Safety stop 'anchor'?

[undrwater]

Perhaps the market for this tool is peeps who are not going to buy a DSMB. I agree that it may get squirrely without the spool or some other way to manage 15' of cord. That's enough to get seriously tangled in.

Regarding knotted points in the line, that's useful when you deploy in low or no vis situations. It might be hard to find the mark even with a light.

Anyway, I'm not sold.

 

[deepsea21]

A very good and often overlooked piece of advice. Another trick is tie a SS ball swivel with a coastlock snap at the end. It will reduce line twists over time.

Thanks gopb... I like that tip as well and the best part is all I have to do is fish into my deepsea tackle as I have plenty of trolling ball swivels rated to 80+ lbs. If my SMB draws more than 80lbs pull when I am holding on to it whatever is going on up there is going to stay up there and I'll watch it from below.

 

[sharky60]

ok, so it seems like a bad idea. I was just checking because I was looking for a new sausage on the ScubaToys website and the only "safety float" they had was that thing.

I was thinking maybe it was the latest thing that people were using.

I agree with most of you that it didn't seem large enough to be seen,

thanks all.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

The 4 or 6 ft SMB will do little good lying flat on the water. Th only way to avoid that and make it stand up is to make sure it is fully inflated at the surface then there must either be a integrated weight on the bottom, or by making your self negative enough to tug down on the line…sometimes tough to do when low on air. Most SMBs I see in Cozumel are laying flat on the surface.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

www.aldora.com

 

[cvchief]

The 4 or 6 ft SMB will do little good lying flat on the water. Th only way to avoid that and make it stand up is to make sure it is fully inflated at the surface then there must either be a integrated weight on the bottom, or by making your self negative enough to tug down on the line…sometimes tough to do when low on air. Most SMBs I see in Cozumel are laying flat on the surface.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

www.aldora.com

Welcome back other DD!!

 

[ggunn]

The 4 or 6 ft SMB will do little good lying flat on the water. ...making your self negative enough to tug down on the line…

That's what I do. If you are properly weighted you can make yourself either positively or negatively buoyant at the safety stop by changing the residual air in your lungs while breathing. I go negative and hang from my SMB line until time to come up.

 

[JenLoves2Dive]

The only issue, especially with current, is the line rarely hangs straight down. Conditions at the top can make the buoy drag...

Exactly!!

 

[Ron Lee]

How many people deploy a device at 80 feet? In Cozumel my opinion is that you would be fine with a device that deploys from your safety stop. Just make sure that it has a reasonable height. I like long safety stops so five minutes or ten is enough to give a boat time to see you plus you have the time once you surface.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The 4 or 6 ft SMB will do little good lying flat on the water. Th only way to avoid that and make it stand up is to make sure it is fully inflated at the surface then there must either be a integrated weight on the bottom, or by making your self negative enough to tug down on the line…sometimes tough to do when low on air. Most SMBs I see in Cozumel are laying flat on the surface.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

www.aldora.com

Why would an SMB need to be fully inflated in order to stand vertically? Even if half filled, if you hang from the bottom of it (with a line) then it will be pulled straight up.

 

[WarrenZ]

We would generally shoot the bag at the first deco stop. I guess you could consider that an anchor as it ties you to the surface.