In Reply to: Why the DS posted by Jeff Shaw on July 21, 2011 at 20:59:19:

Hi Jeff;

Several reasons. 1) the wing inflator is the shorter of the two. It should be about 22 inches or less-just enough to reach from the first stage to the wing inflator valve with little to no excess. The drysuit inflator can be longer (30-36 inches) since it runs from the first stage, behind your arm and then up to the suit valve. I want the SMB and spool away from my body, stage bottles, scooters and all other stuff when I launch it. The longer inflation hose allows for that. 2) I find the drysuit inflator the easier of the two to reconnect because it is longer and the positioning of the valve is just easier to deal with. One tip is to be sure excess drysuit material doesn't bunch up underneath the valve when you go to reconnect. 3) the wing is the primary buoyancy device. I don't want to have to orally inflate it during a phase of the dive when holding stops and handling other gear is keeping me busy. I also generally don't want to fill my drysuit on ascent since that introduces cold gas into the suit. In fact, I shut the exhaust valve of the drysuit on ascent so as to maximize loft with gas my body has already warmed. As such, it's not a big deal if I can't reconnect.