EireDiver606
Contributor
COLDWATER DIVING ONLY:
Hi guys,
On my fundies course, I was taught how to do smb with spool (28 dives), in extremely easy conditions.
Now that I’m back in cold water and not a holiday destination I need to sort out my gear in regards to smb deployment.
I have a 15m Apeks lifeline spool which is very well made, but I find it harder to hold onto than normal plastic ones I don’t know if this was due to the cold biting my fingers. Apeks spool isn’t long enough as I prefer to shoot my smb from depth as we have a bit of current over here that can be 6m/1 sec and also drops straight down if you drop it as it’s aluminium there’s 1 second to catch and then it’s gone. I like how small and simple the spools are and normal ones are much cheaper than reels. I found once I was cold or had gloves on, it was very hard to shoot the smb with my spool, I don’t know if this was due to being in midwater in a strong current and a 4m swells in 10 degrees but it definitely didn’t feel great on my hands in terms of dexterity even without gloves as they were starting to become cold.
Anyway: I want around 50m of line and I worried that it will be hard to ascend from 40m winding a spool the entire time? And if it comes undone....
Reels:
I don’t have any. All the divers in Ireland use reels pretty much. They are a lot bigger and clunkier. But are a LOT easier if you have gloves on.
What do tech divers use? I want opinions on what you guys in cold water use and why you use it. Ideally I’d probably be looking for something halfway between a reel and a spool maybe but I’m not sure....
Or maybe I just need to get better used to spools with gloves on?
Hi guys,
On my fundies course, I was taught how to do smb with spool (28 dives), in extremely easy conditions.
Now that I’m back in cold water and not a holiday destination I need to sort out my gear in regards to smb deployment.
I have a 15m Apeks lifeline spool which is very well made, but I find it harder to hold onto than normal plastic ones I don’t know if this was due to the cold biting my fingers. Apeks spool isn’t long enough as I prefer to shoot my smb from depth as we have a bit of current over here that can be 6m/1 sec and also drops straight down if you drop it as it’s aluminium there’s 1 second to catch and then it’s gone. I like how small and simple the spools are and normal ones are much cheaper than reels. I found once I was cold or had gloves on, it was very hard to shoot the smb with my spool, I don’t know if this was due to being in midwater in a strong current and a 4m swells in 10 degrees but it definitely didn’t feel great on my hands in terms of dexterity even without gloves as they were starting to become cold.
Anyway: I want around 50m of line and I worried that it will be hard to ascend from 40m winding a spool the entire time? And if it comes undone....
Reels:
I don’t have any. All the divers in Ireland use reels pretty much. They are a lot bigger and clunkier. But are a LOT easier if you have gloves on.
What do tech divers use? I want opinions on what you guys in cold water use and why you use it. Ideally I’d probably be looking for something halfway between a reel and a spool maybe but I’m not sure....
Or maybe I just need to get better used to spools with gloves on?
