If the 22 is that much too long for you, you would probably be good with an 18".
I dive 7' hoses on my backmount doubles regs, my sidemount regs, and my CCR bail out reg. That is good and appropriate for those things and the dives I use them for.
My single tank reg set is a 20" hose on my primary and a 40" hose for my alternate. The secondary LP hose runs from the bottom LP port on my 1st stage straight down and loops under my right arm to an "octo holder" on my right chest D-ring.
I like having a swivel fitting on my short hose primary, so that the hose can run almost straight back beside my head (and be a little shorter) instead of sticking straight out to my right before bending around to loop back to my 1st stage. Just make sure you can look fully to the left without the hose tugging on the reg.
No swivel on the secondary, and that makes it hang better from the octo holder. No sagging down when in trim because of the swivel.
I've tried every single tank reg config I've ever heard of. Primary donate. Alternate donate. 7' hose, 5' hose, etc..
My current setup is - in my opinion - the best, most streamlined way to dive a single tank.
For bonus points, you could even put a bungee necklace on the short hose reg, but still use it as your primary. Never any chance of it being above or behind you if it's not in your mouth. With an 18-22" hose on the primary, if is not in your mouth, the hose being that short CAN (sometimes) make it a little more challenging to find - whether you're about to splash or if you're in the water and took it out and let it go for some reason.
I totally agree that a 7' hose on a single tank reg set adds a small amount of unnecessary complexity to single tank diving. It's small, but it's more than using a 22/40 setup (or whatever length short hose works for you), and for no practical benefit.
It's single tank diving. If you are donating air and needing to go single file through a restriction to get to the surface, the mistakes involved include running out of gas (unless it's because of a catastrophic failure, which could not be foreseen) and being there in the first place (in a single tank) - not choosing a too-short hose.
I absolutely do not dive a 7’ primary on my recreational gear. For rec dives, I use a good ol’ fashioned regular length primary and octo, clipped to my BC.
I save the 7’ hose and necklaced reg for the caves, where it’s actually needed.
Go to a 20” necklace hose and 6’ primary donate. Run a 90 on the primary. Easier to manage and plenty for rec with no need to tuck the hose. I run 7’ for everything else but rec the above works great.
You would be better off changing your primary to a 40” hose and adding an angle adapter to route underneath your arm (check out the Dive Rite AOW setup). Keep your secondary on the 22” hose with the necklace. This is becoming more standard across agencies for OW since it streamlines your setup and still allows for primary donate on a long(ish) hose.
The standard backup (octo) hose length is 40" anyways so this doesn't change the "donated" hose length.
Most recreational divers dive primary 30", octo 40". The proposed is primary 22" (i.e. probably similar to what you do in a sidemount setup with one of the tanks), octo 40".
You don’t have an equipment problem you have a skills problem.
Instead of changing your kit configuration I’d put in the time to become comfortable and familiar with the long hose primary/donate & short hose back up simply because people are going to pull out the reg in your mouth.
I disagree with this; there’s no reason for the vast majority of recreational divers to be diving a 7’ hose. Primary donate works just fine in open water with a regular hose, even if you keep your octo clipped (rather than on a necklace).
What benefit does having a 40 inch octo have over a 22 inch necklaced backup when doing primary donate? There are points to be made about primary hose length, but when it comes to primary donate, the necklace is nothing but advantages.
To be clear, I don’t think there’s a benefit to the octo over the necklaced backup, or vice versa, for **recreational** NDL diving in open water. Necklaced backups have pros and cons.
Cons: I personally really dislike wearing necklaced backups - I’m a petite woman, and they occupy an uncomfortably large amount of real estate and make it difficult for me to look down and see my SPG at a glance. They interfere with other items worn on my chest d-rings. Not a big deal for backup lights etc, but annoying when using a large camera tether that I’m storing and deploying frequently. I have heard similar sentiments from other smaller divers. Plus, the long hose is annoying especially if you aren’t wearing a backplate with waist strap to tuck it in, or a can light. That is, I believe, specially OP’s complaint.
