Long Hose Configuration: Why You Donate the Regulator in Your Mouth

Most divers learn to hand an out-of-gas buddy an octopus: a spare regulator on a short hose, clipped somewhere on the BCD.

DIR divers do the opposite. You give away the regulator in your mouth.

It sounds backward until you think about the first few seconds of a real emergency.

Why donate the regulator you're breathing?

Four reasons, all about those first few seconds.

• It's known to work. You were breathing from it a moment ago.
• It's where the panicked diver is looking. A diver out of gas goes for the regulator in front of them, usually the one in your mouth. The long hose system plans for that instead of fighting it.
• It's long enough. Seven feet gives two divers room to swim, ascend and get out together.
• Your backup is fixed in place. It sits on a necklace right under your chin. You never search for it.

How does the long hose sit on your rig?

Neatly, against your body, with no loops sticking out.

It comes off the right side of your first stage, runs down your right side, is held at your hip, crosses your chest and wraps around the back of your neck into your mouth from the right. Your backup sits on a shorter hose, held under your chin. Your gauge is clipped at your left hip.

The point of all that routing is one thing: when you donate, the hose comes free in one movement and reaches your teammate cleanly. How you clear it and hand it over is the out-of-air drill, and that's learned in the water.

Why 7 feet?

Because a gas share isn't a few breaths on the bottom. It's the whole exit. Swimming, ascending, holding stops, sometimes single file. Seven feet gives two divers room to do all of that without pulling on each other. It's what UTD's single-tank standard specifies, and it's what we use on doubles too.

There's a whole debate about 5 feet versus 7. See 5-Foot vs 7-Foot Long Hose.

Can you use a long hose with a jacket BCD?

You can, but it's harder to route neatly. Jackets don't have a harness belt to hold the hose at the hip, and integrated weight pockets get in the way. The long hose works best as part of a full configuration with a backplate and wing. See Backplate and Wing vs Jacket BCD.

Common long hose mistakes

• Nothing holding it at the hip. The hose loops away from your body and snags.
• A loose necklace. If your backup hangs at chest level, you'll have to reach for it. It belongs right under your chin.
• Routing it under other gear. It has to come free in one movement.
• Never practicing donation. A long hose you've never donated is just a long hose.

Here's the reality check.

The comfortable belief: I have a long hose, so I'm set up for gas sharing.

The truth: you're set up for it. Whether you can do it calmly, at depth, without warning, is a different question.

Practice it with your team

Gas sharing with a long hose is a core skill in Essentials of Recreational Diving. For how the rest of the rig fits around it, read DIR Gear Configuration, Piece by Piece.

When did you last donate yours? Not in a class. On a regular dive.