Reels vs. Spools

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Cave Diver

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I'm curious as to the opinions of everyone as to the use of spools over reels for lift/deco bags. I have seen several people mention they prefer the use of a spool and would like a little insight as to why. As a cave diver, I am obviously familiar with the use of reels, but I have no experience at all with a spool. As near as I can tell, the major difference is a spool hold less line, and instead of having a handle and knob, it just has holes in the face that you put your fingers in and 'wind' it that way. I have also seen it mentioned that it is great for shooting lift bags as you can attach it to a bag and it will just hover in midwater as the line unspools from it.

Opinions? Comments?

Dive often, but dive safe

John
 
So I can't tell you how to use them there but the reason we use them for shooting a bag in OW is so that you don't get hauled to the surface by hanging onto a reel that suddenly jams.

As for winding the spools up (which we do between stops on our way up) we hold the spool in one hand and with the bolt-snap in the other hand holding the line and wobble the spool to wind the line on... when we get to the stop we clip the bolt-snap off in a hole and let the spool go dangling there in front of us.

BTW we are now pre-rigging our spool line to the lift bag and stowing it in the right thigh pocket ready to go. We typically shoot the bag at the 70' stop since we are doing the gas switch there and spending at least 3~5 minutes to open the O2 window.

The bag is not a crutch for crappy buoyancy but simply to mark our postion.
 
Originally posted by Uncle Pug
So I can't tell you how to use them there but the reason we use them for shooting a bag in OW is so that you don't get hauled to the surface by hanging onto a reel that suddenly jams.


Actually, I was asking this for a non-cave scenario as I am about to take my deep air and advanced nitrox class in a couple of months and part of that will include shooting liftbags. The idea about the jamming reel was exactly the first advantage that occurred to me, but I just wanted confirmation from someone with more knowledge on it.

Originally posted by Uncle Pug

The bag is not a crutch for crappy buoyancy but simply to mark our postion.

I understand that the purpose of the liftbag was to give you a reference point in midwater for deco stops, and allow surface support to follow you in the event of current, etc. After reading some of your posts I am pretty certain that 'crappy bouyancy' is not a term that would be used to to describe your diving skills! [:]-)

Dive often, but dive safe

John
 
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