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Hookah Hoses
Hookah breathing air hose is made of a special vinyl plastic construction, which is resistant to the effects of oil, gasoline and sunlight that exists in the environment. Conventional rubber scuba hose should never be used for hookah diving because it will gradually deteriorate and become toxic. Hookah hose commonly has an inside diameter of 8 mm or 10 mm. It is constructed of an inner liner of food-grade vinyl wrapped with a nylon webbing reinforcement and covered with a heavy-duty PVC abrasion resistant wall. Hookah hose is designed to prevent kinking and collapsing which could cause the flow of breathing air to be shut off.
A quality surface supply diving systems hose will be coloured a bright yellow or orange, for a high degree of visibility. It will also float, so that any excess hose not actually being used will float on the surface, completely away from the diver, reducing the possibility of entanglements on the bottom. For example, if you are diving in three metres of water but are using a 10-metre length of air hose, the excess seven metres will float on the surface, completely away from you. A quality Hookah air will not impart any flavouring to the air and should meet AS2299 and AS1716 standards.
We recommend the use of high-quality, Australian made Barfell® Divers Air Breather Hookah hoses with an inside diameter of 8 mm for recreational diving and 10 mm for commercial diving. The Barfell hookah hoses meet Australian Standards AS2299 and AS/NZ1716.
We also recommend the use of commercial-grade lockable Unoflow® quick couplings for safe hookah diving. We think the Unoflow product is superior to the equivalent TEMA product. The Unoflow is fully marine-grade Stainless Steel AISI 316, while the TEMA is chrome-plated brass. The Unoflow quick connect is not compatible with the TEMA product. Don't risk your life by using inferior hookah hoses and quick couplings.
Hose Configuration: A hookah breathing air hose is normally set up with a Male quick coupling at the compressor end, and a self-sealing Female quick coupling at the diver end. Thus when a hose is disconnected the female end self-seals and prevents air loss.
For specialist commercial diving Hookah gear, we recommend you contact Eric Percival at Airdive Equipment on 03 6273 3125, or airdive@airdive.com.au.
Technical Tip
Warning: Using general-purpose air hoses (e.g. as used with workshop compressors and found at hardware stores) that are not certified for breathing air can potentially damage your lungs and is in breach of Workplace Health and Safety regulations. The lining inside many air hoses often deteriorates with age, oil and heat, potentially releasing toxic particles straight into the users breathing air supply. Incorrect hose connector fittings are also often easily damaged and accidentally disconnected, thereby cutting off the operators breathing air supply.
Please read Introduction to Hookah Diving for more information about things you need to consider with a hookah diving setup.
Free Wi-Fi
Your favourite air fills at The Scuba Doctor now come with complimentary Wi-Fi. Share your dive reports and photos with friends on social media, or check email while you wait for your airfill.
Customers at The Scuba Doctor, south of Melbourne in Rye on the Mornington Peninsula, can now access the Internet using their mobile phones, tablets or laptops at no charge. So grab a soft drink, tea or coffee and settle in to our Diver's Lounge and log on! Just one more thing to love about The Scuba Doctor.
How do I connect?
You need a Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) enabled device.
Most newer laptops have built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. Older versions may require a separate Wi-Fi card, which you can purchase at most larger electronics retailers. Any chip or card that has been certified for compliance with the Wi-Fi wireless LAN standard (IEE 802.11b) can be used.
More and more PDAs, mobile phones and smart phones are now Wi-Fi enabled. A manufacturer or service provider can help you identify these devices.
Connecting is simple: When in the The Scuba Doctor dive shop store, just turn on your computer (or PDA), select 'ScubaDoc' from the available wireless networks and enter the access password.
What's the password?
For security reasons we'll be changing the Wi-Fi access password regularly. Just ask us for the current one when you want to logon to the Wi-Fi hotspot.
If you've set your device to automatically connect when in range and it's not connecting, it may be because we've changed the password. So just ask for the new one, and then enter it.
