Help with deploying a safety sausage

Anyone have any helpful videos on this as I can seem to figure it out.

In the video, it's pre-attached to the spool. I thought there was some reason why divers prefer to carry the spool and the sausage separately and attach them underwater. For me, the attachment process while hovering in mid-water was the difficult part. In learning from my instructor how to deploy a sausage, it never occurred to me to ask why we couldn't simply pre-attach it on the surface. Are there pros and cons?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ye2eka2nRY

This is a super-slow demonstration, but it shows all the steps clearly.

You can certainly "pre-rig" the smb before you get in the water. Keeping the spool and bag separate and assembling them mid-water is a task loading exercise, nothing more.

I think it is crazy that this potentially life saving skill is not taught right back in OW training.

From memory it is not even part o AOW or Rescue training....

CaptLee:

How to Deploy a Safety Sausage - YouTube

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A couple of things I don't like in that video:

1. Do not put your finger through the reel. It can snag - particularly if you are wearing gloves. You should always be ready to let go if necessary. I use a thumb and middle finger either side, just poking in enough to hold onto it. Some place the whole thing in their hand, in a clawed position with the line slipping through the middle and ring fingers.

2. Where is the boltsnap? I (and many others) clip it onto the line, allowing it to move along it freely. When you send it up, the boltsnap will weigh down any slack in the line, reducing the chance of the spool turning into a birds nest or creating an entanglement hazard. The boltsnap also then acts as a handle you can use to wind it on, and you can clip it to the spool with the line passing through to act as a lock while you are making any stops.


There are other reels you can use too. I like the spool as it is compact, but if you prefer a larger reel, that is fine. There are other ways to inflate it too. Most my diving is in cold water, so I do not purge the second stage and risk it freeflowing - I hold the DSMB to the exhaust port of the second stage that is in my mouth (being careful there is no loose line to snag on me), tilt my head so the port is pointing up and breathe out. One small breath to get some gas in it so it is floating vertically (but not pulling me up), then check the line is clear, check above me, then a couple of big, fast breathes and let it go.

Another method, which I prefer now, is to use a DSMB with a LPI hose fitting. I unhook the drysuit hose, push it onto the fitting (which does not lock like a normal fitting), quick squirt and up it goes.

It is always a good Idea to get any slack in for the reasons I said in my second point. When ascending, maintain some tension on the line to keep it pointing up on the surface, but do this with your arm. Don't go negatively buoyant - if you have to let go of the reel, there is only one way you are going.

And the golden rule - never clip the real to your kit when it is deployed. Always be able to drop the reel if it jams, or gets caught by a boat.

---------- Post added July 17th, 2014 at 09:53 AM ----------

Hutch12:

I think it is crazy that this potentially life saving skill is not taught right back in OW training.

From memory it is not even part o AOW or Rescue training....

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My thoughts too. I was recently diving with a new club member. He had never dived in the UK sea before and never launched a blob. He was on one of our club trips so I buddied up with him. He is new to the club and I had never met him beforehand. I have since spoken to the bloke who runs the club and told him he shouldn't be allowing people in the sea who haven't mastered this skill, and that this was the first and last time I have dived with somebody in the sea who cannot launch a DSMB.

I think the problem is many holiday divers book onto a boat and the DM shepherds them around. For these, DSMB deployment is not a skill they would normally need. The norm where I am is the boat skipper takes you to the site and drops you in - there is nobody to hold your hand. All skippers over here insist you ascend on the shot or a DSMB.

Here's a good one:

SCUBA: SMB Deployment - YouTube

Mustard Dave:

My thoughts too. I was recently diving with a new club member. He had never dived in the UK sea before and never launched a blob. He was on one of our club trips so I buddied up with him. He is new to the club and I had never met him beforehand. I have since spoken to the bloke who runs the club and told him he shouldn't be allowing people in the sea who haven't mastered this skill, and that this was the first and last time I have dived with somebody in the sea who cannot launch a DSMB.

I think the problem is many holiday divers book onto a boat and the DM shepherds them around. For these, DSMB deployment is not a skill they would normally need. The norm where I am is the boat skipper takes you to the site and drops you in - there is nobody to hold your hand. All skippers over here insist you ascend on the shot or a DSMB.

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As it should be. Your point about holiday divers is correct. Divers following DMs around and relying on them to send up an SMB.

In many places it is rarwe to see even the DM send one up, some simply give a squirt of bubbles from the octo and some just simply surface, with zodiacs zooming around.

If I am with a guide or other diver in the vicinty who shoots an SMB I'm happy to surface with them, if a DM doesn't shoot one, I send my own up and on several occasions have been questioned after the dive as to why I did so. My simple answer is I never surface with out one. Too many stories on here and in the real world of being hit.

On one particular dive on a LOB in Indonesia which I will not mention, on the first dive with out a guide, I shot my SMB before the safety stop, surfaced as normal to find the Zodiac waiting with a first aid kit and wanting to know what the emergency was!!!!! The Dive Director asked me to only send an SMB up if there was an emergency as that was their boats proceedure. I politely told him, no and that to treat my SMB as intended, a sign to boat traffic that I was getting ready to surface and to kindly keep distance. If there was an emergency, I would signal as such once on the surface.

I tend to find that I am in the minority with this and find it incredible the amount of people prepared to simply pop their heads up with no marker.

Referring to my original point, I wonder how many recreational divers a) dive with out an SMB or b) when given one as a standard piece of kit by the boat, how many actually know how to deploy it?

I concur with Mustard Dave about the video and I'd offer another couple of points;

Use a delrin or other plastic spool rather than stainless and, if you accidentally let it go during the SMB's ascent then it won't immediately sink out of reach. That's why I don't leave the boltsnap on the line, too much weight.

Also, don't use an octo or exhaled air from your reg exhaust or even a dry suit hose. Just take your reg out of your mouth, blow half a lungful of air into the SMB via the LPI and then you can still hold onto the SMB and have loads of time to sort any snags because your buoyancy hasn't changed at all. Pop your reg back in and, when you're happy everything is good to go, blow out to clear the reg, release the SMB, and return to normal breathing.

Oral inflation via the LPI means ALL the air you exhale goes straight into the buoy with no spillage.

Hickdive:

don't use an octo or exhaled air from your reg exhaust or even a dry suit hose. Just take your reg out of your mouth, blow half a lungful of air into the SMB via the LPI and then you can still hold onto the SMB and have loads of time to sort any snags because your buoyancy hasn't changed at all.

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I may be dense, but I just can't picture how to do dSMB oral inflation via the LPI. Would you mind expanding a little bit on that?

When I'm shooting a dSMB, I always use air from my wing for the first little squirt that unrolls and stretches the sausage to stay neutral, at least if I have any air left in there at the end of the dive. The bulk of the air, though, comes from my reg. I haven't thought about the freeflow risk in cold water, but it's of course obvious, so I'll try to find another method from now on.