How keep "floatie" line from tangling?

[Bert van den Berg]

The wife and I have been diving with a "Hookah" for years but got certified last year and now occasionally diving with tanks.

The hookah tube is big, bright yellow and has sports both American and International dive flags so we never worried about getting run over by boats too much.

Just bought a "Floatie" with a dive flag to tow behind when tank diving. I spent a lot of time untangling the line (fins, wrist compass, dive knife, etc). The line has a mind of it's own. The wife thinks I maybe I deployed too much line.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Bert

 

[AfterDark]

I use a line holder instead of a reel. I put a large rubber bungee loop on one end and a small float on the other, I use a old camera case. I put my left arm thru the loop and the whole affair floats above and behind me. To have only the line I need out and cut down on tangles, I marked the line every 10' feet so if I'm at 30' I have 40' of line out no more. It makes the whole thing easier to handle. My marking method was to use small plastic tie wraps, each wrap is 10' so at 10' I made a loop and put one tie wrap on the loop, 20' loop 2 wraps 30' loop 3 wraps.......after 100' (ten wraps) I go back to one wrap for 110' 2 for 120' and 3 for 130' the max line I have. Anything deeper than that I'll be diving from a boat.

 

[Phil_C]

Bert, a lot will depend on how deep you are diving. Generally I only use a towed surface marker buoy when I am quite shallow, and then the technique is to keep the line fairly taught so it is in effect as near to vertical as possible.

If you let it run out behind you then it will always tangle unless you are swimming fast to keep it pulled out behind you. The deeper you go the worse the effect gets. Especially if there is surface wind which can blow the smb out to one side, or even cause it to 'overtake' you. All this leads to a very slack line and the risk of loops getting caught up all over the place.

What I do is keep it taught and fairly upright, and then swim with an arm out to one side a bit so it is kept clear from my body and kit as much as possible. An important safety reminder as well is to remember not to clip it off to your kit. You want to be able to discard it and let it go if some idiot does run it over and catch up the line. Otherwise you risk a very swift towed ascent to the surface, definitely to be avoided if possible.

So in essence keep it out to one side and as taught as possible without ending up resting your weight on it - you should still be neutrally buoyant, and don't clip it off.

Happy diving - Phil