Quote:
| Originally Posted by MarkP IF there is a difference it's negligible. The advantages far outweigh this theoretical performance drop.
Mark |
I agree that breathing the long hose and donating it has many advantages over donating an octopus and it's a way I would like to set my kit up. There are a couple of reasons I have not done so yet:
I learnt the BSAC way and sometimes instruct in a BSAC club. BSAC requires donating an octopus, using the reasoning that it's better not to have a second diver out of air. I think this is true for inexperienced divers who may be more likely to panic without a reg in their mouths.
As a result, a lot of effort has been invested in training this way, and all club kit is configured this way. If I dived long hose/short hose, would an out of air diver attempt to take the reg from the necklace rather than the one from my mouth?
I usually dive single cylinder and pony, occasionally independent twins. With independent twins you have to swap regs, so you won't know which reg has the long hose until you try and take it. The downside of the octopus with independent twins is that it might be attached to the cylinder with less gas, the upside is that you know which reg it is and can find it easily - it's yellow.
The DIR people are of course right, but there is additional effort in training and keeping current on two different kit configurations, and with that comes some additional risk. It would be great if everyone learnt to breath the long hose and donate the primary, but I can see BSACs reasons for insisting on what they do.