Safety Sausage and Wreck Reels

[ShakaZulu]

Want to start using a safety sausage and a dive reel for safety stops. The reel will also be used for wreck/drift dives. Any idea on products??? Want to buy the right stuff...........maybe I'm just too paranoid.

http://www.divebooty.com/equipment_details.asp?pid=3787

http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.a...temIndex=1&CategoryID=969&Context=965&Filter=

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Want to start using a safety sausage and a dive reel for safety stops. The reel will also be used for wreck/drift dives. Any idea on products??? Want to buy the right stuff...........maybe I'm just too paranoid.

http://www.divebooty.com/equipment_details.asp?pid=3787

http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=ItemDisplay&ProductID=AQUADR1&ItemIndex=1&CategoryID=969&Context=965&Filter=

Hi,

Do you want to be able to inflate the sausage while you are still under water? If you do the sausage in your first link will not do the job!

Think about one that has an open bottom (ideally with an inverted funnel to keep the bag inflated when it hits the surface), also you would do well if it had a pressure release valve to keep it from bursting as it ascends and the gas in the bag expands. I use a finger spool with mine, not a reel.

Dive Rite makes a nice surface marker bouy for this, I would encourage you to go into one of the "Tech Diving" type shops. It appears that you are in the San Diego area, I would expect that you will have a few shops in your area that would have this. You would also be well served by talking to an informed diver in one of these shops because inflating a bag at depth is not as easy as it sounds, some instruction is advised. You might save 5 or 10 dollars by buying on line, but the advice from a good shop on this is easily worth the money, in my opinion your first lift bag or underwater deployable marker is not the no brainer it might seem to be.

Mark Vlahos

 

[WJL]

Let me add that dealing with reels and line underwater is not a no brainer either.

There are all sorts of reels and spools available, and until you use them, what sounds good in the sales pitch in the shop may not turn out to be the best in actual practice.

 

[perpet1]

http://www.leisurepro.com/Catalog.aspx?op=ItemDisplay&ProductID=OMSLB9

 

[ShakaZulu]

@ Mark, I've seen the finger spool being used, and I like the fact that it's small/compact. Yes, there is a lot of factors to consider with the safety sausage.

http://www.diveriteexpress.com/tools/liftbags.shtml#seeme

 

[michaelp68]

I'm looking to buy a similar set-up, too.

I think I've decided on the Manta Jr as a reel, but still haven't decided on a lift bag or other marking bag.

http://www.mantaind.com/

Let us know what you decide, please.

Michael

 

[ShakaZulu]

I'm looking to buy a similar set-up, too.

I think I've decided on the Manta Jr as a reel, but still haven't decided on a lift bag or other marking bag.

http://www.mantaind.com/

Let us know what you decide, please.

Michael

The spools seems to be the popular option for deploying LB/SMB. As you can imgine, after inflating the SMB, you need to let it go as quickly as possible. Secondly, you don't want to tie the spool to you, just in case some surface device (run away dive boats) get tangled in you SMB.

http://www.extreme-exposure.com/spools.shtml

As far as the SMB, something with a over pressure release valve, closed circuit, reg tipe filling option, reflective tape covering would be nice, still looking.

http://www.extreme-exposure.com/halc/halc-lift.shtml

 

[GoBlue!]

perpet1- where do you keep the 9' OMS? I've read that some keep it in a MC storage pak, but I'm not sure if I can buy one of those separate & if it would fit on my Oxycheq & FredT backplates....

jim

 

[tonyc]

Just bought this, arrived quickly and seems like nice quality

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1300&item=3693509332&rd=1

and was looking at one of these....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1300&item=3684284159&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V

 

[Mark Vlahos]

@ Mark, I've seen the finger spool being used, and I like the fact that it's small/compact. Yes, there is a lot of factors to consider with the safety sausage.

http://www.diveriteexpress.com/tools/liftbags.shtml#seeme

I have the Marking bag pictured near the top of the page in the link above. Mine is orange. I store it in one of the quick draw sleeves horizontally accross the bottom of my BC (just behind my butt). I have two finger spools, one has about 50' of line, this is the one I use for normal recreational diving when the current is not too strong. My other spool has about 100' of line and it is for situations where I plan on shooting the bag from deeper than 30' or 40', or if there is a strong current.

I purchased mine at Fill Express in South Florida while I was there on business. Fill Express IS DiveRite Express! The store is beautiful, Mark keeps the place spotless. The cascade bottles for NITROX and TRIMIX along with the banked NITROX fills one wall in the back. This is clearly a quality shop, if you have any questions call them and ask, but even as good as they are... I still encourage you to seek out information locally. The first time I shot a bag from 20' I went up with it! I would guess that most of the people here who shoot bags had a similar first try.

Also, as has been mentioned, reels or line in general underwater pose a real hazard. I know enough about it; to know that I don't know enough about it! If you are planning on using line to penetrate a wreck or cave, you would be well advised to get instruction. I am not talking about what it is to be in an overhead environment, I expect that you already recognize this danger and are smart enough to know that you should not blunder in to this area. I am talking about the entanglement hazard directly related to the use of lines and the correct way to deal with it. Besides, you seem smart enough to not shoot a bag in a kelp forest!

Mark Vlahos