Safety Sausage

[fjpatrum]

I can not answer your question specifically but I do know that the sausage I have, I do not like. Mine is a DAN sausage and you have to take your reg out of your mouth to blow air into it. I will be buying one that will allow me to use an octo to blow air into it. Not a fan of "having" to take your regulator out of your mouth. just my .02 though.

David

What kind of nonsense is this? How is an octo any different than a reg in the sense of inflating an SMB? Does your octo somehow not fit the opening or something?

Or do you mean it only has an oral inflate tube? I looked at one like that and agree entirely, not interested unless I can attach a hose to it, which the one I looked at seemed capable of doing.

 

[jbtut]

I have a yellow 4' one. Only inflates from LP hose or by mouth. I use the LP hose and have never had a problem with that. You just need to be comfortable popping the hose on and off. I suppose I could add another hose just for the SMB, but I don't see any reason to do so. It's easy enough as it is. IIRC it was under $20.

I like yellow because less people have yellow. When diving somewhere that there may be multiple groups I can usually tell the boat captain that I've got a yellow one and that can distinguish mine from someone else's. Definitely not foolproof, but most people have orange.

 

[Tortuga68]

What kind of nonsense is this? How is an octo any different than a reg in the sense of inflating an SMB?

Some people inflate their SMB by purging their octo/secondary into it

 

[Charlie99]

The wide variety of answers reflect that there are different diving conditions, and also the confusion about what the OP is looking for.

There are at least 3 basic kinds of sausages:

* Sausages designed for signaling while on the surface

* DSMB (delayed deployment surface marker buoy) that is sent up while doing drifting deco so that the boat can keep track of you.

* DSMB sent up at the end of dive as a "don't run me over" signal.

For a very compact emergency signaling device to be used if you surface downcurrent from the boat or are otherwise lost at sea I recommend the Trident FM36. Very small in a BCD pocket. I have one inside a bicycle innertube for protection and it is always in my BCD pocket (even while rinsing and drying). It is basically a huge orange garbage back you orally inflate on the surface. No moving parts. See page 194 of the large pdf file at http://www.tridentdive.com/a111-220.pdf

I don't use large DSMBs, but there have been lots of suggestions above.

I do use the very common 4"x44" surface signal sausage as a small DSMB. I have about 30' of 3mm cord and a boltsnap wrapped around it. To deploy from 25-15' depth I simply strip off the line, letting the boltsnap take it. Then I orally inflate (or inflate in the bell of the Dive Alert LP powered whistle) and let it pop to the surface. It is the appropriate size to be used as a "don't run me over" sort of signal, but not big enough to be used for a boat to track you while drifting a long distance while doing deco. Similar to the FM35 of the above pdf. The FM35 is sold only as a surface signaling sausage and doesn't have an overpressure valve, but after watching DMs in Cozumel use this I tested one out by launching it fully inflated from 100'. The excess air just fizzes out through the nylon fabric.

This 4"x44" sausage also works pretty good as an initial surface signal. It's prime feature is that it is quick and easy to orally inflate.


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Some have commented that the bigger the sausage the better. This is true only if you actually carry the big one with you. If you choose a signal sausage so big and bulky that you leave it behind in your gear bag, it doesn't do you much good.

 

[n733lk]

Thank you Charlie99. Is the Sausage something we will learn to use during OW training?

 

[diver 85]

The koshered kind by some????.......

 

[Peter Guy]

OP -- If you are taking a PADI OW class it is highly unlikely you will be taught anything about a "safety sausage" -- whether the "inflate on the surface" or the "DSMB" type. An OW class can only cover so many things which is why there is "OW 2" -- aka Advanced Open Water in which you MIGHT learn about them.