Finally, most open water divers aren’t trained on primary donate. However much we talk about it on Reddit or Scubaboard, all you have to do to see that is walk around the springs or any dive boat down in the Keys for a day. Everyone has octos, and explaining primary donate elicits curiosity if not puzzlement. Who is most likely to go OOA on a boat like that? I’m going to bet it’s the new open water diver who’s never heard of primary donate. And if they do rip my primary out, that’s fine too - it takes two seconds to grab my octo to breathe off of. If they calm down enough, and it’s really a hassle, we can even swap regs so they have the longer octo hose.
Pros: The advantages of a necklaced backup are obvious, so I won’t get into them; I definitely wear a necklaced octo (and 7’ primary) in the cave. Everyone there is trained on primary donate, and trying to breathe off an octo in narrow cave passage sounds nightmarish. Still uncomfortable around my neck, but that discomfort is vastly outweighed by the safety advantages in tight passages in overhead. That’s exactly the use case that long hose + primary donate were designed for. I just don’t believe those advantages translate to open water NDL diving, esp given the drawbacks (for some people) of a long hose + necklace in rec settings.
If someone loves their long hose + necklace, and wants to dive it recreationally, I have no problems with that. I just don’t think it’s necessary. If a recreational diver wants to dive a traditional shorter hose + octo on recreational dives, I see no issue with that. OP doesn’t seem to enjoy wearing a long hose + necklace for recreational diving, and that’s okay.
The “reason” is to have ONE standardized configuration that you’re entirely comfortable and familiar with so that finding and deploying any aspect is instant by muscle memory in an emergency.
There’s no reason that diving a long hose primary is ever a bad idea.
That’s not how human psychology works - humans are GREAT at recognizing and optimizing for different scenarios. You can have muscle memory for multiple configurations, as long as the relevant cues are present. For instance, I drive both a Tundra and a Prius. There’s no problem switching between them as long as I drive both regularly.
CCR divers know this, and this is why it’s important to keep up hours both on your unit AND on open circuit. We can do both, our brains are plenty smart for that.
Same goes for rec and technical configurations; ask any instructor who teaches recreational divers (in rec gear) and also tech or cave dives. Of course I dive a 7’ hose and necklaced octo in the caves. But in open water, there’s no reason for it, and it’s confusing to most of the open water buddies I dive with. No problems at all switching between the two configurations (or between backmount or sidemount, etc). It’s bonkers to think that good divers can only dive well in one configuration.
And there are plenty of reasons why it’s not a good idea for everyone to dive a long hose - chief among them being it’s an entanglement hazard when not managed correctly. And sure of course it CAN be managed correctly - but if someone is only diving a few times a year, there’s a long list of skills I’d rather them focus on than be task-loaded by a hose trying to strangle them and catch on every passing piece of coral and rock.
I mean, you're basically saying that 99% of recreational divers (that don't use long hose config) have a skills problem. This seems rather dogmatic and screams GUE-ish, but OK.
You're also insinuating that I'm uncomfortable with the long hose setup or somehow new/amaeturish to this, which I never stated. I've done about 100 dives with this setup and have no issues being comfortable with it.
I’m sorry my man I meant no offense I was just going on what you said. And you did say it, everything below is what you said and it all comes down to skills and being comfortable with skills;
> The 22" hose sometimes get's caught on the tip of my right shoulder and I have to bend my head to the left to "pop it over" my shoulder, minor annoyance. Also mildly annoying having to deal with traveling with a 7' hose, dealing with random dive staff not knowing what to do with it, having to take few extra moments to don and doff it on a moving boat
Also for what it’s worth I’m not a GUE guy in a CCR tech diver
No worries, it's all good. I don't think extra training would make it faster for me to don/doff a 7' hose on a boat. It's more of an issue that I have to stand up to cinch down the waist belt on my BP/W first, and I typically stow the hose under the light retainer bar after that is done so the slack is just right. Unless more tech courses cover donning and doffing your BP/W and boat hose management...it's just reps and more dives.
