Why breathe from a long hose?

[Cave Diver]

Poorly trained divers will not suddenly become well trained divers just because they buy new gear.

"Don't use an equipment solution to fix a skills problem."

 

[Rainer]

I remember vividly! Yeah, it wasn't cut back. How he wasn't gagging on the thing is beyond me. I now know to check mouthpieces on new teammates' gear.

Even trimmed back, though, the custom mouthpieces aren't ideal for air-sharing. The ones I've tried just don't sit naturally in my obviously different mouth. Sure, for an OW rec dive, if I somehow lost my gas and came to you and you had such a mouthpiece, I'm hardly going to complain.

That said, for "bigger" dives, where you could be on someone's long hose for quite some time, why add the annoyance to an otherwise stressful situation? I think they're fine on back up regs, but not a fan of them on primaries. Again, not a big enough issue to concern me for some easy diving, but perhaps something to avoid for more intense dives.

Curious whether his Sea Cure was cut back or full length? Do you remember? I would almost choke on a full length one.

 

[Cave Diver]

since the reason for installing the seacure was to reduce jaw fatigue on multi dive vacations. wouldn't cutting the wings back off of the back teeth defeat the purpose?

I'm not really a fan of seacure, especially on a long hose, but the same thought crossed my mind.

Not sure how many divers who paid $25 for a mouthpiece would do some that might necessitate them replacing it either. (Divers wasting money buying the same gear twice, I better duck for this one!)

 

[Teamcasa]

Saying "air sharing with standard length hoses and octos is not unsafe nor very hard to manage" is not the same as saying "Will [a long hose] allow for a safer air sharing event is open water? Nope."

The reason some of us use long hose setups in OW is explicitly because we believe it does allow for safer air sharing in open water, even in a "direct ascent to the surface" scenario.

Having spent the last weekend doing little but air share ascent drills, I'm even more of a fan of the long hose setup than I was before (if that's even possible).

An excellent and reasonable response.

 

[Cave Diver]

Except the darn snorkel that gets in the way! Now a snorkel in the pocket or attached somewhere other than the mask would be OK.

Now if only they made a snorkel with a 7' tube and a seacure mouthpiece...

 

[SteveAD]

Could standards violation come into play during the teaching of regulator recovery?

5. In shallow water, recover a regulator hose from behind the shoulder while
underwater.

Don't see why. Start with long hose fully deployed/unwrapped it falls just like a short hose.

 

[Web Monkey]

The fact is, though, your description of OW dives is BS.

There are PLENTY of dives I do in OW where swimming to some spot BEFORE ascending is a really, really good idea. If I had to do direct ascents in certain areas due to an OOG situation, I'd be in a world of hurt.

The OW curriculum and certification is based on the ability to do a direct ascent to the surface at any time.

If you can't do that, they are not OW dives and OW training and equipment is insufficient.

Terry

 

[Cave Diver]

That said, for "bigger" dives, where you could be on someone's long hose for quite some time, why add the annoyance to an otherwise stressful situation? I think they're fine on back up regs, but not a fan of them on primaries. Again, not a big enough issue to concern me for some easy diving, but perhaps something to avoid for more intense dives.

Having a seacure on a backup reg kinda defeats the point in diving with one in the first place. The only time the owner would use it would be if they were donating in an OOA situation.

But

if they were to bungie their long hose, breathe off the short one with the seacure, then they could have the best of both worlds; Ability to donate a long hose and the retention of their own mouthpiece.

 

[mrfixitchapman]

Now if only they made a snorkel with a 7' tube and a seacure mouthpiece...

I have a Seacure mouthpiece on my snorkel. And it's a rebreather, too!

DC

 

[Rainer]

LOL, maybe your OW curriculum taught you that. I know my wife's recent OW course was a bit more...realistic. There are PLENTY of OW recreational dives where swimming <100' (back toward shore or to the boat) while UW before ascending could make the difference between a successful OOG rescue and an unsuccessful one. Personally, I choose gear that will help me in just such a situation.

The OW curriculum and certification is based on the ability to do a direct ascent to the surface at any time.

If you can't do that, they are not OW dives and OW training and equipment is insufficient.

Terry