Seven foot hose for single cylinder

[Lobzilla]

No worries; I have mentioned that a few times in BC threads



That said, I would not expect a 7' hose to be particularly cumbersome for me if I were to tuck it onto my waistband or under a can light. I mean sure, maybe a slightly shorter one would be a good "custom" length, but the main reason I chose the 5' was that I understood it to be the "equivalent" long-hose setup for open water diving.

I do see that there could be times a 7' would still be more comfortable - and I may very well switch at some point - but I guess the main idea is that in open water you are not going to *have* to go single file. You can spread out a tiny bit width-wise and then have room to still have one person more-or-less ahead/behind/above/below the other.

Again, I'm not arguing your point about team or buddy agreement on equipment and procedures though (see if you ever use me for an example again )

Blue Sparkle

If we ever meet in the water, 5' will be fine. I like cozy

On the dive pictured above we were drifting in a current. Later in the day we decided to share gas for some time to practice and to equalize gas volume. With the current you get turbulence as well as up and downdrafts that hit you at different times and magnitudes even if you are fairly close together. While 5' would have worked, 7' gave us more leeway to ride this stuff out and not have to worry about the regulator being yanked out of someone's mouth. (Please, do yourself the favor of hanging on to that life-line with your hand if you are really OOG).

 

[TSandM]

The idea behind the 7' hose is that it is long enough to permit air-sharing in single-file, which can be an absolute necessity in caves or wrecks. There is no situation in open water diving where you MUST share gas in single file, and in the majority of open water situations, if you have an out-of-air diver, you are not going to stay underwater any longer than it takes to ascend. (One exception I can think of is in thick kelp, where travel underwater is far easier than travel on the surface, and where being single file might minimize entanglement-related delays.)

The biggest problem with the 5' hose is that it doesn't work well for people with big chests and broad shoulders. In addition, in my Fundies class, we had one fellow with a 5' hose, and we all agreed that air-sharing with it was nowhere near as comfortable as using the 7-footer. HOWEVER -- we're talking experienced divers with very good control here. If you are expecting to donate to someone and to have to remain in touch contact with them until you have successfully ended the dive, even a 5' hose is more than you really NEED.

 

[Lobzilla]

The idea behind the 7' hose is that it is long enough to permit air-sharing in single-file, which can be an absolute necessity in caves or wrecks. There is no situation in open water diving where you MUST share gas in single file, and in the majority of open water situations, if you have an out-of-air diver, you are not going to stay underwater any longer than it takes to ascend. (One exception I can think of is in thick kelp, where travel underwater is far easier than travel on the surface, and where being single file might minimize entanglement-related delays.)

The biggest problem with the 5' hose is that it doesn't work well for people with big chests and broad shoulders. In addition, in my Fundies class, we had one fellow with a 5' hose, and we all agreed that air-sharing with it was nowhere near as comfortable as using the 7-footer. HOWEVER -- we're talking experienced divers with very good control here. If you are expecting to donate to someone and to have to remain in touch contact with them until you have successfully ended the dive, even a 5' hose is more than you really NEED.

FWIW, when we did gas-sharing drills with the recipient having 'lost' the mask we had to guide the blind OOG diver by the arm. Even then, the 7' hose did not feel excessive. Certainly not necessary but not in the way either.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I am thinking about adding a seven foot hose to my single setup for sport limts. Anyone out there use this type of setup? What would be the pros and cons?

I'm putting this back up here to note that the OP asked a couple of questions ... I notice that some of the responses made no attempt to answer them, but instead to deride those who might be in a position to.

A 7' hose is for single file air sharing in a restriction. A 7' hose has to be bungied, a 5' hose does not and it functions perfectly in open water air sharing.

This is misinformation.

Would seem to be more reasonable to first identify a problem area, then seek out a solution. This seems more like deciding on a course of action then justifying it. I'm not saying it's wrong to approach things that way, but one ought to realise which is which.

There, or course, very good reasons for long hose deployment, though recreation divers, as a rule, seldom do so. I have used in cave diving, but have never encountered a buddy breathing scenario [involving me] in open water. As for length, in my opinion, 5 ft doesn't cut it. That's right at my boots, and there are fins to follow.