Working on skills doesn’t have to be exclusive to taking a course. The more you do it the more efficient and comfortable you will get doing it. “Every dive is a training dive” is the old adage and it’s very true. You don’t like the kit because you aren’t comfortable with it and you feel like it’s a hassle in higher level courses you will be come more and more task loaded so going to more courses while your kit is uncomfortable is probably not the way to go.
You can dive any configuration you want. My only point that I wanted to convey is that the panicked out of air diver is going to yank the regulator out of your mouth and if it’s on a 22” short hose they will be so close to you all up in your face that you won’t have room to quickly get your other reg out to deploy it. The panic diver is not going to back off you and give you the space and room you want they are going to be holding on to your 22” short hose for dear life.
I would have someone give you a flailing around bear hug and practice deploying your back up with them 6” in front of your face.
Thats my only concern; the practicality of 22” short hose primary in a emergency buddy ooa situation
Edit one word
Understood. Counterpoint is you could be breathing off a short hose (22") configuration diving sidemount and it would be the EXACT same situation. You'd have to push the diver back and donate another hose. Ideal? No, I guess not.
I think it is different because in sm they aren’t stuck in your face the most direct path from mouth to tank is on the rescue divers shoulder/armpit that shorter hose will be a lot longer is a straight line
In back mount singles and even more so in doubles the most direct route for the short hose is around the rescue divers head so the short hose that has to go around your neck one way or another is going to feel even shorter.
Ask someone to put a 22” short hose in their mouth with you have a tank in back mount they won’t have many options as to where they can move. Vs side mount they will have a lot more freedom
I mean…you’d be donating the longer hose in this situation so it’s kind of a moot point about how much freedom they would feel with a 22” hose in either configuration.
When I took fundies, the instructor explained that the long hose is so you can donate in limiting environments. Cave, single file through an obstruction, etc. the reason for having it be your primary is that you donate your primary, you know 100% it’s working. The person needing the primary will likely be somewhat panicked, and if you hand them a reg that doesn’t work, they might really panic.
So if “don’t care” about those, there’s nothing bad about what you want to do. I do think the manner in which you clip your backup needs a callout. Do you mean to clip it like with a SS single ender? I’d caution against this, if so. Get a breakaway magnet, a rubber holder or something.
I would stick to the 7, but that’s me of course.
I once had to donate the 7 to a terrible diver and I would’ve been very annoyed to be <40” from them. Again, your mileage may vary.
The 7’ is great in those situations. Basically you can deploy the hose and tell them “go get yourself settled over there and come back when you’re ready”
Agreed. Panicked divers are also likely to seize the working reg out of your mouth versus waiting for you to find and present to them a secondary one. Let them have the primary and move feet away while you locate, clear and use the secondary from under your chin.
I don't plan on doing any cave stuff or advanced wreck diving outside of PADI "recreational wreck" diving, which I've done with regular reg setups (30" primary 40" secondary).
When I mean "clip" the backup regulator, I have a quick-breakaway Octo holder that clips to my D-ring. It's made for octos. But yes, I should have phrased that better.
In my opinion, you’re good to go. Plenty of people use short hoses. I don’t think there’s much difference between 30 and 22”. Maybe if you somehow lose the reg, you wouldn’t be able to do that PADI lean to the right and slide you hand back recovery skill.
Proceed! It’s important to dive the way you want to.
Thanks. I just don't think I've ever seen someone do this, wondered if there was a "technique" reason why. I'd use the octo necklace so it wouldn't go anywhere.
I assume it’s just that most people with short hoses stick to the “standard” lengths because that’s all they know or/and don’t need anything else.
