The proper way to shoot a surface marker buoy

[daniel f aleman]

In open water one should give up that horizontal trim, and be more three-quarters at least; always nice to see what's going on above...

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Bag size used by the student in the video? It looks bigger than a Halcyon "So You Can Pass Fundies" 3' bag, but smaller than a H 4.5' bag. 1/2 way out of the water is what...2' at best?

I'm not knocking pretty deployments as a training exercise, but when I'm coming up from a long, deep dive I want (1) everyone and their mother to be able to see my bag, especially if I'm drifting out in the middle of nowhere; and (2) all the lift I can get to hang under and as a hedge against wing failure, to hold a flooded DPV, whatever. If that means I move a bit up and down while deploying a 6' bag from 200' or more, I really couldn't care less so long as all 6' of the sausage comes out of the water like a Polaris missile on Viagra.

I shoot bags from about that depth. It does not take much air at all to have it show up on the surface in the full or nearly full condition. I really don't know what you are talking about.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

I shoot bags from about that depth. It does not take much air at all to have it show up on the surface in the full or nearly full condition. I really don't know what you are talking about.

That much is clear. Carry on, DD.

 

[The Chairman]

Jim, I would have been proud to have my student do that skill to that level. Two foot of sausage is more visible than the average dive flag. On top of that, his trim and bottom awareness was impeccable. I look forward to seeing videos of Dr Lecter's students doing better. I'm sure he's not all mouth.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Jim, I would have been proud to have my student do that skill to that level. Two foot of sausage is more visible than the average dive flag. On top of that, his trim and bottom awareness was impeccable. I look forward to seeing videos of Dr Lecter's students doing better. I'm sure he's not all mouth.

Like I said above, it was a pretty shoot and training for perfection tends to translate into at least excellent real-world performance. Good on the student for meeting the standard his instructor set; but an instructor more concerned about movement in the water column than about his student's bag inflation...yeah, I'm not impressed by that part.

I question whether "pretty" should be the primary goal when making an absolute, unqualified statement about the "proper way to shoot" a bag in a public forum. Excellent trim, control, and awareness are great - but outside the training context, I think it's significantly more important to make sure you use a large enough bag and get the damn thing fully inflated so it can do its job. YMMV.

 

[The Chairman]

Again, we would love to see the videos of your students showing us how to truly do this skill.

 

[decompression]

A few good points and a few "too work on"....I can't take my eyes off the wing though, a great visual of how dynamic instability manifests itself.

 

[tomfcrist]

Not my preferred way to shoot a bag, but there are 1000 ways to skin a cat. FWIW, I think is buoyancy and trim are great, and loved that he seemed extremely comfortable in every video you have posted...something tells me this isn't his first rodeo.

 

[The Chairman]

I believe that Jim taught him cave as well. He can fill us in. I would love to hear from the student on how he felt.

 

[tomfcrist]

I think cave instructors in general are awesomely anal retentive about trim and buoyancy...can't get way with the silly stuff we do in wrecks in those places. Still waiting on the funds for a revo class with Jim.