Regulator Hose Configuration

[carrielsal]

The water at Aquarena's always about 72 degrees. It's the surface interval in a wetsuit that kills you. I took my class there in the winter in a wetsuit, but there are showers you can stand in to put hot water in your suit. I spent a lot of time standing in the showers between dives.

The reason buoyancy is so critical is that the glass bottom boats are out in Spring Lake. You absolutely cannot surface. The lake at its deepest point is only 20'. For the buoyancy skills portion your weighting is first checked by an instructor and skills are performed in a training area. There are hoops hanging in the water at various depths that you have to swim through, and you have to show that you can set yourself down on the bottom on your knees gently.
There are numerous aquatic species that only live in Spring Lake. It is protected by federal law.
Saturday morning is spent learning about the lake and the plants and animals that live in it, then Sat afternoon and Sunday is all about diving. After you are certified you can volunteer to help with underwater chores. The water is crystal clear and it's a great place to go in the winter.

Currently Lake Travis is somewhere between 64 and 66 degrees. I'm still going out twice a week practicing with the techie gear. Now that the water level is coming back up, the vis is starting to clear up some. If you ever want to come out and practice, just let me know.

Carrie

 

[gr8fuldiverNC]

I am also one of the 7' primary (which is the donor reg) and 2' necklace backup types. But regardless of which way you go, I would suggest putting the backup on a necklace, for several reasons. It is a cleaner set up, with no extra hose length sticking out. It will never dangle. It is more secure than any other octo holder I have ever seen, and conversly also the easiest to deploy. If it does come loose, you will know it right away. It will always be in the exact same place, not drifting around. It is easily visilble, and wont be obscured by your other gear, regardless of brand or type or configuration. (except on my ots counterlung rebreather, but thats a different animal). If it freeflows, even slightly, you will feel it right away (if you have any amount of situational awareness). It is the cheapest way to hold your octo, and easily replaced, even on a rocking boat (put some tubing in your save a dive kit). When an out of air diver pulls your primary out (invariably the case, and a great argument for a longhose configuration), you will know exactly where it is. Properly fitted, you can grab it with your mouth alone, hands free. Properly fitted, it can hold a reg in your mouth even if you lose conciousness from oxtox fo r example(assuming you know this will happen, and switch to it ahead of time. and yes ive tried this, just going limp, not the actual loss of conciousness).

I used to require a necklace for all students, even OW, but this was when I was somewhere that tubing was readily available, and students had to buy snorkel gear anyway. Now its mainly a suggestion (tubing is scarce at many destinations), though I still require it for all students from rescue diver on up, and keep about 20 feet of tubing/bungee on hand. I really dont understand why anyone would do it differently (dont even get me started on integrated octo/inflators).

 

[gr8fuldiverNC]

Hi y'all, I've got a newbie question in relation to reg hose configurations..

Say I got an integrated inflator+octo in my setup (Zeagle Octo-Z).. can I use that as a backup octo and still attach a regular long hose octo to my configuration?
Is there anything wrong/bad/unworkable in such setup?

Thanks in advance

Actually there are a few things wrong with this kind of set up. Tec divers learn that given more options to deal with a given problem, it will take longer to decide on the appropriate action, and in an OOA situation, time is critical. Secondly, there is really no advantage to having a third second stage, if the other two are not working, the problem is not with your second stages, but due to first stage failure, or an empty tank, etc....a third second stage wont help. It will however make your rig unnecessarily complicated, violating the KISS principle. It will also add more failure points to your reg, more connections to fail, another second to freeflow, you get the idea. And it will add to the cost of servicing your regs. Thirdly, longhoses are not used for octos, just for the primary, which is donated. Using a long hose on an octo makes it impossible to stow if deployed, and therefore makes practicing with it problematic, and adds another problem of how to stow it securely in the first place so you dont have 5 or 7 feet of hose dangling. Finally, the ONLY reason (and its not a very good one) to have an integrated octo/inflator is to get rid of one of your hoses. That takes care of the 3 reg question.

As for integrated octo/inflators, there are several problems with using one. In my experience they are notoriously unreliable, hard to tune and service (impossible in the field), and prone to leaking. By integrating breathing and bouyancy funtions, if you have a problem with it, you lose bouyandcy control as well as your backup, so now you have two problems. They also require a longer inflator hose, making it much more likely to drag through the sand or mud clogging your second. And they are more uncomfortable and harder to keep in your mouth, and are usually harder to breath (they are often detuned to avoid leaks and freeflows impossible to deal with in the field) which may not be an issue until you have a real emergency. They require you to use a longer primary hose to donate, and unless this is a proper long hose properly stowed, it will stick out signicantly more, which is less streamlined and an entanglement hazard to boot. If you ever have to help an out of air diver, you will have to use your reg to dump your bc at the same time, while dealing with a freaked out diver. Its harder than it sounds, especially for neophytes. And of course most of these units require a special connection as opposed to a standard connection, and the special connections are not even standardized between companies. If you have a problem with your connection, you cannot just grab a rental reg and hook it up, it wont fit. You will have to change your lpi to the new reg, assuming of course the hose is not the problem in the first place, and assuming the shop will let you do this. If you are on a boat, you are pretty much screwed, even if someone has a spare reg. If you have a leaky inflator, and must disconnect during a dive, you have just lost your backup reg too, dive over. I could go on and on...

