It was the principle of a long hose which first made me think about hogarthian kit set up - and later DIR. Having tried to make an out of gas ascent whilst in a pool whilst training I realised how uncomfortable this was when happy and unstressed and didn't want to imagine how difficult it would be on a shot line with a long ascent to do. There is an alternative system that has many benefits over the standard system described above. This involves having your primary regulator on a 7ft long hose and your back-up regulator on a standard length hose.  The 7ft hose is routed so that it points down from the regulator 1st stage, runs down along the tank, across the chest, around the neck and then into the mouth. For obvious reasons do not try and wrap this hose around your neck multiple times.

The backup regulator, on the normal length hose comes over your right shoulder and sits under your chin attached to a length of bungee cord. The situation of the backup regulator has many advantages. Firstly, it is right where you need it, close to your mouth. It only takes a slight movement with your hand and the backup is in your mouth.  Problems of picking up dirt/silt or dragging behind you are gone - and an added benefit is that if the backup was to free-flow or gently stream bubbles, you will notice it immediately because the bubbles will be in front of you.

However, the biggest advantage of using the 7ft long hose is when it comes to “emergencies”. If your buddy (or anyone else for that fact) needs gas, you donate the regulator which is in your mouth and on the long hose, switching to your backup which is neatly and reliably below your chin.  A nod of the head allows nearly five feet of hose to instantly be available and the remaining two to be deployed from where it is stowed in the belt or under the light cannister. Stowing it like this means that the diver can easily return the long hose to its original position without needing assistance from anyone else.

By donating the regulator which is currently being breathed in an out of air situation, one guarantees that the person most in need of a clean, fully functioning regulator is going to get it.  If you pass any other regulator to an out of air diver it is possible that the regulator received may not immediately deliver gas - perhaps due to sand or grit - or even a post which is not turned on - a situation which would be impossible for the stressed diver to manage. In essence, what you will have done is to place the last straw on the camel's back and a situation would be intolerable.

Consider also that the mass of bubbles present in a regulator free-flow situation might make the conventionally placed “octopus” difficult to locate.  The long hose will place a regulator in their mouth immediately, and they have room to become comfortable. By breathing the long hose, the OOA diver does not feel like the hose may rip the regulator out of their mouth at any moment, such as by a sudden body motion that one might expect in an emergency situation. They will feel comfortably supported by a functional breathing system. They will be far more likely to calm down, and assist in the swim to the surface.

Although the 7ft hose was originally developed for cave diving, what is the difference between having to swim  along a passageway of a wreck and along a tunnel of a cave? Even if diving in open-water, the longer hose makes swimming easier and less stressful. In an out of air/gas situation, the person receiving the long hose swims in front where the other diver can keep a close eye on the diver and monitor their progress. He/she will be in a much better position to respond to any further problems.  The 7 feet long hose provides you with a good safety margin for reaching the other diver if they are in a small confined space, and once in the open, your control and swimming are not hampered by constantly bumping in to the other diver who is pulled too close by a short hose (e.g. in a current or during decompression)

Some are worried that donating the regulator out of their mouth would leave them with no working source of gas.  Yet consider this....A diver who is out of air may be in great panic, unable to breathe for much longer than they can stay calm. As tunnel vision closes in on them, you do not want to leave their fate to chance by handing them a secondary that may not be working, or that is not purged, or that may take you an extra 4 seconds to deploy. This type of delay will have them reaching for the regulator in your mouth anyway so it would be best to practice for this metod from the outset.

A diver who is incapable of removing the regulator from his or her mouth for five to ten seconds is perhaps not skilled or practised enough to be in open-water anyway. One may question this divers ability handle an out of air situation in which the out of air diver chooses the regulator in their mouth despite their best intentions and we could perhaps question how they would deal with the very real possibility of an accidentally dislodged regulator.

For those who wonder whether the performance of a regulator is affected by using a long hose, there have been thousands of deep exploration dives accomplished by divers breathing the long hose.  Your best performance regulator must be on your long hose and if its performance is unacceptable in a relaxed situation then it is certainly inappropriate to suggest that the your stressed dive buddy is better prepared for this increased resistance. I use a Scubapro G250 2nd stage on my long hose and a Scubapro R380 as my backup regulator. Both 1st stages are Scubapro Mark 20’s (see regulator section for the reasons for this choice). I have noticed no difference in performance when using the long hose.

S drills (S standing for safety) will allow us to become familiar with donating gas to someone who neds our help and this practice will ensure that if a real OOG develops during a dive we know how to cope with it efficently and effectively which will lead to a less stressful experience for both divers.  Any skill worth learning usually takes refinement and regularly repeating out of air drills should be done whether you are an experienced diver or still undergoing training. By doing such drills you will get proficient at deploying and stowing the long hose.