team diving skills

[beeger]

A 7' foot hose will not really solve any problems by itself. A well trained diver with their primary on a long hose will solve problems and better manage stressful situations. In short a long primary hose provides two benefits: better hose routing than the traditional over the shoulder method; more hose to use when sharing air with another diver. It is okay to go with a shorter hose on basic open water dives. For example I use a 6' hose when diving single tank, and 7' with doubles (however, once I find a way to better route a 7' hose with my single tank setup I'll probably just stick with that).

tbrown - your comments are well intentioned. You should be paying close attention to your buddy. But I would submit that the real issues are as follows: your buddy needs a reg that works and s/he needs it NOW. You probably have only one shot to solve this problem and you better hand off a reg that works. There's no time to feel around for an octopus which might or might not be functioning (it probably is but you don't know for *sure*). Once you hand off the primary you need immediate access to your secondary - no time to feel around. It should be there under your chin. With practice and a perfect length necklace some divers can even get the backup reg in their mouth without using their hands.

[jasondbaker]

I dive a 7' hose because the hose routing works much better for me. I think a 5' hose would work just fine for OW dives as well. I think the bungied backup and donating the primary reg are more important than the long hose.

[tcjtn0]

I agree with Jason. I really like the bungied backup. And I found that a 5ft hose worked just as good as a 7ft hose for me. (I tried both and stayed with the 7ft). I guess I always have assumed that in an Out-of-Air situation my buddy goes "crazy" and goes after my primary. (I always assume that the worst case senario can happen)
IMHO

Thanks...Jean

[LKunze]

One other nice thing about the long hose primary is that you don't have that big loop of hose sticking way out over your shoulder ready to snag on a tree branch at Crosby or Wazee and yanking the reg out of your mouth. The long hose when routed properly is definately more streamlined.

[davisj]

Irmoll,

When I lost my buddy, I did what was taught in the beginning classes, search ( indeed hopelessly) for a minute,and then surfaced. I certainly wouldn't continue alone ( unless I was chasing a mermaid,of course ;D).

Jeff

[tbrown]

Ok, I'll grant the comfort/better streamlining. Heck I'll even give rule #2 (always look cool ;D), but the better to have a long hose for donation is arguement that I have a hard time with. The scenerio most popular to use is, paniced diver will take primary from your mouth, so give it to them because you know it works, and you will have some space. Let me take this to the next step (and I truly beleive this will happen next), paniced diver spits out/rejects offered reg and comes after the one that you now have bungeed around your neck. You now have a battle for the one in front of you, and the other is on the end of a long hose God knows where, but probably tangled in the struggle. Granted this is a situation that there is no easy answer for, but one I keep playing with. I can't see how anything other than more training will solve this, and the hose length and/or which reg to donate is a side issue.

[davisj]

Long hose, short hose, clogged,... or non working Octo, How many have had really "Bad" experiences under water ?? For any reason.........

[jasondbaker]

The panicked diver takes the reg out of your mouth. Now you have 7ft of hose between you and the diver. I bet you have a much better chance to fight the guy off with a long hose separating you versus a short one. And with the backup closely bungeed around your neck you may reduce the chance that he will rip that one away as well. If the backup was in some sort of octo holder it would be easy to take away from you.

[LKunze]

Wow...you are really going out on a limb to put down the long hose aren't you Tom? Why would someone spit out a perfectly working reg you just gave them? It just doesn't make any sense to me. Sharing air with the long hose is not hard...it's faster to deploy and IMO safer. I don't think anyone said that ONLY having a long hose setup and NEVER practicing an OOA drill guarantees safe air sharing. Obviously you need to practice it and go over it with your buddy just like anything else. Furthermore if diving with a diver that is not diving the same configuration as you, then you should perform an OOA drill with them at the start of the dive so they are fully aware of how to deal with it.

[igotoofar]

I would think this would be discussed as part of the dive plan.
In this sitiuation we will do this or that.

Granted, at the onset of the Panic sitiuation, the out-of-air diver will want to opt for the fastest sollution to recive air. But once this is solved, things can slow down and follow a plan.