Safety stop anchor double as a sausage?

[Graeme Tolton]

It is amazing to me that a patent was actually granted for a lift bag with a string attached.



All he best, James

Come on... whats the worst that could happen? Oh yeah that is pretty bad! lol... You could always have it bundled up with a spareair. (for additional safety). It seems that people with good intentions can come up with some really bad ideas.... Just imagine being hooked up to this when a boat comes along....

 

[Granny Scuba]

Would you explain a little more what you mean when you say "hold tight". You are done with the dive, so you start going up. You get to where you want to make your stop and then.... ? that's where I'm lost with the hold tight independently of the surface.

I am not sure. A new friend was telling me that during certain enviromental conditions that it was difficut to maintain a safety stop and this this safety anchor aided in that. Or at the very least it allowed her to relax and she didnt have to worry about her buoyancy. (As a new diver I have yet to master this) If you read the description on these items they seem to support her claim.

Have to add this: when I mentioned this contraption to my husband he laughed skeptically.

 

[paddler3d]

The Patent you quoted is a SMB (surface marker buoy).

Some divers will use a SMB attached to a dive reel to do their safety stops or deco stops.

Some dive reels such as the Manta, Jr. and Manta, Sr. allow you to lock the reel so you can set your depth and 'hang' on it.

If it is anchored to the bottom people call them mooring buoys (I'm not meaning to be a smart ass) or it could be a shot line.

When trying to attach a boat to a wreck, people will find the wreck on their sonar and drop a weighted marker buoy. It rests on the bottom and a diver then has a physical reference on which to descend and then hopefully tie the boat to the wreck.

It really sounds like an SMB attached to a dive reel.

 

[Ana]

I am not sure. A new friend was telling me that during certain enviromental conditions that it was difficut to maintain a safety stop and this this safety anchor aided in that. Or at the very least it allowed her to relax and she didnt have to worry about her buoyancy. (As a new diver I have yet to master this) If you read the description on these items they seem to support her claim.

Have to add this: when I mentioned this contraption to my husband he laughed skeptically.

ok, I get it now.

I won't laugh but realize that this contraption is a bag with some strings, too many strings if you ask me.
My suggestion would be to try to avoid rough waters until your buoyancy is under control. If you come up and things are rough enough that you have issues staying at certain depth, then go a few feet deeper; even if the surface feels like a washing machine, it will be easier deeper.

The marker is to hopefully stop a boat from running you over and/or to let people on your boat know where you are. Some models may have enough air capacity to hold you from sinking but I wouldn't recommend relaying on that.

Once you have buoyancy control you can be at whatever depth you want to be for as long as you want to, with less effort than what it takes to deal with all these contraptions.

 

[plumcrazy]

Actually If your looking to not over gear yourself I would just go with the safety sausage. I'm thinking that your freind is going "negativley" buoyant and just hanging onto the line at a predetermined depth. You could do the same thing with a safety sausage but as others have already said you need to really learn buoyancy. If you get a sausage get a big one. The bigger the sausage the better your chance of being seen which is the whole point. Oh yea one more thing. Whatever device you get make sure you practice deploying the thing in a controlled safe enviroment. A lot of things have to happen in a very short time frame and as soon as you put air in it , boom its going to the surface. Good Luck

 

[Atomic_Diver]

heres my opinion, saftey sausage is for signaling a boat if your drifting away, or come up (far) away from the boat, unless you have good bouancy best not used for a saftey stop anchor, depending on depth (and current) the current may drag your sausage further (and you along with it) since the current tends to be faster at surface than at depth, the sausage is also harder to inflate at depth (i.e. one you have to blow into to inflate) best bet is to go with what tech divers use (SMB) which is basically a same thing but with open end so you can inflate with alternate air source at depth, but like i said, you may want to have better bouyancy (if you don't already have) before trying this... a boat anchor is your best bet as a saftey stop line, you can use a "jon" line to keep distance from the crowded stop at the end of the dive.... if you still need more info, just ask away, hope this helps......

 

[fnfalman]

To reiterate what others have already said:

Safety sausage = deploy at surface (usually by oral inflation) for signaling the boat if you are too far away, or heaven forbids, lost at sea.

SMB = deploy from the depth and attached to a lanyard/string. The SMB can be used as a lift bag to lift stuff up (a bunch of shellfishes, recovered dive weights, etc.) as well. It's also used while drift diving for the boat to see where the divers are. Or if you get picked up by a heavy current and wash out to sea while doing your deco stop/safety stop, the boat can see where you are.

SMB or this Mares floating anchor whatchamacallit is not a crutch for lack of buoyancy skills. Granted that we all are beginners are one point, but the two things that a novice riders need to shoot for right away are proper weighting and buoyancy control. The faster you get the gist of it, the better off you will be.

Using the boat anchor line as a safety stop device works, but if the boat were to be in choppy sea, it could be miserable because the anchor line is flopping and if you are holding onto the anchor line, guess what you'd be doing too? Yes, you can get seasick underwater if you hold onto a flopping anchor line.