BTW -- someone wrote

The reason for this is because even 10lbs of lift capacity is hard to hold upright during a neutral safety stop. A 6ft 40lb SMB is impossible to hold up, and if it's laying flat it'll be no easier to see than a 3ft-6lb smb held upright.

to which I'll say "BS." IF there is an issue of having your DSMB upright then the answer is to put some weight on the line and that weight is, guess what, YOU. In fact, putting a little tension on the upline while ascending/doing a stop is a great way to provide tactile reinforcement that you are holding your stop. I enjoy being the person who "shoots the bag" because by putting tension on the bag I find that holding my stops is much easier than holding them while watching the line.

 

[Splitlip]

I can not answer your question specifically but I do know that the sausage I have, I do not like. Mine is a DAN sausage and you have to take your reg out of your mouth to blow air into it. I will be buying one that will allow me to use an octo to blow air into it. Not a fan of "having" to take your regulator out of your mouth. just my .02 though.

David

What DAN sausage is that? The signal tube can certainly be inflated with an Octo.

 

[g1138]

BTW -- someone wrote

The reason for this is because even 10lbs of lift capacity is hard to hold upright during a neutral safety stop. A 6ft 40lb SMB is impossible to hold up, and if it's laying flat it'll be no easier to see than a 3ft-6lb smb held upright.

to which I'll say "BS." IF there is an issue of having your DSMB upright then the answer is to put some weight on the line and that weight is, guess what, YOU. In fact, putting a little tension on the upline while ascending/doing a stop is a great way to provide tactile reinforcement that you are holding your stop. I enjoy being the person who "shoots the bag" because by putting tension on the bag I find that holding my stops is much easier than holding them while watching the line.

That was me. I must be too light.
When I try holding a 40lbs SMB upright I just pull myself up the line. (even when I'm fully deflated)
With ~10lbs it's way easier but I feel I still have to hang on the line a bit too much, messes with my trim.

 

[drdaddy]

The wide variety of answers reflect that there are different diving conditions, and also the confusion about what the OP is looking for.

There are at least 3 basic kinds of sausages:

* Sausages designed for signaling while on the surface

* DSMB (delayed deployment surface marker buoy) that is sent up while doing drifting deco so that the boat can keep track of you.

* DSMB sent up at the end of dive as a "don't run me over" signal.

For a very compact emergency signaling device to be used if you surface downcurrent from the boat or are otherwise lost at sea I recommend the Trident FM36. Very small in a BCD pocket. I have one inside a bicycle innertube for protection and it is always in my BCD pocket (even while rinsing and drying). It is basically a huge orange garbage back you orally inflate on the surface. No moving parts. See page 194 of the large pdf file at http://www.tridentdive.com/a111-220.pdf

I don't use large DSMBs, but there have been lots of suggestions above.

I do use the very common 4"x44" surface signal sausage as a small DSMB. I have about 30' of 3mm cord and a boltsnap wrapped around it. To deploy from 25-15' depth I simply strip off the line, letting the boltsnap take it. Then I orally inflate (or inflate in the bell of the Dive Alert LP powered whistle) and let it pop to the surface. It is the appropriate size to be used as a "don't run me over" sort of signal, but not big enough to be used for a boat to track you while drifting a long distance while doing deco. Similar to the FM35 of the above pdf. The FM35 is sold only as a surface signaling sausage and doesn't have an overpressure valve, but after watching DMs in Cozumel use this I tested one out by launching it fully inflated from 100'. The excess air just fizzes out through the nylon fabric.

This 4"x44" sausage also works pretty good as an initial surface signal. It's prime feature is that it is quick and easy to orally inflate.


=========================

Some have commented that the bigger the sausage the better. This is true only if you actually carry the big one with you. If you choose a signal sausage so big and bulky that you leave it behind in your gear bag, it doesn't do you much good.

I always carry my DAN sausage with me. It also includes a signal mirror and a whistle. I also always dive with my pony, even on shallow dives. The reason for this is familiarity as I will also practice using them. I dive shallow like I dive deep so I will always know my equipment. Whatever equipment/plan you make, be sure to practice it so that "if" (when - hopefully never) that you actually need your emergency equipment - you know how to use it and can skillfully "do it" under stress.