Deploying a safety sausage at safety stop??

[tlmainer]

Need advise on deploying a safety sausage by an octo at safety stop... Is it best to have a reel or finger spool? When filled by octo underwater, will it tend to pull diver up to the top until it is released? I just bought a safety sausage and want to practice just in case I never need it.
Thanks

[TSandM]

Deploying an SMB is not a terribly difficult skill, but it does take some practice to be able to do it smoothly and safely. I've never used one on a reel, but always on a finger spool. In my experience, reels are bulkier and more likely to come loose or undone.

I would recommend learning the skill in fairly shallow water but close to the bottom, so you have a good immediate visual reference for your buoyancy. You can carry the spool pre-rigged on the bag, so you don't have to do any threading underwater. You use a double-ender to secure the line to the spool so it doesn't unravel while you are diving. Then clip the double-ender off to your gear somewhere when you are ready to shoot the bag. Adjust your buoyancy, because when you fill the bag, it will want to drag you upwards. (I orally inflate mine, so adjusting my buoyancy to neutral with full lungs is perfect.) Inflate the bag, and check above you to make sure you're clear. Pull the bag out until the knot has cleared the spool, and then let it go. You'll have to take a deep breath when you let it go to avoid sinking! Then readjust your buoyancy to neutral.

Doing this in midwater (at a safety stop) is much more difficult, because you don't have good visual references to maintain your buoyancy, which is why I recommend practicing it at first near the bottom.

[rawls]

Are you talking about a safety sausage or a surface marker buoy? There is a fine line as to the terminology in any event. The finger spool is definitely the best method of deploying bags. As the bag lifts, you maintain control of the spool with your fingers or a rod of sorts through the hole and let the line unwind as the bag lifts toward the surface. Any method you use you need to make sure you don't lose the spool. If you inflate a surface marker and hold onto just the line, no doubt you will lift with it and there is a chance you might have a recompression ride in your future.

[Nemrod]

Practice at the deep end of the pool. I love my SeaTurtle second stage for inflating sausages. N

[D_B]

Another tip .. if your using your octo to inflate, and practicing mid water, do it at the end of your stop .. just in case you have "sticky fingers" and you go up a ways before you can stop yourself
and I found that I can judge if I'm holding a stop depth without swinging up and down by looking at the particulate matter in the water and rigging the SMB out of the corner of my eye, only stopping to actually look at it when I'm ready to deploy it .. making sure line is tight to spool and no one is overhead

Don't be discouraged if it all doesn't go as planned
Someone will post a video soon I'm sure

[tlmainer]

Rawls:
I guess it is a safety sausage/surface marker buoy. It looks like a sausage, however, has the oral filling tube and a slot in the bottom to fill underwater with your octo if you wanted to send it up during safety stop.

[Rainer]

Um, if it has an oral inflate tube, use that. Much, much simpler (assuming a marker with <8# lift).

[Buoyant1]

I haven't tried mine yet..just got it really...but I guess the juggling act part of using it as a reference to surface with, vent your BC, crank your reel (or wind your finger reel) is the part I'm not clear on....suggestions?

Or am I thinking incorrectly?

[coldsmoke]

In addition to everything TSandM has said, I would recommend a smaller bag if you plan to shoot it from shallower depths - like your safety stop. The bag that I use mostly, I can fill with two breaths at the surface. If I shoot it from 30 feet then one breath expands to fill the bag full by the time it reaches the surface. The nice thing about a 1 breath bag is that if you have your bouyancy under control you won't go anywhere when you inflate the bag. Air in your lungs or air in your bag - same bouyancy. It gives you time to make sure no one is above you or that nothing/no one is tangled in the line before you release it.

I would recommend caution whenever you plan on inflating a bag with something other than your mouth- like your octo. In can become a problem if you get more air in the bag than you can handle and if something should become tangled with the line you might get dragged up with it.

I assume you already have a marker bag but if not these are both excellent choices:
https://www.deepseasupply.com/index....tegory=markers
Diver's Alert Marker - 3.3' [14.030.004] - $76.00 : Fifth Dimension, Pacific Rim Aquatics

Both about the same price, are small enough to inflate fully with one breath from relativly shallow, and have pressure relief valves for over expansion - like if you shoot it from 50 feet with a full breath in it.

Here's a good vid of bag deployment: Notice he inflates with his dry suit hose instead of his mouth, but is careful not to put more air than he can handle.
JS and Melanie's Public and Special Events Album: Diving > Technique and Theory > DIR > FifthD Training Videos > Shooting a Lift Bag Movie


Good luck and practice before you actually need to deploy it.

Hunter

[shark_tamer]

Need advise on deploying a safety sausage by an octo at safety stop... Is it best to have a reel or finger spool? When filled by octo underwater, will it tend to pull diver up to the top until it is released? I just bought a safety sausage and want to practice just in case I never need it.
Thanks

Because I'm into wreck diving, I use my reel for the surface signal.

And you are right, that thing when filled with air will pull you to the surface like crazy ... make sure you practice, and practice again !!!!