How to Route Hoses on Sidemount Tanks
June 1, 2009
There’s a lot of variation on how people route their hoses on sidemount tanks. The basic method I learned from Steve Bogaerts for use with his Razor side mount harness is very simple, streamlined, and similar to the Hogarthian hose routing for backmount divers.
Left Tank contains:
- Regulator on short hose and necklace – routed behind the neck, and into the mouth from the right side.
- SPG on 6″ hose – routed straight back to minimize entanglement.
- LP hose for drysuit. Note I used my drysuit for buoyancy and no add’l BCD. The hose in the picture is too long, and a 6″ hose would be ideal.
Right Tank contains:
- Regulator on the long hose – routed across the chest from the tank to the left shoulder, around the back of the neck, and into the mouth from the right side. One loop is captured in the tank bungee, similar to tucking excess hose under a canister light in Hogarthian configuration.
- SPG on 6″ hose – routed straight back to minimize entanglement.
“During the debrief, we discussed my jump and spool usage. I tied into the other line as follows:
image
A different method was offered, and Steve firmly stepped in and provided his input. Usually Steve allowed for a healthy discussion between the team members, but on this occasion, Steve planted his foot down.”
Could you expand on this? How did he put his foot down? What was the other method?
Hans
Absolutely.
Steve put his foot down by interrupting our conversation in mid-sentence by stating firmly, “I disagree.” At the point, we all stopped and starred at Steve. Usually he lets the conversation run it’s course and then offers his opinion. Seldom does he just jump in there.
The potential issue with my jump tie was the arrow pointing to a nearby cenote. This arrow contradicted our exit, and by my tieing into the line behind arrow, my teammate argued that this could be confusing. He recommended that I should have tied further down the line, before the arrow is reached on the return, and also use an additional cookie to confirm my spool. Steve thought that this was unnecessary complexity and clutter. My tie was sufficiently close to the arrow (visual and blind), and my spool already validated our way of exit.