Gareth Burrows(Offline)

Gloc and I were having a discussion until about midnight last night about routing of the Argon hose. Did i really just type that. sigh.

It was all about whether the hose should be routed under or over the waist strap.

His argument was for over, and his points were..

• It would make it easier to remove the rig if necessary
• It would make inflating an SMB easier
• It would make it easier to use the inflator for the wing.

My argument was for under, and my points were

• some bloke one told me
• Or maybe I read it on a website somewhere
• Perhaps I dreamed it

Which one of us is right, and what's the thinking behind it please.

Cheers

Garfy

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caverkevin(Offline)

I don't think there is a right or wrong way to route the hose that you are talking about. But I put it under the starps. I will offer my reasons why.

Being under the straps is a little cleaner, meaning not hanging out too far looking for something to snag. I do this with both a 14cuft and a 6 cuft.

Being under a strap hold it in place when the hose becomes disconnected.

To add to the discussion.

I don't see how the hose being under or over would change the removal of kit.

Why are you wasting suit gas for a SMB? The argon bottle is usually the only, single source of gas you have for your suit.

Why are you using suit gas for the wing. Orally inflating is much easier than moving hoses around underwater. Plus you are depleating the gas you planned to put into your suit.

Hope this does not cause you guys to loose more sleep!!

Cheers!!

Kevin

GLOC (Online)

I know, how sad are we...in fact how sad am reading this having just got up in a hotel in Toulouse

Don't remember that bit in bold but I was pissed...

Thanks for the answer Kevin, looks like I will have to buy you another beer for being right, but I am going to hold out and see if anyone else has any ideas...

The reasoning behind the SMB launch is that it is easier to use the hose plus it will be the last thing you do before you start your ascent, and during the ascent you shouldn't ever have to put air in the suit (apart from the on the surface to maintain positive bouyancy in the event of a wing failure).

Anyway, thanks for the comments Kevin, now off to have some breakfast God this intertnet thingy is addictive.

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caverkevin(Offline)

Whats wrong with Toulouse?? I wish I was there!!! There are some really nice caves just to the north of you.

I am not right. I am sure there will be people coming along any time now to point out how not right my answers will be. So I declare myself not right!!

You are right that at the end of the dive you are needing very little argon. I just hate using that gas for anything other than my drysuit. Plus I like to orally inflate the SMB. I just blow it in via the funny non-locking connector on the Halcyon bags. I find it a bit more more controlled. As my buoyancy doen not change until I start to inhale from the second stage.

Maybe we also need to start a diving/internet junkie support group. Hi! My name is Kevin and I have a problem

Cheers!!

Kevin

neilh(Offline)

Not much to say on this one!

Dunno if there's a right or wrong way, but I route mine over the waist part of the webbing, but under the arm part.

Works for me

Clare Gledhill(Offline)

I was woken up in the night by a text message.

It read..... you have a DIRX PM

I logged on and saw two PMs - one entitled urgent.....

Now I don't normally relate PMs over the boards but I can make an exception for these.

and this is the classic....

ROTFLMAO!

I put mine through my arm - before I put my rig on. It was a neat trick shown to me when I kept forgetting to attach my dry suit hose by.... let me see....

Oh yes that would have been Garf

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davy(Offline)

I put it under the waist strap (and under the shoulder strap as well)
It cleans up the waist D-ring area a lot.
having a hose there is a PITA with multiple stages etc.

inflating with argon? I'm with Kevin on this one too.
I don't want to waste argon in an SMB, and I "hate" the inflator inflation with a passion

There are very nice baffeled bags that seal completely and can be inflated with a reg in front of you where you can see it.

Rob Dobson (Online)

Well I'm new to this trimix lark but I route my mine as GLOC has suggested (and for the first two reasons).

When releasing a blob I want as much space between the line and my manifold as possible - so I don't want the hose restricted. Oh and I use inflation gas over oral inflation as that's the only real way to get any decent gas volume into a 4.5" blob from 21m (and skippers around the UK seem to have a strong preference for 4.5"). Typically we blob up from the 21m stop so we have already started our ascent and should have no need for suit inflation from that point on but even if we did for some reason there should be sufficient left in the bottle - certainly sufficient left in the team.

Is this routing an entanglement hazzard...? Maybe. Would it be hard to spot and deal with? Probably not. In the last 5 dives we've had two incidents of the shot becoming entangled around the isolation manifold during descent (OK so one of them was instructor generated) and this is a harder entanglement to deal with as you need team intervention - don't hear a strong argument for moving the manifold...

My 2p.

graham_hk(Offline)

I'd love to see somebody swapping hoses out between the team as you get vacume wrapped in a down current - or even in benign conditions. Has anybody actually tried this with a complete CF? Granted you might have to do it in a cave but it would be easier with a 14cf bottle and the passive cave environment.

Generally I think its a bad idea to remove your ds feed for any reason than a failure. You should be able to 1/3 orally inflate a medium Halcyon bag at 21m.

Graham

davy(Offline)

Actually I removed my entire bottle and passed it back and forth between me and my buddie...
My argon hose is cut to length and is impossible to donate which would indeed be a recipe for a CF
The hose is a perfect fit for what it is intended... suit inflation