I'm liking this logic. Putting aside for a moment the either-or nature of my initial question, is there a reason not to go with a mid-length (~6', say) primary hose long enough to wear comfortably looped around the back of the neck, but not so long as to require routing under a can light etc. or stowing of excess hose under a waist strap?
That's usage is what the 5 foot is for. When people are saying the 5 footer is tto short they are talking about tucking it under a can or a light.
The 5' works with an underarm pass and then a neck loop on a broad range of people- tiny Japanese people to 6' 300 pounders, if use with a 45 or 70 swivel. I assume it might work with a 90 swivel, since the other thread has someone using a 90 with it, but I find 90 don't work with neck loops with certain smaller second stages so I stick with the 70/120 swivel.
a 5' hose does not work well tucked under anything. I have seen some people try an use it tucked or looped but it was tight.
---------- Post added July 27th, 2013 at 09:48 AM ----------
And as Dan and I and several others keep saying, restowing the hose is NOT an issue if you know what you are doing which is a function of being shown how and practice... which I believe is called training/education.
Or if you have time and space to get it done. If you don't have the time and space to do it, then you don't.
If you have never run into an issue with it, then you have not. But people dive different conditions, and there are times when the long hose has to be left under the arm while others things are getting dealt with. And then a 7' is just stupid. As is, for that matter any long hose of any length, without a 45/70/90 swivel. (But again DIR says better to hamstring the usefulness of the long hose by not using a swivel, so they get to be stupid in their own special way.)
There are also conditions in which that tuck in the belt loop of the 7' is just a silly need to keep a 7' when the tool to use is a 5', and having to deal with it coming untucked is either annoying, or hazardous and foolish depending on what hit what when.
Watching someone hang themselves up on stuff when they are diving the wrong gear for what they are doing is watching them DIW.
If training actually covered real conditions, then more people would be aware of what is good about a 5' and what is good about a 7', and training would have something to do with the ability to deal with the hoses in real conditions. But training rarely covers real conditions, a fact which you acknowledge.