Reels of death?

[TeamBubbles]

Gee thanks, Akimbo. Now I'm going to have to buy my wife that sewing machine. In all seriousness, this is a great tip. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Tribal]

Don’t you use spools to shoot a dsmb? Reels aren’t made to roll of that fast.

 

[Akimbo]

Now I'm going to have to buy my wife that sewing machine.

You can just use plastic tri-glides if you don't want to sew. That's what I did for the experiments that helped me figure out if my half-baked idea actually worked. My first experiment was with 1/4"/6mm double-braided Nylon. I found it bulkier, tended to tangle, and not as hand-friendly.

Cobblers can sew up to 3-4 layers of resin-impregnated harness webbing, usually for a few dollars. Soft webbing can be sewn with most home sewing machines.

20'/6M of 1".25mm webbing works well for me and is sold at most small (not big box) hardware stores by the foot/meter.

 

[Akimbo]

Reels aren’t made to roll of that fast.

It depends on the reel. I prefer a reel when shooting deep because deep decompression stops are usually too short for me to get the line back on the spool without making a rat's nest. I have no heartburn shooting with a spool, it is re-spooling in the water a dislike.

The best trick I have found for loading the spool on deck is a slow speed battery powered screwdriver with a DIY adapter for the spool. It is easier with two people but you can reload like it just came from the factory.

 

[tursiops]

No. All reels are a PITA to spool up neatly to limit the risk of binding when deployed. That's why I leave my reels on deck for most dives that don't require stops deeper than 20'/6M. I just swim up to my first stop, unwind the 1" webbing wrapped around the bag with a swirling action at the wrist, let the webbing hang below, inflate the bag, and let the webbing slide through my loose graps on the the webbing.

View attachment 497381​

I do something similar, but use paracord rather than webbing. Cheaper, and easier to attach to the bag and to the boltsnap.

 

[DogDiver]

My preference is Ralph Hood reels.

 

[rhwestfall]

Kent Tooling...

 

[2airishuman]

No. All reels are a PITA to spool up neatly to limit the risk of binding when deployed. That's why I leave my reels on deck for most dives that don't require stops deeper than 20'/6M. I just swim up to my first stop, unwind the 1" webbing wrapped around the bag with a swirling action at the wrist, let the webbing hang below, inflate the bag, and let the webbing slide through my loose graps on the the webbing.

I used to do something similar but used cave line rather than webbing. Now-banned user DumpsterDiver turned me on to it. I quit doing it because there are a couple of drawbacks.

The main one is that you need a place for the webbing/line to go. If you're in a situation where you are in, say, 28' of water, but you need/want to send up the bag (because of boat traffic or whatever), well, you've got the line going everywhere because the snap at the end hit bottom and isn't pulling the line down. You have to do something with it because you can't unwrap the bag to inflate it without taking the line/webbing off it first.

With the line I had problems with it pulling off of the bag at some random point during the dive, so I'd look back and there'd be a bunch of line following me around that I then had to untangle and re-wrap. Maybe that's less of a problem with the webbing, maybe I just had poor technique. I tried rubber bands and things to try to keep it all together and never figured it out.

 

[PfcAJ]

I used to do something similar but used cave line rather than webbing. Now-banned user DumpsterDiver turned me on to it. I quit doing it because there are a couple of drawbacks.

The main one is that you need a place for the webbing/line to go. If you're in a situation where you are in, say, 28' of water, but you need/want to send up the bag (because of boat traffic or whatever), well, you've got the line going everywhere because the snap at the end hit bottom and isn't pulling the line down. You have to do something with it because you can't unwrap the bag to inflate it without taking the line/webbing off it first.

With the line I had problems with it pulling off of the bag at some random point during the dive, so I'd look back and there'd be a bunch of line following me around that I then had to untangle and re-wrap. Maybe that's less of a problem with the webbing, maybe I just had poor technique. I tried rubber bands and things to try to keep it all together and never figured it out.

Why did he get banned?

 

[2airishuman]

Why did he get banned?

Who knows. IMO it was mainly because he was our version of Cool Hand Luke. There was never an official explanation, because it is not the policy of the officials to provide an explanation.

He has a background in commercial spearfishing. Many people who spearfish commercially have an approach to diving that is not considered safe when applied to recreational dives, and that's certainly true in his case. I have a great deal of respect for him, and consider it unfortunate that he and the moderators were unable to find common ground.