What to tell my spouse about fundamentals?

[Lorenzoid]

My wife and I were once in the same quandary as you. I tried a 5-foot hose, thinking 7 feet is surely unnecessary for the OW diver, especially one of modest stature, but soon switched it out for a 7-foot hose when it became clear the 5-foot hose routing caused it to tug annoyingly on the reg in my mouth. The only way a 5-foot hose could be comfortable is if an elbow or swivel is used, and--someone correct me if I'm wrong--GUE doesn't like such kluges since they present potential failure points. You will be surprised at how, after just a few dives with a 7-foot hose, it starts to feel perfectly natural, and you start believing any shorter hose feels too short. The sh*t-eating grin you will get when you discover the beauty of the 7-foot hose is just one of many such grins you are in for. Enjoy the ride!

 

[phoenix31tt]

I can't comment first hand on 5-foot, but the 7-foot fits both me and my wife perfectly. We do "warm water", open water dives and the routing and management is certainly not an issue. No can lights and no need to even route with a knife, we just tuck it in our waist straps.

we are about 5'9" and 5'10" slim built and dive with al80's if that makes a difference. Based on the "excess" hose we have now i can see 5-foot may provide some unwanted tugging if you turn your head to far to the left

 

[ScubaInChicago]

+1 for having a 7' hose for both you and the wife. My wife and I who is defacto GUE trained also dives with a 7' hose. These logistics make it perfect for sharing resources on various dives. Her SAC rate is probably in the .2 range during the working portion of our single tank dives. It would be a shame to call a dive on my min gas alone. So I'll breath my tank down to within a few hundred PSI of min gas then do an air share till we reach NDLs or close to her min gas. The hose length is a reminder of how close a dive buddy really should be and helps strengthen communication at the same time.