Safety stop anchor double as a sausage?

[muddiver]

I am trying not to become over equipped....
but at the same time I want to ensure safety.

Is it possible that a safey stop anchor could double as a saugage?
Or is there some other rmultifuntion item?
Thanks!

Please pay attention to where you are reading your SCUBA information from. I suspect that you gleaned the terms "safety stop anchor" and "hold firm" off of a British diving web site. These are not terms used in the United States when discussing SCUBA diving techniques and equipment.

Many of the knowledgable people on this web site appear to be trying to translate foriegn terms to terms that are common in the U.S. diving community.

A surface signal device, also known as a safety sossage, is a common U.S. term for a long tube you inflate on the surface to increase your visablity when diving off a charter boat.

An SMB, or surfce marker buoy, is a more robust bag that usually has loops or rings for attaching a rope so that it can be partally inflated under water and sent to the surface as a marker, and as a verticle reference when you are making a decompression/safety stop.

An anchor is a heavy object that sits on the bottom. That would lead me to think that a safety stop anchor is similar to a down line, or clump weight on a rope to the surface, not unlike hanging out on the anchor line for the boat. You can use it to keep from drifting up towards the surface.

To make your safety stops eaisier, just do your stop at 20 feet instead of the shallower 15 feet that most SCUBA training agencies reccomend. Most surface wave action will not reach down to 20 feet in deep water, and the ratio of expansion of the air in your BC is smaller, and more managable at 20 feet as opposed to 15 feet.

 

[Martini]

Not to side track the thread, but we only do it in a situation where the anchor line is pulled free or the diver is prevented from returning to the anchor line. In hundreds of dives of the East Coast I have only had to shoot a bag 2 times. We also have methods such as looping under the wreck and ascending up the other side that allow us to recover the line successfully after finding the boat. Mud I would be happy to debate our protocals and let our captains know how stupid you think they are. PM me or start a new thread.

 

[TSandM]

Almost all the charter boat diving in Puget Sound is live boat, and it is not at all uncommon for a team to blow a bag on ascent. It makes the captain's job a little easier. And I know, when I tend my own small boat, I breathe a deep sigh of relief when I see that bag come up!

 

[Teamcasa]

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[lord.harshil]

Mud,

It's accepted protocol if the anchor comes free of the wreck. Attaching the line to the wreck keeps you from drifting away in high seas/high current. You take your lift-bag with you, and someone can simply cut the line free the next time they dive. The wrecks are more littered in fishing line/nets anyways.

Anywho, it's something that's done for contingency in NJ. The OP is a basic OW diver that lives in the south, we need to keep it relevant to what she's going to be doing.

Ok I have never tied my line to a wreck. I go to 15', hover and shoot the bag. wait for 3 mins, roll it up as i ascend.

I dont think this is a bad idea for the OP provided she has a mentor to guide her on how to shoot a bag. Seeing a bag is good for the captain of the boat and its good for you for the reasons I have stated earlier. I dont think its fatally dangerous, but it can do some damage.

Where I dive, people usually come back up an anchor line and do their safety stop on a hang line. Using a SMB for this would ensure you being separated from the boat, and the operator having to drive all over the place to pick up the divers.

If you get blown off the wreck, you can pretty much just surface. I don't see why you would need to shoot a SMB at depth. You can surface and inflate a safety sausage.

What are you diving where everyone uses a SMB for doing a safety stop? I'm guessing it's got to be some sort of deep shore diving or something...

Nope. Most dives are below 20m and from the boat. Reasons are as follows :

1) practice for me before I take tech courses
2) Visual reference for me and my divers while doing the safety stop
3) Keeps boaters away, especially in the crowded dive sites
4) Its fun

Certainly you can choose not to shoot a bag. Its been done and many people do it. Personally I like to shoot one, as do many of the more experienced divers in my area. Many times, multiple people in the group shoot their bags. Practice practice practice.

 

[muddiver]

Not to side track the thread, but we only do it in a situation where the anchor line is pulled free or the diver is prevented from returning to the anchor line. In hundreds of dives of the East Coast I have only had to shoot a bag 2 times. We also have methods such as looping under the wreck and ascending up the other side that allow us to recover the line successfully after finding the boat. Mud I would be happy to debate our protocals and let our captains know how stupid you think they are. PM me or start a new thread.

