Its not the size of your sausage.....its how you used it!!

[fgray1]

On the way back in. Even though you have a dive flag if a boat is coming from up wind they can't see the flag until they're right on top of you so I use the sausage as a little extra safety margin.
It works. I also have a dive alert and if they get to close I blow it and that gets there attenstion.
Fred

 

[Bretagne]

Deploy it 5 mins before surfacing and by the time stops are completed the boat should be waiting for you next to it.

We always use it if we are not on the mooring line or on an emerging rock at the beginning of the safety stop. Just so that the boat knows were are the divers that will come back soon (and eventually move to pick them)> and it helps a lot for a safety stop in the middle of nowhere, with current.

 

[miketsp]

I used mine in earnest exactly on a day when I thought carrying it would be an absolute waste of time. We were doing a dive in flat calm conditions at a site called "Parcel do Coronel" in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is a terrific site, totally submerged, made of of a collection of very large rocks so you can go down into the grooves and tunnels. I know this now because I went back a few weeks later.
Anyway we were diving off a live-aboard and it was the first trip out after some time laid-up out of service so the crew was a little rusty. Nobody on board had dived this site as on previous trips conditions did not allow.
So the boat manoeuvered in to what appeared to be a safe distance and anchored. We were at slack water minus 30 minutes. Things could not be looking better.
The group varied widely in experience, there were quite a few beginners but accompanied by DMs and instructors in a good ratio. So I and my wife jumped in to go off first by ourselves while the DMs & instructors got their groups together. After I got into the water one of the crew asked me to check the prop which I did and found the RIB tether with a few tight turns. I tried to unroll the rope turns but the problem was that the prop was just too big and the rudder too large and I ended up having to use my knife and cut through. Anyway this wasted about 10 minutes and I was starting to feel some current at the end but it was still quite light so I took a compass bearing on the marker buoy for the "Parcel" and off we went on the surface. After about 10 minutes finning in the right direction I decided it was time to have look below. Vis was about 2m! So we angled down gradually and finally hit mud bottom at about 23m maintaining our course. Carried on finning steadily and watching the air level until we hit 100Bar, still not seeing anything, so decided to surface. I found we off course, the boat was fairly small in the distance so I pulled out the buddy line to fix us together and we started finning in the direction of the boat. No sign of the other 20 divers!
After about 30 minutes finning the boat was a dot on the horizon - the current was pulling us fast away from the boat. So - time to deploy the sausage.
A passing launch eventually pulled over towards us and on board were 4 or 5 of our group that had been picked up much further downcurrent. Eventually our RIB picked us up last - we were in no hurry. Since we were the only ones that went deeper we were the least affected by the rapidly accelerating surface current after slack water.
The gratifying thing was that in the calm conditions and sunlight my sausage was visible at kilometers distance.
When we repeated the dive some weeks later I saw that we must have missed the Parcel by only 5m or so.....

 

[flw]

I just got back from a weeks diving, and used my dsmb on half the dives. One dive the tide turned and built unexpectedly, I met the surface bouys going down at 27m 30 minutes from the surface -I need the security that the boat knows where I am, also the boat needs the security of knowing where we all are on that sort of dive - the last diver surfaced almost 3 miles from the wreck, the boat knew exactly where we all were, and is close by just in case

 

[simbrooks]

On the way back in. Even though you have a dive flag if a boat is coming from up wind they can't see the flag until they're right on top of you so I use the sausage as a little extra safety margin.
It works. I also have a dive alert and if they get to close I blow it and that gets there attenstion.
Fred

Even if they are coming in from across the wind they still dont actually "see" it sometimes due to chugging down beer and driving like maniacs anywhere they please.

I have used my sausage in earnest only once, that was to get picked up from a drift dive. There were only two of us on it with a DM (everyone else cancelled), the DM went up with leg cramps and so i took that float, when we went in the seas were about 3ft, when we surfaced they were about 4ft, couldnt see the boat, although i know the boat had the flag in sight we couldnt see them, so i thought it best to send up the sausage too just in case (as it is taller than the flag). Otherwise i carry it, but havent needed to use it so far.

 

[Mako Mark]

Where I come from, they are called "Divers Condoms"

and they are BIG, XXL.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Where I come from, they are called "Divers Condoms"

and they are BIG, XXL.

In drysuit country, that term has a whole different connotation ... :11:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Mako Mark]

In drysuit country, that term has a whole different connotation ... :11:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Yeah, I read the up or down thread a month back.

.

 

[Lat. Adjustment]

On a WPB drift dive my daughter and I were first in, then someone on the boat had a problem so the group got spread out, just to make matters worse the DM's line to the surface float broke but the boat continued to follow it. My daughter and I started up the line but soon found the break as we surfaced in 4' waves. A quick 360 degree scan confirmed we were alone with no boats in sight, I started huffing on her 6' sausage and found she had snagged it on the swim platform on a prior dive. If you wear yours clipped to the outside of your BC check it for leaks on a regular basis! Apparently we had gotten it up enough for the boat to spot before I deployed mine and they picked us up. We then got to look for the others, having a sausage definetly makes it easier to be spotted among the waves. The easiest to spot was a 10' yellow monster followed by lime and orange, do not buy red!

 

[Scubaguy62]

do not buy red!

I agree with that. On a dive to the Spiegel Grove about 1 1/2 yrs. ago, two divers of our group missed the line on ascent and were carried over by the current. He had a red 42" safety sausage, she had nothing. They became separated on the surface, and while it was very tough to see him, we were able to spot him about 150 yds from the boat. It was by sheer luck we found her on the way to pick him up.

I have a standard 42" neon yellow, which works fine. I rigged two "D" rings to the back plate of my BC with zip ties, and I have mine on one of those, on the same side as the power inflator, so it lies streamlined and within easy reach, but most of all, protected by the tank to avoid ripping it.