Which safety sausage???

[HenrikBP]

I saw the Zeagle tube at the Beneath the Sea show this weekend. Very nice - and they sell it as a complete package with a quick deploy "holster", SS or poly reel, line and double ended snap. Seemed like a nice setup.

Henrik

 

[ucrtwf]

I don't want to hijak this thread, but a related question would be, is there any worries about blowing up a SMB at the bottom, then letting it rise (because of the expanding gas)? I guess a simplfied question is that, is there an overpressure relif on most of the oral inflators?
Thanks
Tim

 

[diver12345]

Asuming that you are shooting it to the surface with a spool no problem. However not all SMB's have an OPV. I wouldnt buy one that didnt however.

 

[DuckyDiver]

I like the one that I got from DAN. I can shoot it from my inflator and send it up from a finger spool or I can orally inflate it on the surface. It's a 6' sausage, bright orange with reflective striping. It has a standard dump/OP valve.

The only drawback that I have with this thing is that it's made out of such a heavy duty Cordura Nylon that it wont roll up and as compactly as the less expensive SMB's

I second that. That SMB also comes with a signal mirror and a light stick that attaches to the top. Ohh yea,, and a whissle. All those extras do make it a little bulky.

 

[Divrdug]

As an aside to this, what kind of reel do you recommend for use with an SMB. It is hard to see much about them on the web sites and my local dive shop didn't have much to see.
If you get off a wreck in current and need to send it up from depth or safety stop so the boat can see you're adrift asap, I think is better then waiting until you break the surface possibly hundreds of yards away.

I want a reel that is small enough to pocket but if dropped won't unspool into a "real" mess

 

[diver12345]

Finger spools come in various lengths. 50ft,75,100,125,150 you get the idea. For the regular recreational diver a 50ft spool would be just fine. You can wait and shoot it at your safety stop. You want the center hole big enough that your fingers can fit inside of it so you can hold it when shooting.Dive rite makes one. If you happen to drop it, it really doesn't matter how much line is on it it will make a mess.Just the nature of line. I would advise practice in a controlled situation first and always have a good cutting tool easily reachable.