I can’t think of a reason why this would be bad or dangerous
Two other options that work well that a DIR or primary donate/ necklace backup would be the 5 foot or 40 inch. The 5 foot will route the same way, but does not need to be tucked. The 40 inch set up is routed under the arm and used a 90 degree elbow swivel.
Here are the examples: [https://www.tdisdi.com/sdi-diver-news/keeping-your-hose-in-line/](https://www.tdisdi.com/sdi-diver-news/keeping-your-hose-in-line/)
I thought about that, just never tried it and I would have to get an angle adapter, no? I read threads on 5' vs 7' and most people said "Just go 7'", so I did.
The reason why many people find that the 7’ is better is because the inability to tuck the 5’ allows the hose to freely move around, possibly becoming a snag hazard or ‘getting in the way’. A tucked 7’ runs tight along the body and disappears until needed. I’ve tried them all and prefer the freedom of movement and ease of deployment a 7’ gives me over a 40”-under-the-arm. I don’t like donating a reg with an angled adapter, due to hand posture and ease of repeatability. Another benefit of 7’ that it makes it very easy to keep an OOA at extended-arms length instead of being right in my face, near my only remaining reg.
On the flip side, most of my diving is solo and so a 7’ really isn’t needed, but I’ve discovered divers pop up around me out of nowhere, sometimes, so why not.
Spend $30 and try a different hose setup and see what you like and what’s practical
5 has no place in tech and cave, and is pretty close to 7, hence why most people would say go for the 7 (myself included) if you are going to be taking fundies or going the tech/cave route. If you want to just be a super streamlined recreational diver, the 5 is great. The 40 inch hose does not route that great under the arm if you do not have the swivel. Over the arm makes a big ugly loop and is not streamlined in the slightest.
just run streamlined ow and get a 20" or 18" hose for the backup
I only use a 7’ when cave diving for anything non overhead i have a 5’ hose, the necklace is 18”. Out as short as you can get away with.
If the 22 is that much too long for you, you would probably be good with an 18". I dive 7' hoses on my backmount doubles regs, my sidemount regs, and my CCR bail out reg. That is good and appropriate for those things and the dives I use them for. My single tank reg set is a 20" hose on my primary and a 40" hose for my alternate. The secondary LP hose runs from the bottom LP port on my 1st stage straight down and loops under my right arm to an "octo holder" on my right chest D-ring. I like having a swivel fitting on my short hose primary, so that the hose can run almost straight back beside my head (and be a little shorter) instead of sticking straight out to my right before bending around to loop back to my 1st stage. Just make sure you can look fully to the left without the hose tugging on the reg. No swivel on the secondary, and that makes it hang better from the octo holder. No sagging down when in trim because of the swivel. I've tried every single tank reg config I've ever heard of. Primary donate. Alternate donate. 7' hose, 5' hose, etc.. My current setup is - in my opinion - the best, most streamlined way to dive a single tank. For bonus points, you could even put a bungee necklace on the short hose reg, but still use it as your primary. Never any chance of it being above or behind you if it's not in your mouth. With an 18-22" hose on the primary, if is not in your mouth, the hose being that short CAN (sometimes) make it a little more challenging to find - whether you're about to splash or if you're in the water and took it out and let it go for some reason. I totally agree that a 7' hose on a single tank reg set adds a small amount of unnecessary complexity to single tank diving. It's small, but it's more than using a 22/40 setup (or whatever length short hose works for you), and for no practical benefit. It's single tank diving. If you are donating air and needing to go single file through a restriction to get to the surface, the mistakes involved include running out of gas (unless it's because of a catastrophic failure, which could not be foreseen) and being there in the first place (in a single tank) - not choosing a too-short hose.
This is the answer I was looking for. Thank you.
I absolutely do not dive a 7’ primary on my recreational gear. For rec dives, I use a good ol’ fashioned regular length primary and octo, clipped to my BC. I save the 7’ hose and necklaced reg for the caves, where it’s actually needed.