I hope you find this useful

 

[Arizona_SVO]

Where are you at in Tx?

Corpus. We where just at Aquarena weekend before last... lot's of divers there (over 40 each day)... a bit crowded this time of year, especially given the size they allot for checkout dives.

Looking forward to the Nat being open again, we can really get some good bouyancy training done there... and it is almost as deep as the Aquarena.

Carrielsal, hope to see you at Aquarena some time.

 

[carrielsal]

I was there the weekend of Nov 14th helping install the new underwater cam.
What is the Nat?

Carrie

 

[Arizona_SVO]

What is the Nat?

Carrie

The Nat is a swimming complex here in corpus that has been closed for several months for renovations. It is almost as deep as the checkout spot at Aquarena with the added bonus of thousands of children swimming around and playing with your equipment... it adds a bit of task loading and expense when they break your stuff.

The comment was really for Deadly_Risk, but I did not identify it as such... apologies.

 

[carrielsal]

The Nat is a swimming complex here in corpus that has been closed for several months for renovations. It is almost as deep as the checkout spot at Aquarena with the added bonus of thousands of children swimming around and playing with your equipment... it adds a bit of task loading an d expense when they break your stuff.

The comment was really for Deadly_Risk, but I did not identify it as such... apologies.

Thanks! I go to Port A a lot, but not too much to CC. I had never heard of the Nat, so I was just curious.

Sorry for hijacking your thread, Klint.

Carrie

 

[pittyyofool]

hoses are cheep and easy to change. First get a good regulator! hoses have nothing to do with the way a reg works. Then I recommend buying a bunch of hoses at different lengths and trying them out. having extra hoses in your garage is never a bad thing. you may decide to be like me and change your hose configuration depending on the dive done. For a wreck I use a 7ft hose, and for a simple open water dive I use a 28". Why mess with the long hose if it is not needed for the environment?

For gauges and computer go. I suggest a simple glass/brass pressure gauge on the reg. (plastic ones break easily) and a wrist or tether/"retractor" mounted computer.

hoses
http://stores.ebay.com/DiversBestBuy__W0QQ_sacatZDiversBestBuyQQ_sidZ717879035?_nkw=hose&submit=Search

 

[zamburinha]

I have been slowly amassing gear since I started diving last may, now I own everything but a regulator set. I have one issue that I was not able to resolve by reading through past posts on this forum and elsewhere on the internet, and that is what regulator hose lengths and configuration would be most appropriate. I am a recreational diver, and will be purely that for quite a while, even though after another year or two I would like to take fundies or similar shooting for a rec pass just for the skill.

I hesitate on hose size and placement because my OW was taught with a primary reg, computer console, and a AIR2. My issue with this, is that I no longer use a AIR2 (DSS bp/w with standard inflator) which leaves a secondary reg as my next most viable option, even though I have no practice in using one.

I like the necklace secondary, not only because of its ease of use, but because I am use to donating my primary and this option will not change that. So how long is the standard necklace hose? Or am I missing something in this thinking?

I'm not so sure on what I should do for my primary regulator. In OW it was a hose straight from the first stage to the secondary, not wrapping around or tucked anywhere. Sharing air was a very up close proposition. So what configuration do you think would work best here? A short hose just like OW or a little longer 5', 7', something else? And what would be the best way to get some practice with the setup?

If you are thinking of doing fundies or similar I would go for the 7' hose. It is easy to stow nicely even without any light, and you will get used to the setup. What I would definitively do is try the new configuration with someone who is familiar with it and can give some direct advice on how to stow things, etc. Interpreting house routings from internet forums is not always obvious

Others have already offered, but I am also in the Austin area and will be in the water often in Travis and Aquarena from mid January onwards, preparing for a cave course. Let me know if you want to join and get familiar with a long hose setup or find out more about fundies.

 

[GSADiver]

Yes, you can absolutely have an integrated alternate air source (Octo-Z) and have a standard octo/hose attached to your regulator. I am a Divemaster and I often put my standard octo/hose on my regulator for classes and demonstration. I will often attach it when I am diving with AOW students because unless the other diver has practiced an out of air emergency with the integrated alternate they may not be prepared when they look for an octo and there isn't one visible. I hope this helps!