You have the right do do as you wish, and it really isn't anyone else's business except, perhaps, your buddy's. Try it out, see what you think. It's an evolving process.

Good point, but doesn't answer the questions.

Kilili gets it right.

As always: Herd mentality, herd behavior - a knol by Peter Greenfinch

He meant to post this one I think: Luddite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is no need for the use of a 7' hose in single tank recreational diving, and there are drawbacks for using one. Learning is a process:

Cognitive dissonance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gratuitous insulting ... which not only doesn't answer the questions, but reflects poorly on the maturity of the responders.

I would be interested in hearing more about these drawbacks.

Just out of curiosity (and not to derail the discussion), how is a bungied long hose meant to be deployed? Does the OOG diver grab it out of where it's stuffed? Or is the donating diver meant to reach back to her tank and pull it out that way?

It seems fraught either way.

My OW instructor used a bungeed 7-foot hose as a backup. He had it stuffed into a neoprene sleeve which ran along the lower edge of his jacket-style BCD. As I recall, this was a commercially available product that was attached to the right side of the BCD via a strip of velcro. When the hose was deployed, he could remove the sleeve, restow the hose, and reattach it to the velcro strip on the BCD.

I've never seen anyone else use this sleeve ... and my assumption is that it's something that was sold for a time, and probably didn't catch on, so it's not sold anymore.

There is no situation in open water diving where you MUST share gas in single file, and in the majority of open water situations, if you have an out-of-air diver, you are not going to stay underwater any longer than it takes to ascend. (One exception I can think of is in thick kelp, where travel underwater is far easier than travel on the surface, and where being single file might minimize entanglement-related delays.)

Exactly ... remember our dive on Davidson Rocks? The return to the boat through that bull kelp required a single-file approach. Imagine trying to do that while sharing air. It might have been possible in a standard rig, but it would've been an awful lot of work ... and ascending to the surface and making your way through the floating kelp mat would've been a nightmare ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Ianstephenzs]

One major con is that if you don't rout it correctly and don't check it's routing befor every dive it can get you in a real cluster when you are really in a out of air situation.
Ian

 

[TSandM]

Ianstephenz, I disagree a bit with that. How can you get the long hose hung up so that you cannot donate at least 24" of it? (Which is what people using Air2s with traditional length primary hoses have to do.) I have gotten the hose hung up on the isolator valve on my manifold before (which like having just a short hose) and have still managed to donate.

 

[joe8mofo]

My OW instructor used a bungeed 7-foot hose as a backup. He had it stuffed into a neoprene sleeve which ran along the lower edge of his jacket-style BCD. As I recall, this was a commercially available product that was attached to the right side of the BCD via a strip of velcro. When the hose was deployed, he could remove the sleeve, restow the hose, and reattach it to the velcro strip on the BCD.

I've never seen anyone else use this sleeve ... and my assumption is that it's something that was sold for a time, and probably didn't catch on, so it's not sold anymore.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I have seen this type of 7' hose backup system in use by a DM for Aldora Divers this January. I watched him deploy it and put it back into the holding sleeve with ease.

Also my 7 ft hose arrives today, I am hoping to start with it this weekend with a single tank configuration.

 

[tbone1004]

To throw my opinion in...
I just don't like 7' hoses... I learned with long hose primary and suicide strap on the octo. I am comfortable donating, but I really just don't like like hoses. Don't know why, but have never enjoyed diving with them. My OW gear is 40 inch hose on a 90* adapter that goes under my right shoulder so it's nice and comfy and it works. We can swim next to each other with little problem. I can't use a 5' hose because if I'm diving with my dive buddies and we're OOA we're going single file anyway because it's more comfortable and we're used to caves. If it's a rec diver, I don't want him out of arms reach because I have no idea what he's going to do. Personal preference, but if I'm in a cave, I won't dive with a backmount diver who has a 5' hose. I'm a rather long individual and a 5' hose won't reach if I'm in front which is my preferred position for the OOA diver...