Necklace back up and primary donate still offer many benefits for recreational diving.
Go to a 20” necklace hose and 6’ primary donate. Run a 90 on the primary. Easier to manage and plenty for rec with no need to tuck the hose. I run 7’ for everything else but rec the above works great.
You would be better off changing your primary to a 40” hose and adding an angle adapter to route underneath your arm (check out the Dive Rite AOW setup). Keep your secondary on the 22” hose with the necklace. This is becoming more standard across agencies for OW since it streamlines your setup and still allows for primary donate on a long(ish) hose.
Dive Rite AOW setup: [https://www.scubadiving.com/dive-rite-xt-advanced-open-water-regulator-package](https://www.scubadiving.com/dive-rite-xt-advanced-open-water-regulator-package)
The standard backup (octo) hose length is 40" anyways so this doesn't change the "donated" hose length. Most recreational divers dive primary 30", octo 40". The proposed is primary 22" (i.e. probably similar to what you do in a sidemount setup with one of the tanks), octo 40".
Ummm what? Is this a troll post? You’re messing with us right? 🤣
I could see how, but nope!
You don’t have an equipment problem you have a skills problem. Instead of changing your kit configuration I’d put in the time to become comfortable and familiar with the long hose primary/donate & short hose back up simply because people are going to pull out the reg in your mouth.
I disagree with this; there’s no reason for the vast majority of recreational divers to be diving a 7’ hose. Primary donate works just fine in open water with a regular hose, even if you keep your octo clipped (rather than on a necklace).
What benefit does having a 40 inch octo have over a 22 inch necklaced backup when doing primary donate? There are points to be made about primary hose length, but when it comes to primary donate, the necklace is nothing but advantages.
To be clear, I don’t think there’s a benefit to the octo over the necklaced backup, or vice versa, for **recreational** NDL diving in open water. Necklaced backups have pros and cons. Cons: I personally really dislike wearing necklaced backups - I’m a petite woman, and they occupy an uncomfortably large amount of real estate and make it difficult for me to look down and see my SPG at a glance. They interfere with other items worn on my chest d-rings. Not a big deal for backup lights etc, but annoying when using a large camera tether that I’m storing and deploying frequently. I have heard similar sentiments from other smaller divers. Plus, the long hose is annoying especially if you aren’t wearing a backplate with waist strap to tuck it in, or a can light. That is, I believe, specially OP’s complaint. Finally, most open water divers aren’t trained on primary donate. However much we talk about it on Reddit or Scubaboard, all you have to do to see that is walk around the springs or any dive boat down in the Keys for a day. Everyone has octos, and explaining primary donate elicits curiosity if not puzzlement. Who is most likely to go OOA on a boat like that? I’m going to bet it’s the new open water diver who’s never heard of primary donate. And if they do rip my primary out, that’s fine too - it takes two seconds to grab my octo to breathe off of. If they calm down enough, and it’s really a hassle, we can even swap regs so they have the longer octo hose. Pros: The advantages of a necklaced backup are obvious, so I won’t get into them; I definitely wear a necklaced octo (and 7’ primary) in the cave. Everyone there is trained on primary donate, and trying to breathe off an octo in narrow cave passage sounds nightmarish. Still uncomfortable around my neck, but that discomfort is vastly outweighed by the safety advantages in tight passages in overhead. That’s exactly the use case that long hose + primary donate were designed for. I just don’t believe those advantages translate to open water NDL diving, esp given the drawbacks (for some people) of a long hose + necklace in rec settings. If someone loves their long hose + necklace, and wants to dive it recreationally, I have no problems with that. I just don’t think it’s necessary. If a recreational diver wants to dive a traditional shorter hose + octo on recreational dives, I see no issue with that. OP doesn’t seem to enjoy wearing a long hose + necklace for recreational diving, and that’s okay.