If you dive in California water or water that have giant kelps, you can use the kelps as a safety stop aid too. But the sooner you and your buddies learn how to control your buoyancy, the better off you all are. It's not just a safety thing but also a fun thing. It ain't that fun holding onto the anchor line or some sort of line (unless you're in a drift dive and have to mark your position) for safety stop.

 

[Granny Scuba]

Okay , I am really getting confused and now have no idea what to purchase. Its seem that definitions vary from user to user and site to site. A rose by any other name...maybe...but not a SMB.

I would like to buy only a few multi-purpose items in effort to reduce “stuff”. My husband said Reels and lines are a pain, so we would like to limit these in our group of 5.




Surface Marker Buoy _______SMB_______inflated at surface pior to dive__marks divers position at beginning of dive, allows boat to follow divers


Submersible Marker Bag_____SMB_______inflated during dive____________will shoot to the surface immedately uon inflation


Deco-Buoy (Delayed SMB)____DSMB_______inflated during dive___________launched while diver is submerged-towards end of dive, ............................................................... A reel & line connect surfaced buoy to diver below Allows boat to locate diver


Safety Sausage_____________ ????_______inflated after surfacing__________buoy deployed by diver after surfacing


Safety Stop Anchor__________SSA________inflated at Safety Stop___________inflate at safety stop-aides in wating out . ...........................................>>>........>>>.................... safety stop signals boat of diver's location


Anchor Float Safety Stop inflatable lift bag _____????????


here is a sampling of what I found:
SMBs (Surface Marker Buoy) are inflated on the surface before diving to mark the diver's position. The buoy lets the boat follow the divers and highlights their position to other boat traffic

Submersible Marker Bag Usually a huge sausage shaped bag fitted with an overpressure relief valve. Often has an open bottom to permit inflation with your octo. I suppose they don't have to have a separate pressure relief valve if they have an open botttom, but most do anyway. SMB's usually are not rated for lift capacity and they do not provide valves for controlling lift during ascent. An SMB will shoot to the surface immediately upon inflation.

Deco–Buoy or delayed Surface Marker Buoy is similar to a Surface Marker Buoy but is launched while the diver is submerged and generally only at towards the end of the dive. The buoy marks the diver's position underwater so the boat safety cover can locate the diver even though the diver may have drifted some distance from the dive site while doing decompression stops. A reel and line connect the buoy on the surface to the diver beneath the surface
A safety sausage is a buoy used when the diver is at the surface to indicate the diver's position. A safety sausage is not a substitute for a surface marker buoy It would be possible to inflate one at depth and send it up but if you don't put just the right amount of air in you will either have a limp sausage (and nobody wants that) or it could burst. Safety Sausages are best used as surface signaling devices only.
A lifting bag is an item of diving equipment consisting of a robust and air-tight bag with strops, which is used to lift heavy objects underwater by means of the bag's buoyancy. The heavy object can either be moved horizontally underwater by the diver or sent unaccompanied to the surface.

IST Inflatable Safety Stop Marker AnchorInflatable Safety Stop Anchor or Site Marker. Not a traditional lift bag but this is a perfect marker to allow surface support to see where your safety stop is being performed. You can also use this as a scuba dive site or snorkeling area marker.

Super Sausage: http://www.scuba2.asn.au/_documents/supersausage.pdf

 

[Web Monkey]

The first three are the same thing (look like the picture I posted and are used with a reel or finger spool.) You can shoot it from underwater (with practice), deploy it on the surface and tow it, or inflate it on the surface and wave it at boats if lost.

A "safety sausage" looks like the above, but is smaller and has no overpressure relief valve, so it can't be deployed at depth without risk of ripping it due to expansion.

All the rest appear to be the same as a DSMB, but shorter and fatter. This gives you less visibility. I'm not sure what the advantage would be.

And for what it's worth, you can "hang" on a good sized (D)SMB. The large Carter has 75 pounds of lift and the line on a finger spool is generally rated at around 225Lbs. You won't be pulling it under or breaking the line.

On the other hand, your arm will get tired if you hang on and are extremely negative. I would absolutely not recommend clipping yourself to it, since boaters have been known to come flying by and grab them.

Terry

 

[Ana]

Sounds like you're over-thinking this issue. You need a container for air that will mark your position and a way to hold on to that container.
If you seal the fibers of a pillowcase very carefully and attach an extension cord to it, THAT WILL WORK.... however there are more practical items already made for you, easier to deploy and store when not in use.
SMB-DSMB-SSA-SS is all a bunch of BS labels, you can thank marketing gurus for that. If you spend more than 30-40$ on this device, I'm sure the "dive industry" will love you, but that's about it.
Once you buy it... it is YOURS, you'll inflate the thing whenever you are good and ready; at depth and tow it thru the dive, at the safety stop or once you got to the surface.