As far as the bungeed long hose. One of my buddies does this. When we do S-drills he doesn't deploy it all the way as I won't deploy my 9' hose all the way when I'm diving sidemount out of common courtesy, they suck to restow and part of our predive checks and in water checks is to make sure they are routed properly. His bungee is around the tanks and stows in like a stage reg does. All the way down and back up, then loops back in the middle of the loop as deep as it needs to be for him to breathe comfortable. It works fine for us. One of my other buddies has bungee loops in the holes on the side of his backplate. The long hose is looped inside of that and his can light is on his left clipped into the holes on the other side. Makes life easier for him and it works. We've done simulated OOA situations with each of the configurations in caves and have yet to have a problem. The one problem I did have was with a DIR style configuration in my full cave class. I was OOA, and had actually had a legit first stage failure but the drill was planned so we went ahead with it anyway. The other diver thought I was actually out of air and got task loaded and excited. He forgot to untuck his hose from the can light. I thought we were caught on something as my elbow is in his face and I'm kicking sideways *this was lights out as well* so I'm tugging on the reg trying to turn straight since we were in the peanut tunnel and my leg was hitting the wall. We were making headway so after about 15 secs I realized he just hadn't untucked it or it was caught on his cord or something. 5 minutes later he realized this and let the hose out. With the long hose bungeed when I pulled it would have slipped out. Not saying it's better as I've done the DIR hose routing OOA situations before and with calm divers it's not a problem. This guy was really excitable and jumpy, but a lot of people get like that in similar situations...

 

[Lobzilla]

One major con is that if you don't rout it correctly and don't check it's routing befor every dive it can get you in a real cluster when you are really in a out of air situation.
Ian

Agree with TSandM.

The routing and deployment check is not a con; it is matter of pre-dive diligence that you would have to perform with your octo or air 2 in other ways.

Even a captured long hose is better than the other options because it is at least as long as the alternatives and you KNOW that the reg is working because you just breathed it.

The only place the long hose sometimes gets in the way is when I do not wear the rig. Anyone having some hose-taming suggestions for the nose breathing portions of a dive day?

 

[Lobzilla]

To throw my opinion in...
I just don't like 7' hoses... I learned with long hose primary and suicide strap on the octo. I am comfortable donating, but I really just don't like like hoses. Don't know why, but have never enjoyed diving with them. My OW gear is 40 inch hose on a 90* adapter that goes under my right shoulder so it's nice and comfy and it works. We can swim next to each other with little problem. I can't use a 5' hose because if I'm diving with my dive buddies and we're OOA we're going single file anyway because it's more comfortable and we're used to caves. If it's a rec diver, I don't want him out of arms reach because I have no idea what he's going to do. Personal preference, but if I'm in a cave, I won't dive with a backmount diver who has a 5' hose. I'm a rather long individual and a 5' hose won't reach if I'm in front which is my preferred position for the OOA diver...

As far as the bungeed long hose. One of my buddies does this. When we do S-drills he doesn't deploy it all the way as I won't deploy my 9' hose all the way when I'm diving sidemount out of common courtesy, they suck to restow and part of our predive checks and in water checks is to make sure they are routed properly. His bungee is around the tanks and stows in like a stage reg does. All the way down and back up, then loops back in the middle of the loop as deep as it needs to be for him to breathe comfortable. It works fine for us. One of my other buddies has bungee loops in the holes on the side of his backplate. The long hose is looped inside of that and his can light is on his left clipped into the holes on the other side. Makes life easier for him and it works. We've done simulated OOA situations with each of the configurations in caves and have yet to have a problem. The one problem I did have was with a DIR style configuration in my full cave class. I was OOA, and had actually had a legit first stage failure but the drill was planned so we went ahead with it anyway. The other diver thought I was actually out of air and got task loaded and excited. He forgot to untuck his hose from the can light. I thought we were caught on something as my elbow is in his face and I'm kicking sideways *this was lights out as well* so I'm tugging on the reg trying to turn straight since we were in the peanut tunnel and my leg was hitting the wall. We were making headway so after about 15 secs I realized he just hadn't untucked it or it was caught on his cord or something. 5 minutes later he realized this and let the hose out. With the long hose bungeed when I pulled it would have slipped out. Not saying it's better as I've done the DIR hose routing OOA situations before and with calm divers it's not a problem. This guy was really excitable and jumpy, but a lot of people get like that in similar situations...

sidemount = completely different subject

forgot to untuck his hose from the can light = skill problem (should not be fixed with gear changes)