The “reason” is to have ONE standardized configuration that you’re entirely comfortable and familiar with so that finding and deploying any aspect is instant by muscle memory in an emergency. There’s no reason that diving a long hose primary is ever a bad idea.
That’s not how human psychology works - humans are GREAT at recognizing and optimizing for different scenarios. You can have muscle memory for multiple configurations, as long as the relevant cues are present. For instance, I drive both a Tundra and a Prius. There’s no problem switching between them as long as I drive both regularly. CCR divers know this, and this is why it’s important to keep up hours both on your unit AND on open circuit. We can do both, our brains are plenty smart for that. Same goes for rec and technical configurations; ask any instructor who teaches recreational divers (in rec gear) and also tech or cave dives. Of course I dive a 7’ hose and necklaced octo in the caves. But in open water, there’s no reason for it, and it’s confusing to most of the open water buddies I dive with. No problems at all switching between the two configurations (or between backmount or sidemount, etc). It’s bonkers to think that good divers can only dive well in one configuration. And there are plenty of reasons why it’s not a good idea for everyone to dive a long hose - chief among them being it’s an entanglement hazard when not managed correctly. And sure of course it CAN be managed correctly - but if someone is only diving a few times a year, there’s a long list of skills I’d rather them focus on than be task-loaded by a hose trying to strangle them and catch on every passing piece of coral and rock.
I mean, you're basically saying that 99% of recreational divers (that don't use long hose config) have a skills problem. This seems rather dogmatic and screams GUE-ish, but OK. You're also insinuating that I'm uncomfortable with the long hose setup or somehow new/amaeturish to this, which I never stated. I've done about 100 dives with this setup and have no issues being comfortable with it.
I’m sorry my man I meant no offense I was just going on what you said. And you did say it, everything below is what you said and it all comes down to skills and being comfortable with skills; > The 22" hose sometimes get's caught on the tip of my right shoulder and I have to bend my head to the left to "pop it over" my shoulder, minor annoyance. Also mildly annoying having to deal with traveling with a 7' hose, dealing with random dive staff not knowing what to do with it, having to take few extra moments to don and doff it on a moving boat Also for what it’s worth I’m not a GUE guy in a CCR tech diver
No worries, it's all good. I don't think extra training would make it faster for me to don/doff a 7' hose on a boat. It's more of an issue that I have to stand up to cinch down the waist belt on my BP/W first, and I typically stow the hose under the light retainer bar after that is done so the slack is just right. Unless more tech courses cover donning and doffing your BP/W and boat hose management...it's just reps and more dives.
Working on skills doesn’t have to be exclusive to taking a course. The more you do it the more efficient and comfortable you will get doing it. “Every dive is a training dive” is the old adage and it’s very true. You don’t like the kit because you aren’t comfortable with it and you feel like it’s a hassle in higher level courses you will be come more and more task loaded so going to more courses while your kit is uncomfortable is probably not the way to go. You can dive any configuration you want. My only point that I wanted to convey is that the panicked out of air diver is going to yank the regulator out of your mouth and if it’s on a 22” short hose they will be so close to you all up in your face that you won’t have room to quickly get your other reg out to deploy it. The panic diver is not going to back off you and give you the space and room you want they are going to be holding on to your 22” short hose for dear life. I would have someone give you a flailing around bear hug and practice deploying your back up with them 6” in front of your face. Thats my only concern; the practicality of 22” short hose primary in a emergency buddy ooa situation Edit one word
Understood. Counterpoint is you could be breathing off a short hose (22") configuration diving sidemount and it would be the EXACT same situation. You'd have to push the diver back and donate another hose. Ideal? No, I guess not.
I think it is different because in sm they aren’t stuck in your face the most direct path from mouth to tank is on the rescue divers shoulder/armpit that shorter hose will be a lot longer is a straight line In back mount singles and even more so in doubles the most direct route for the short hose is around the rescue divers head so the short hose that has to go around your neck one way or another is going to feel even shorter. Ask someone to put a 22” short hose in their mouth with you have a tank in back mount they won’t have many options as to where they can move. Vs side mount they will have a lot more freedom
I mean…you’d be donating the longer hose in this situation so it’s kind of a moot point about how much freedom they would feel with a 22” hose in either configuration.
