Safety sausage question

[Zept]

In this part of the world (SE Asia), what you want to do is common practice. Sausages come with 5-6m (15-20ft) of string attached. The string is some sort of black nylon cord, about 2mm (1/8in) thick. You need to be able to see the string and handle it easily.

My sausage is like a giant orange condom -- it is open at the bottom. The two sides are bridged by a piece of narrow webbing, to which I tie the string (see attached pic). At the other end of the string, I have a small stainless steel clip. I store the sausage rolled up with the string wrapped around it.

To inflate the sausage, I unroll the string, dropping the clip so the string hangs straight down. I use my octopus to blast air into the bottom of the sausage and let go, allowing the string to run up through my fingers. I then hang on to the string, maintaining some tension in the line, until my safety stop is complete.

Don't overfill the sausage -- the air will expand as it rises, so it only needs to be about one quarter full. Be ready to let go! The other important thing is to know where your string is and keep it away from anything it is going to catch on -- fin buckles, BC etc. If the string snags on you or your buddy, you can be dragged up to the surface -- very nasty. Having a weight on the end of the string makes it easier to manage. Alternatively you could use a small reel -- probably a safer option.

Whether this will work for you depends on the design of your sausage. If it was designed to be inflated at the surface, it may not. Also, BE VERY CAREFUL. If you have any doubts about the best way to do this, get some instruction. The sausage will go off like a rocket and you don't want to go with it!

Zept


PS: If anyone can suggest a better (safer) way to do this, please do so!

 

[Walter]

Rick,

I find myself in the rare condition of disagreeing with you.

There are basically three methods of drifting in current with the boat not anchored or moored. Of the three, live boating is by far the most dangerous. The recent introduction of the safety sausage is the only thing that has made live boating safe. If the sausage is not deployed from depth, you do not eliminate all the dangers associated with live boating. When diving in Cozumel in the past, I've taken a float which I've deployed on descent because I've refused to participate in live boating. Now that safety sausages exist, I'll go along with the live boating program, but you can bet my safety sausage will be on the surface long before I am.

 

[metridium]

Zept wrote...
If anyone can suggest a better (safer) way to do this, please do so!

Here's something you might find interesting....

click here

 

[Canuck Diver]

Check out the following site for some good gear used for surface markers. I have the buddy reel and the SMBC and love them both. Very compact, easy to use, and well made. A bit pricey but worth the money as far as I am concerned.

http://www.apvalves.com/Prdtsfrmset.html

 

[dgangi]

Walter once bubbled...
Rick,

Now that safety sausages exist, I'll go along with the live boating program, but you can bet my safety sausage will be on the surface long before I am.

Same goes for me. It's better to be safe than sorry.

I own a boat and have seen the damage that boats can do to people. And, sad to say, I attended a funeral a few years ago of a friend that was killed by a boat. It's no contest -- even a small "bump" with the hull of the boat can kill you.

My friends all carry these SMB's (or whatever you call them) in Cozumel even when they have a dive master with them. I guess there have been times in the past where a party got separated from the dive master and decided to surface elsewhere. Since the boat traffic in the area was very high, they decided to send up a safety sausage during their deco stop just to signal that they were about to surface. I would have done the same thing.

I'll search the boards for SMB to get more ideas on how to put something together.

Thx...Doug

 

[madmole]

"Now that they exist" weve been using then in the English channel since the 70's

Only real way to do it is from a reel and send up from the bottom as you begin your ascent. Strong currents and rough sea mean bobble following is not an option. Drop lines are not an option on a 40m wreck as you will be a mile downstream before you get to 6m and the boat wont know where you are. You need to deploy from the wreck area

We all use RED/Orange blobs (DSMBS) and carry a smaller yellow one, Sending this up the main blobs line signals a problem and extra deco gas will be sent down (And probably a diver)

All need to be marked with your initials or name so the dive boat can follow its divers as its common to have more than one boat on a site

For drifts its common to send the DSMB up at the start of the dive once youve reached the bottom

BSAC training has blob deployment built into the basic Sports diver grade as everyone does it on every dive

 

[Alban]

As mentioned in previous posts the ideal thing is to deploy your smb on the bottom so the boat can track you . I think what you may be describing is a small smb like the type used when they first came out ,they have 5 mts of nylon line attached to them on the end of this we used to put a small fishing weight the whole thing rolled up and fitted in the bcd pocket , at 5 mts you simply unrolled it, the weight dropped down and we used to exhaust the air from the bcd into the bag this hardly afected buoyancy let the bag go and then add air to the bcd.

Thanks Alban

 

[MikeS]

metridium once bubbled...

Here's something you might find interesting....

click here

If you watch the video closely you will see that the diver is constantly fining. Can anyone till me what type of fining that is and the purpose, is it to maintain position?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Walter]

I wish you'd sent some across the pond decades ago! Thanks to the Brits for this wonderful addition to diving.

 

[Dectek]

DMs for Dressel Divers in Playa Del Carmen send a Safety sausage to the surface just as the group hits the 5m mark for the safety stop. This is to keep boats away for safety sake and their own boat close enough.
The DMs at Bahia Divers in Akamel run a safety sausage off of a reel the whole time they were shollower than 10m so the boat could follow and to warn them that divers are comming up from depth. These two dive operations did not discourage customers from having or using these 4 foot blaze orange tubes. Actually one DM from Bahia was thrilled that he could let the group spread out farther and surface in small groups (that whole out of air thing) because we had our own. I say take it with you and ask about policy.