team diving skills

[tbrown]

Not trying to start a conflict here, but I have always had a problem with the 7' hose on recreational dives. I will be the first to say that for tech, or even semi-tech, it is an essential peice of equipment. However, on rec dives within rec limits I have a much harder time following the arguement. For example, if you are diving with someone who drags their gear through muck, enough to plug up their safe second, due to either carelessness, or bad technique, or even because they don't care about keeping their gear secure, how do you expect this person to assist you if you have a problem? I mean, a 7' hose is not going to solve this situation. The aforementioned buddy is still a disaster waiting to happen, they just now have a longer primary to go along with their bag of poor tricks. As far as a paniced diver taking my reg from my mouth, I don't know if the 7' hose is the proper solution for that either. Firstly, I should have been paying close enough attention to my buddy to know that there is trouble long before they completely run out of air. Second, if they are that poorly trained and disciplined, what was I doing diving with them in the first place. Because (and how can I put this nicely?) no matter what hose I have on my primary, if anyone comes up and yanks it out of my mouth... well I can't think of anything nice so I will leave it at that.