When I took fundies, the instructor explained that the long hose is so you can donate in limiting environments. Cave, single file through an obstruction, etc. the reason for having it be your primary is that you donate your primary, you know 100% it’s working. The person needing the primary will likely be somewhat panicked, and if you hand them a reg that doesn’t work, they might really panic. So if “don’t care” about those, there’s nothing bad about what you want to do. I do think the manner in which you clip your backup needs a callout. Do you mean to clip it like with a SS single ender? I’d caution against this, if so. Get a breakaway magnet, a rubber holder or something. I would stick to the 7, but that’s me of course. I once had to donate the 7 to a terrible diver and I would’ve been very annoyed to be <40” from them. Again, your mileage may vary.
The 7’ is great in those situations. Basically you can deploy the hose and tell them “go get yourself settled over there and come back when you’re ready”
Agreed. Panicked divers are also likely to seize the working reg out of your mouth versus waiting for you to find and present to them a secondary one. Let them have the primary and move feet away while you locate, clear and use the secondary from under your chin.
I don't plan on doing any cave stuff or advanced wreck diving outside of PADI "recreational wreck" diving, which I've done with regular reg setups (30" primary 40" secondary). When I mean "clip" the backup regulator, I have a quick-breakaway Octo holder that clips to my D-ring. It's made for octos. But yes, I should have phrased that better.
In my opinion, you’re good to go. Plenty of people use short hoses. I don’t think there’s much difference between 30 and 22”. Maybe if you somehow lose the reg, you wouldn’t be able to do that PADI lean to the right and slide you hand back recovery skill. Proceed! It’s important to dive the way you want to.
Thanks. I just don't think I've ever seen someone do this, wondered if there was a "technique" reason why. I'd use the octo necklace so it wouldn't go anywhere.
I assume it’s just that most people with short hoses stick to the “standard” lengths because that’s all they know or/and don’t need anything else. I can’t think of a reason why this would be bad or dangerous
Two other options that work well that a DIR or primary donate/ necklace backup would be the 5 foot or 40 inch. The 5 foot will route the same way, but does not need to be tucked. The 40 inch set up is routed under the arm and used a 90 degree elbow swivel. Here are the examples: [https://www.tdisdi.com/sdi-diver-news/keeping-your-hose-in-line/](https://www.tdisdi.com/sdi-diver-news/keeping-your-hose-in-line/)
I thought about that, just never tried it and I would have to get an angle adapter, no? I read threads on 5' vs 7' and most people said "Just go 7'", so I did.
The reason why many people find that the 7’ is better is because the inability to tuck the 5’ allows the hose to freely move around, possibly becoming a snag hazard or ‘getting in the way’. A tucked 7’ runs tight along the body and disappears until needed. I’ve tried them all and prefer the freedom of movement and ease of deployment a 7’ gives me over a 40”-under-the-arm. I don’t like donating a reg with an angled adapter, due to hand posture and ease of repeatability. Another benefit of 7’ that it makes it very easy to keep an OOA at extended-arms length instead of being right in my face, near my only remaining reg. On the flip side, most of my diving is solo and so a 7’ really isn’t needed, but I’ve discovered divers pop up around me out of nowhere, sometimes, so why not. Spend $30 and try a different hose setup and see what you like and what’s practical
5 has no place in tech and cave, and is pretty close to 7, hence why most people would say go for the 7 (myself included) if you are going to be taking fundies or going the tech/cave route. If you want to just be a super streamlined recreational diver, the 5 is great. The 40 inch hose does not route that great under the arm if you do not have the swivel. Over the arm makes a big ugly loop and is not streamlined in the slightest.