what a pain in the A$$. the hose was too short for me to take the lead on a single file exit swim without having to hold the regulator in my mouth. this is a situation I would not feel comfortable with in an overhead environment.




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It is my understanding that a 5' is not recommended for overhead environments.

 

[boulderjohn]

It is my understanding that a 5' is not recommended for overhead environments.

I agree. I would only use a 5 foot hose in open water.

 

[tracydr]

I believe that the GUE recommendation from Dressed For Success ( book about how to set up GUE kit), as well as other GUE resources, gives you the option to choose any hose length from 5-7 feet.
So, what I really don't understand is why Beano feels the need to preach religiously her version, the 5 foot length, is so much better. Unless some zealots out there have caused her to believe that the only DIR option is 7 feet?
It's almost as if she was told by somebody that she was DIW for diving with a 5 foot hose so she needed to " invent" a whole new religion. When all along she really wasn't DIW, at least as far as hose length is concerned.

 

[danvolker]

I believe that the GUE recommendation from Dressed For Success ( book about how to set up GUE kit), as well as other GUE resources, gives you the option to choose any hose length from 5-7 feet.
So, what I really don't understand is why Beano feels the need to preach religiously her version, the 5 foot length, is so much better. Unless some zealots out there have caused her to believe that the only DIR option is 7 feet?
It's almost as if she was told by somebody that she was DIW for diving with a 5 foot hose so she needed to " invent" a whole new religion. When all along she really wasn't DIW, at least as far as hose length is concerned.

I was almost beginning to think Beano was a "Sock Puppet Troll" for Dumpster Diver, in that the ideas that have been coming out really seem to be created to get everyone riled up....But DD seems to have been making more valuable posts ( less to upset everyone ) lately, so I would actually apologize to him for even thinking this

 

[TSandM]

GUE initially just mandated primary donation with a bungied backup regulator. I believe I remember reading a comment by George Irvine that a 40" hose was fine for simple, open water diving. Over time, however, and in part because the agency focuses on keeping everything as much the same as possible, from open water to deep technical or long penetration cave dives, the decision was made just to require the 7' hose from the beginning. Surprisingly, I guess, an awful lot of relatively inexperienced divers manage to acquire and learn to route and manage 7' hoses. But not in Hawaii, it seems . . .

 

[Lorenzoid]

I just did a GUE Primer class in a 5' hose reg set I had purchased and tried out a few times before the class. You know what? It felt too short the first time I tried it, and in class the instructor said it seemed to wrap too tightly against my neck and rub against the bungied backup. I'm a modest 5'8" tall but am relatively wide at the shoulders and chest. I suppose a really small person might be able to get away with a 5' hose.

My wife and I did the class together, but she used a 7' hose reg set. For the past year or so that she and I had been tossing around the idea of switching to a long-hose configuration, she would often remark "I can't imagine why anyone would need a 7' hose for diving coral reefs or how it wouldn't be unwieldy--a 5' hose will be what we need." Well, we're still not sure under what circumstances a 7' hose would be useful to us on a reef dive, but we both concluded that a 7' hose is surprisingly NOT unwieldy. She did not have a can light, pocket, knife/shears or anything else to loop the end under, but rather just tucked the end of the loop under her waist strap, which the instructor said was acceptable. I'm going to switch my 5' hose out for a 7' hose. I'm very glad I tried the 5', though.

 

[MKrauter]

Just transitioned into a 7' long hose 22" shorty w/ bungy and a 24" hp hose. Haven't done anything other then some pool work to get comfortable but I am just wondering, when the 7' hose is routed under the can light, or in my case tucked into the waist belt, how much excess should there be? The hose for me only dips about 2-3" below my waist belt, but I'm reading about people who can have it down to their knees??? Something doesn't add up.

 

[Mantra]

Just to add a small 2c:

I use a 7' hose in open water, with no can light. I also just route the hose in a U tucked in down the front of the waist strap. Provided this strap is snug, it seems to work just fine. It is streamined, has never come loose and deploys easily. I personally prefer the extra 2' even for OW. My wife and I occasionally air share to balance out our tanks, and 7' in open water lets us swim side by side at arms length holding hands.

This config was shown to me by a special forces diver, and I'm pretty comfortable with it.