Advice needed: 1st Reel

[BettyRubble]

Well since I will be doing my first ocean OW dive in July, I am investing in the safety equipment. Picking up the Dan Signal tube (with mirror, whistle, etc).

Apparently I need a reel. I'm clueless on reels. Also, since as a single mom I've been spending my children's college fund on scuba, I need to be mindful of the price without compromising safety. Any suggestions on a quality reel and in particular how much line I should have. I am newly certed so 60 feet is my max but I understand the need for longer line for current etc. I've seen board comments about those who only carry 40 ft of line and some who carry much more.

Appreciate any advice you can offer.

Thanks!

 

[Mayor]

A spool would be a better option. Whatever you get make sure get some training on it.

Surface Markers and Lift Devices | Halcyon Dive Systems

 

[Mayor]

Here is another link that might help.
YouTube - SMB deployment v2

 

[jbscuba]

I dive mostly on wrecks so a primary and secondary reel are very important to safety and guidance.
A good rule of thumb is to purchase a reel with the length on the spool to be 3 X the depth your are diving.
Finger reels (40, 75, 100 ft) are generally used to shoot a sausage when drift diving and you have a deco obligation, or are doing a safety stop at 15-20 ft and the boat can see you drifting in the current.
It is also a good practice to have a reel in case you are need to leave a wreck and go exploring. Of course you should never do any of these things without proper training in the usage of reels.
Without proper training, you can easily tangle the reel, or shoot a bag and the reel gets stuck going up and it brings you with it. Hence having redundancy and a second reel.
In regards to expense, I would prefer to get a good quality and not a cheaper product (like all plastic) and the chance of easy breakage.
You also have the maintain the equipment and rinse it thoroughly in clean water. I hope this helps.

 

[ski1formee]

I just bought 2 finger reels for me and my wife. Cost was the least expensive I could find. $10 ea. x2 plus $10 shipping = $30.

Dive Reels - Finger Spools - 45ft ABS Finger Spool - Northeast Scuba Supply

We decided to buy a 45 foot reel because we plan to use it for the following reasons:
Deploy SMB at 30' max depth, If we need a longer line then we will connect both reels to get 90' of line; the shorter rope makes for a less bulky set up; we do not dive deeper than 100' and mostly in tropical conditions.

But there is another one with a longer line which is also very inexpensive so you have a choice.

Happy diving!

 

[piikki]

I am not sure if I understood your post correctly, so excuse me if I got it totally wrong. It seemed to me like you were pro-reel and against finger spools.

I dive mostly on wrecks so a primary and secondary reel are very important to safety and guidance.
A good rule of thumb is to purchase a reel with the length on the spool to be 3 X the depth your are diving.
Finger reels (40, 75, 100 ft) are generally used to shoot a sausage when drift diving and you have a deco obligation, or are doing a safety stop at 15-20 ft and the boat can see you drifting in the current.

I think the OP was (mainly) looking for a device to attach to SMB/sausage. To say that finger spools are drift and doing deco mainly is misleading. They are absolutely perfect for shooting up a bag regardless of currents and deco obligations. I would say a spool with 100-150ft of line (widely available) would do this job nicely at the range the OP is diving right now.

It is also a good practice to have a reel in case you are need to leave a wreck and go exploring. Of course you should never do any of these things without proper training in the usage of reels.

Agree about the training but I am unsure if you are indicating that you cannot do this with a spool? Naturally if you are wandering far away, reel with more line would be the tool of choice but one can use a spool for the same purpose.

Many new divers do not know it but one can ‘lock’ a line on a spool even though it does not have a built-in locking mechanism like reels. You use a double ender and with a little practice you can stop the line running from the spool whether you are hanging under your SMB/sausage or wanting to leave a spool in place underwater.

Without proper training, you can easily tangle the reel, or shoot a bag and the reel gets stuck going up and it brings you with it. Hence having redundancy and a second reel.

I agree about redundancy but for a newbie the beauty of spool lies exactly here. Spool is nearly impossible to tangle because it is so simple. Reels are notorious tangle-machines until one gets quite handy (and even then).

Spools might not look like much of nothing but they have a lot going for them. Simple, good for multiple tasks, cheap (replacable), small (easy to carry) and quite fool proof. With little practice one can learn to use them quite nicely. I had spools for a long time before I got my first reel, and managed fine. (One thing I would not recommend a spool for myself is dragging a float with. Too much winding).

 

[jmorriss]

I picked up a dive rite 150' Cavern reel from a member hear about 6 months ago.

I have the Zeagle mesh pouch behind my bladder flap on the left side. Inside is the 6' SMB attached to the reel which hangs a bit out of the bottom and clips onto my left hip d ring sorta like this-cept the Zeagle kit comes with a spool.

I also have a 150' finger spool and a 270' plastic reel I picked up from Scuba Toys for 18 bucks last week:

Scubamax 150 foot Dive Reel reviews and discounts, Scubamax

Had to get my total up above $50 for free shipping

 

[DA Aquamaster]

When shooting a bag, you want a reel that will not jam. Since such a reel has yet to be made, a finger spool makes sense. 150' is normally plenty as even a deep stop will normally start shallower than that.

For really deep dives where you may want to shoot an upline that may or may not be attached to a wreck, you need to use something else. What that something else is depends on where you dive, who you dive with, and whether you do floating deco or tie to the wreck. In the Mid Atlantic and Northeast a Jersey Upline or some variation on that theme works well and shorter variants can be attached to the butt D-ring.

 

[bleeb]

Getting back to the original post, a more fundamental issue might be: It wasn't obvious to me how much a brand new diver on her first ocean dive would need a spool or a reel, unless it's a dive op rule or something. Yes, being able to deploy a DSMB from depth has some added value, but for a relatively new diver who hasn't done it before, I'd suggest it might actually be a bit risky UNLESS they were doing it as a training exercise under the direct supervision (as in 'standing by reading to deploy the line cutter') of someone knowledgeable and experienced, whether an instructor or otherwise. (I think almost every previous poster specifically said that training in its use was a good idea.) Given the OP's budget sensitivity, it might be a purchase that could be left for the future, since it's not much use if you don't have the skills to actually use it.

BTW, does the DAN sausage have an overpressure relief valve or an open bottom that would allow deployment from depth?

 

[jmorriss]

Getting back to the original post, a more fundamental issue might be: It wasn't obvious to me how much a brand new diver on her first ocean dive would need a spool or a reel, unless it's a dive op rule or something. Yes, being able to deploy a DSMB from depth has some added value, but for a relatively new diver who hasn't done it before, I'd suggest it might actually be a bit risky UNLESS they were doing it as a training exercise under the direct supervision (as in 'standing by reading to deploy the line cutter') of someone knowledgeable and experienced, whether an instructor or otherwise. (I think almost every previous poster specifically said that training in its use was a good idea.) Given the OP's budget sensitivity, it might be a purchase that could be left for the future, since it's not much use if you don't have the skills to actually use it.

BTW, does the DAN sausage have an overpressure relief valve or an open bottom that would allow deployment from depth?

I did my first one after like 26 dives-first time was a bit more interesting as I was dealing with some nasal congestion on the way back up which was preventing me from clearing my mask-but we were out on the boat for 4 dives that day and I had it down by #3.

As far as the over pressure valve, its nice but not neccesary, just don't put so much air into it. In our situations off West Palm the boat is already following the DM's ball so they just keep an eye out for the SMB popping to the surface and then flopping over there after.