What are YOUR hose lengths and why?

[LakeCountyDiver]

I am considering moving to a long hose (also 7') on the left side, or at least trying it out to see if I like it. The current rig reflects the fact I strated in BM, and simply adopted the same second stage hose configuration for SM.No.

I hate my 7' and would be happy to dump it if not for buddy diving and OOA safety&ease. I could not imagine wanting to have 2 7' hoses on. If I soloed alot I would only wear 2 short hoses but thats just me.

Is there a reason you would want to adopt 2 7' hoses or you just thinking of just playing???

 

[shoredivr]

I'm reading that as Colliam7 is putting the long hose on the left tank, not the right one.

 

[LakeCountyDiver]

I'm reading that as Colliam7 is putting the long hose on the left tank, not the right one.

hmm you may be right... I read it as another 7' as in addition to the one on the right.

 

[Colliam7]

I read it as another 7' as in addition to the one on the right.

And, you are right. Here's my thinking:

The (R) long hose / (L) short hose works well on manifolded (BM) doubles. There is ONE air supply. With SM, there are two. Depending on where I am with my gas usage, and assuming a worst case scenario where I have lower air pressure on the right side, I may want to use my left tank for my OOA buddy. That isn't easy to do with a 34" bungeed necklace. Essentially, there is no particular basis in SM for a short bungeed necklace on the left side, and a long hose on the right, except that it is a vestigial remainder of BM doubles. I don't mean that as a negative. Rather, many of us who moved to SM did so after spending some time with BM.

I am quite comfortable with a long / short configuration. I have seen others who dive equal length hoses on both sides (5' or 7'), and am simply thinking of trying it. After all, isn't SM a bastion of scuba experimentation?

 

[beanojones]

If you come up with a means to make 7' work on both sides, please let me know.

In particular, one long hose can be neck wrapped after deploy. The second would be what?

I guess the thing is that with the tanks in front (unclipped and swiveled forwards, or just the valves unbungied), stowing a hose back on the tanks is possible without buddy aid, unlike in BM.

 

[BB1]

Just as another example of the variety of configurations out there:

My usual sidemount buddy has his 7' hose on the right tank but he bungees more of it and instead of running it across his chest and around the neck he simple runs straight up to his mouth with a 90 deg fitting. Clipped to right chest d-ring when not is use.

Works just as well and he can donate no problems.

So far in my limited experience of sidemount, as long as you and your dive buddy know how the other persons gear is set up then it shouldn't be a problem?

When we do use BM dubs we both use standard Hogarthian config.

 

[beanojones]

Just as another example of the variety of configurations out there:

My usual sidemount buddy has his 7' hose on the right tank but he bungees more of it and instead of running it across his chest and around the neck he simple runs straight up to his mouth with a 90 deg fitting. Clipped to right chest d-ring when not is use.

Works just as well and he can donate no problems.

So far in my limited experience of sidemount, as long as you and your dive buddy know how the other persons gear is set up then it shouldn't be a problem?

So he has the long hose bungied on the tank with the 2nd stage on a 90 and the left reg looped behind his neck?

That actually sounds like what I am going to try next. If I deploy the long hose I can still loop around the neck to stow it away, but only one hose goes behind the neck to start. (and the behind the neck looping gives some length to the left reg if it is needed to share with for whatever reason.)

 

[CyprusSeb]

I've experimented with two long hoses and it's worked out quite well. Left behind neck and clipped off when not in use, right straight up with a 70 degree bend (like them better than the 90's).
My reason for this wasn't due to gas management but due to reg deployment. My primary dive buddy and I still practice primary take and while I know which reg is in my mouth....he does not. This way he's not trying to take the bungeed reg out of my mouth (which is why I opted to get away from bungee on opposite side). Half the hose is stowed on the side of the tank between my side and the tank. It's easily adjusted if too much slack comes out by simply reaching down and pulling some slack into the 180 degree loop where the hose again routes up the bottle and is held in place with two pieces of intertube like my stage bottle's 1 meter hose. When diving in the blue this doesn't serve much purpose but I leave it as is as it doesn't hinder anything. But in narrow ladder shafts if things get squirrely I know i need to get a breathing reg into my buddies mouth and I know whatever reg is in my mouth can go to my buddy.
Stowing the hose if fully deployed takes about a whole 5 seconds.

 

[beanojones]

When you say long hose are you talking about the full 7 foot (2.2 meter?) hose on both sides?

 

[CyprusSeb]

Assuming you're asking me. Yes...a full 7 foot hoses. Not needed to be that long....just happen to be what I had sitting around and even at that length they are completely out of the way. A shorter "long hose" would work fine as well.