Solo Gear & DIR Setup

[divad]

:huh:

How is it a non-question?

Did you read the ostensible question?

 

[divad]

O.K. I just realized that you posted the "ostensible question." What did you mean to ask? I don't understand the question. The answer to the question you posed, is, as indicated in the question, not at all.

 

[christianweber]

the more i think about the sidemount thing the more i start to love it ,even if i look like a walking sales display , but i won't walk to much with them , keep my butt in the water ,and who cares anyway if i am solo i mean solo ,there are not to many people around usually nobody in the spring autum and winter time it is very seldom to meet other divers ,most people stay at home because tha are afraid to get a cold nose.

 

[christianweber]

what is a "ostensible question" :huh: question i understand but the ostensible is giving me a hard time

 

[divad]

what is a "ostensible question"

Loaded or rhetorical comes to mind.

 

[nice-diver]

same day same ocean (SDSO) may be the acronym some are looking for to describe a photog in a group.

i dive a bp and w with a long hose. it works nice to clip the long reg to my kayak and throw it in the water and not float off while I get in. The long hose also makes it easy to get into the bc floating at the surface. when I dive solo, I am usually the only sole on the lake.

an octopus reg when you solo, you always have a back up for your self.

 

[Nemrod]

"an octopus reg when you solo, you always have a back up for your self."

An octapus is not backup for anything, it is not redundant nor is it independent. An octapus has only one purpose, to supply an out of air BUDDY with redundancy, a circumstance not possible if solo being as you would have no buddy and therefore no need for an octapus on short hose, middle hose or seven foot long hose. However, a set of independent doubles, a single with buddy bottle, the interesting side mount rig all have "backup", I suppose an isolation manifolded double set also, but your seven foot long octapus does not provide any back up and therefore is not an optimum rig for solo diving no matter how great it is for buddy diving in caves.

From the original post:

"I realize the DIR philosophy fundamentally opposes solo diving. How relevant is the gear configuration to solo divers? It seems to me the long hose would offer no benefit and fins would be personal choice. Other than a redundant air source is their any consensus on the best solo gear setup?"

Answer:

I understand the ostensible question, he is asking if the long hose octapus is useful in solo diving and if like DIR divers, who use a fairly regimented gear set up, do solo divers also recommend a rigiid defined gear set up--the answers are NO, the long hose octapus is not useful in solo diving and NO, as you can see from this thread, there is no concensus upon a single gear set up or even it's specific uses. N

 

[TomP]

"an octopus reg when you solo, you always have a back up for your self."

An octapus is not backup for anything, it is not redundant nor is it independent. An octapus has only one purpose, to supply an out of air BUDDY with redundancy, a circumstance not possible if solo being as you would have no buddy and therefore no need for an octapus on short hose, middle hose or seven foot long hose. However, a set of independent doubles, a single with buddy bottle, the interesting side mount rig all have "backup", I suppose an isolation manifolded double set also, but your seven foot long octapus does not provide any back up and therefore is not an optimum rig for solo diving no matter how great it is for buddy diving in caves.

N

Nem,
At the risk of invoking deja vu all over again, I think you may be combining two separate notions.

I agree 100% with your characterization of what an octopus is, and that an octopus is of no benefit to the solo diver. But, in the configs i've seen the long hose is used on the primary regulator. I'm not DIR but I did check the GUE site and it seems the long hose is primary in a DIR config as well.

So, any debate about the value of a long hose should be in the context of a primary reg. In that context the advantages of streamlining, comfort, etc. are all still valid.

 

[christianweber]

So, any debate about the value of a long hose should be in the context of a primary reg. In that context the advantages of streamlining, comfort, etc. are all still valid.

that is true
there is a lot of personal preferance involved ,kind of the dive as well. can't say is useless or does it is a must .
to have it does not harm not to have it could be to short for me.
with the sidemount it won't be nessesary, thats my guess.

 

[captain]

Nem,
At the risk of invoking deja vu all over again, I think you may be combining two separate notions.

I agree 100% with your characterization of what an octopus is, and that an octopus is of no benefit to the solo diver. But, in the configs i've seen the long hose is used on the primary regulator. I'm not DIR but I did check the GUE site and it seems the long hose is primary in a DIR config as well.

So, any debate about the value of a long hose should be in the context of a primary reg. In that context the advantages of streamlining, comfort, etc. are all still valid.

Although the long hose is the primary in useage it is the one passed off to the OOA diver and the octo than becomes the primary. A situation which can not happen when solo, so the long hose is of little value.