Regulator hose under arm

[Steve_C]

I am failing to see the complete wonder of it for rec diving.

In film she breaths off the long hose with a short hose at the neck for back up. In case of airshare she passes off her reg and breaths off the short hose.

The standard arrangement is to breath off the short hose all along and pass off the backup longer hose.

Is the advantage that the long hose is longer? Distance from where my long hose reg is from my head is only about a foot anyway.

 

[Nemrod]

Many people route their primary under their arm. I run my solo rig second stage under my arm and there is no secondary, I use a pony (maybe) in that configuration. Usually a 36 to 42 inch hose is required and a 90 degree swivel fitting for comfort.

N

 

[halocline]

The standard arrangement is to breath off the short hose all along and pass off the backup longer hose.

Is the advantage that the long hose is longer? Distance from where my long hose reg is from my head is only about a foot anyway.

Advantage number one is that in a real world out-of-air scenario, the OOA diver is likely to go straight for the 2nd stage in your mouth. I've been mugged for my 2nd stage twice, and you would be surprised how fast it happens. So having the primary 2nd stage on a long hose makes it easy to share air with your primary, in the event that a real emergency is not like the PADI fantasy air-share drills in which the OOA diver politely waits for you to offer a 2nd stage while he's turning blue...

Advantage number two is that the alternate 2nd stage is always in an excellent location to use, just a few inches from your mouth. With a little practice, you can even grab it hands-free by just dipping your chin. This has come in handy to me while fending off a panicked diver who has already taken my primary.

Advantage number three is that there are no big loops of regulator hose to catch on stuff or a dragging octo that's come loose from some flimsy plastic clip.

Advantage number four is that it's much more comfortable to use a longer hose for the the primary 2nd stage because the longer hose is more flexible and helps alleviate the push-pull on your mouth as you move your head around.

I prefer a 5 ft hose routed under my right arm, across my chest, over the left shoulder and around behind my head. It's VERY streamlined, easy to deploy, very comfortable for the 99.9% of the time when you're not in an emergency air-sharing situation, and requires no special fittings. The hogarthian divers really got this one right, except of course for open water you don't need the 7ft hose for single file air sharing through restrictions.

I've been a DM for years (almost never working) and I have zero desire to teach recreational scuba, but if I did, every student would be in a long hose arrangement. It's just much better in all ways.

 

[tbone1004]

The Sherwood Maximus has underarm routing. I never remember it being a problem with a normal octopus.

---------- Post added May 1st, 2015 at 03:17 PM ----------



The video does not show how the hoses come off the first stage however this is important for the hose length. If you have a reg with a downward port it makes for a neater routing and a shorter hose. If you have a first stage where the hoses route up and out from the side it can take a longer hose and the routing may not be tight against the body. I tried this set up using an Apeks FST and did not like it. It worked much better with a MK-25.

I am, but that's essentially an integrated angle adapter, but you also don't see them that often.

regarding the first stage, Dive Rites first stages are similar to the Apeks DST, so on that particular video I think the reg was vertical with the primary coming out of the bottom. The other way to do it is to run it like the left post on a set of doubles and just add the primary to the same side of the turret as the inflator.

Steve, main advantage is to streamline the hose routing for a recreational diver already using a primary regulator donation without going to a true long hose. This usually is a 36" hose that bows quite a ways out, this helps to streamline that and give a bit more hose for donation without it getting unwieldy.

 

[Dave616]

I was basically solo diving in Coz this year since my wife is knocked up, so I set my regs up for me.
- 36" miflex/primary under my arm on a swivel mount. Had issues with it snagging on my light head. Next time I'll try a 30".
- 18" miflex/secondary over my shoulder on a reg necklace, with a 90* elbow. No issues very streamlined.
- 24" Miflex HP hose. Routed SPG under left arm, bolt snapped to left chest D-ring instead of left hip.
- 15" miflex inflator hose (I have a DR 12" corrugated hose and was using a Dive Alert Horn)



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Steve_C]

Thanks for the comments. I can see why some would like it.

Only had one OOA - well actually there was a reg issue and instabuddy thought they had no air source. They swam to me and signaled out of air. Passed over the secondary and all was well. Given it was their first dive post cert and cert was in a lake and this was in the ocean at 50 ft says a lot about their training.

I like the idea of my air is in my mouth at all times. I have a sea cure on my primary and am missing a couple teeth so the reg is literally locked in place. Not easy to remove. If I handoff the secondary the left hand is there to protect my primary if necessary.

I often sling a pony and that reg is about a foot from my mouth and quickly accessible also.

 

[TN-Steve]

I run the same setup on a couple of my regs. 40 incher on the primary, with a 90* adapter. Have a snap bolt attached with a break-away so I can just stow it on my chest d-ring if I don't need it. Alt is bungeed with a 26 (want to go shorter, just need to get a hose). Both are braided hoses.

I run the primary of the backmost port on the reg, and the alt off the one closest to my head. Just seemed to have fewer issues with getting them intertwined that way. None of my regs have hi-flow or enhanced ports.

I like it. It's easy, the air my partner gets isn't dragging in the dirt, and if I get mugged for my air (and while it hasn't happened to me, I understand that a person who is actually out of air rarely comes and calmly signals "I'm out of air, may I please have some of your?")

Since I've got the same brand / model primary and octo, I switched covers on them so that the primary (or the one they get) is yellow. I make it a point to mention it when diving with folks that don't know me, so they don't keep telling me "You're breathing the wrong reg".

I have a feeling that one of my regs is going to go back to a 'traditional' setup, simply because I'll be starting the Divemaster program at the LDS, and I know that they don't want things that will confuse new student divers. (and that's an entirely different matter of discussion)

Last thoughts... When I was in Curacao in March, I'd say that 60-70% of the divers were European, and a very large number were running similar setups. If you do it, DiveGearExpress.com has the best prices on hoses, and especially 90* adapters out there.

Steve

 

[eelnoraa]

here is video the owner of dive rite shows his regulator setup. The later portion of the video with a male diver, he show a interesting regulator orientation. Basically setup side way, with bungee short short hose coming out the the "bottom" port ...
You can see here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OrTXi-hjv4

Persoanlly, I am not a fan of this under arm routing. I have tried it, but didn't work well for me. I recall the main issue is the hose never confine to my body. When my arms are extending forward, the under arm hose flow out and create a big bow everytime. I have never noticed it myself. But every picture of me with that setup, I can see it.

 

[buddhasummer]

I used to use a 44" primary with elbow routed under arm with a 22" bungeed back up and I liked it. Until one day when I had to do an air share and decided longer would be better. I switched to a 5' decided it was a fraction too short to route nicely so swapped to a 7'.

 

[Nemrod]

Since I dive double hose regulators 90% of the time, I am not giving up my primary. The OOA gets my octopus which is routed under my arm on a 4 foot hose and is either bungeed at my neck with a slip release fisherman knot or it is in a keeper attached to my right shoulder D ring.

N