Looping the line makes a lot more sense to me. Just tying off to a wreck and ascending seems like a waste of line.

SMB are still not that common on the southern west coast.

 

[tgsmith]

Ok I have never tied my line to a wreck. I go to 15', hover and shoot the bag. wait for 3 mins, roll it up as i ascend.

I dont think this is a bad idea for the OP provided she has a mentor to guide her on how to shoot a bag. Seeing a bag is good for the captain of the boat and its good for you for the reasons I have stated earlier. I dont think its fatally dangerous, but it can do some damage.



Nope. Most dives are below 20m and from the boat. Reasons are as follows :

1) practice for me before I take tech courses
2) Visual reference for me and my divers while doing the safety stop
3) Keeps boaters away, especially in the crowded dive sites
4) Its fun

Certainly you can choose not to shoot a bag. Its been done and many people do it. Personally I like to shoot one, as do many of the more experienced divers in my area. Many times, multiple people in the group shoot their bags. Practice practice practice.

Do your boats out in Singapore have hang lines? Or is it all live boating, like another member talked about?

 

[lord.harshil]

they're usually moored to a permanent buoy which is attached to the reef somewhere.

but in many dive sites, there might be a current where the boat is supposed to pick you up down current, or there might be some boats which are running amok on the surface.

in any case, we rarely go back to the mooring line itself. we usually end the dive somewhere near the boat (more often than not we have our knowledge and a compass to rely on. viz isnt THAT great) shoot a bag, chill for a couple of min and ascend. if there is a mooring line its a bit pointless to shoot a bag right beside it.

 

[Damselfish]

Arguments on whether SMBs are shot or not are pretty pointless. Like most things it depends where you are diving and the situation. Someone saying they are shot all the time are undoubtedly correct - for where they dive. Same for people who say they are never used. People saying sometimes are probably the most correct of all.

To the OP Granny - There's been some confusion caused by terminology, but I think post #24 summarizes your situation really well. Read that one again.

Generally people use these things to be seen and maybe as as a visual reference, not to hang from. You should not be shopping for something to hang from, even if they sell it. If your buoyancy control isn't good enough to hold a safety stop, it's not good enough to deploy any sort of bag from below anyway, trust the people that tell you this. Even if someone else sends it up, if your buoyancy control is not good enough to hold a safety stop, you should spend your stop practicing this, not hanging from something. And if you can't hold a safety stop in less than ideal conditions, you really shouldn't be diving in those conditions yet anyway. Granted, it can be relaxing sometimes to hang out on an anchor line or some kind of line or bar under a boat that is meant for such a thing, but consider that a treat or special situation - it's not something you should need for your average dive and I can't see trying to carry around a portable substitute with you.

For now, I would suggest each diver get a tall safety sausage (closed and mostly meant to be inflated at the surface) to carry and be done with it. It's a good piece of safety equipment, easy to use at the surface should you need to, relatively inexpensive and compact to carry. It never hurts to have one. At some point you may decide you need an SMB (mostly meant to be inflated underwater) - or you may decide it's one more thing you have no need to carry. If you decide you want one, you may deem it sufficient to carry one for you and your buddy or your group. Or, you may find the only times you need one, you happen to be with a dive op that supplies them, or you will be coming up in groups with DMs that carry them and send one up for a group - that's getting more common if you travel to dive and go someplace they're needed. Not that carrying your own as a backup isn't a good idea, but just hold off on SMBs until you have a better grip on all this and you know what is appropriate for you. Personally, I dove a fairly long time before I happened to dive in circumstances where it was really needed. You don't say where you will be diving, so it's hard for anyone to say if YOU need one.

 

[plumcrazy]

What the Heck is going on here. Granny Scuba simply asked for some advice on which piece of gear to buy. I had no idea that weather you call it a SMB, safety sausage, PDQ or XYZ and under what conditions to deploy or not to deploy was such a point of contention in the SCUBA community. Makes me really want to go out and try out SCUBA.........