Safety sausage question

[yak]

Ditto for ScubaCaribe in PDC. All but one DM used a sausage on drift dives, usually at the safety stop. One DM instead sent up a large bubble stream from his octopus when our safety stop ended.

 

[Charlie99]

is enough for locations like Cozumel where the purpose of the sausage is simply to warn away boats as you ascend.

The sausage with 30' of 2mm HiBrite cord wrapped around it, and a small piston snap as a weight makes a nice neat package that is very small and that I'm willing to carry.

See "FM35" on http://www.tridentdive.com/page87.htm

They are also available in red via other suppliers. (In some locales, yellow is reserved for emergencies)

They are closed, but without overpressure valve, so you need to experiment a bit to know how much to fill them at 15' or 20' so that they stand tall, but don't explode.

Most DMs in Cozumel put up a tube like this before ascending, so I use mine when I have continued the dive after the DM gets back on the boat.

Charlie

p.s. the FM36 on the same page is a huge 6" x 88" plastic signal tube that is a good surface signalling device that is not much bigger than a cigar, although cannot be used as a DSMB.

 

[Charlie99]

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

What I'd really like to find a U.S. source for is the Buddy smbci --- the one with a tiny inflation cylinder.

Charlie

 

[kingprawn]

I got back from Coz last week. I have always carried an SMB, and this time I had to use it. The DMs always put up a SMB a few minutes before we start to ascend from depth. In one case a diver ran low half way into the dive. When the DM deployed his SMB the surface current took him away in moments. The rest of us on the bottom could not keep up. We stuck together for the rest of the dive, and I deployed my SMB at 20’.

I just have 25’ of #24 line wrapped around a large double ended bolt snap. There is a loop tied on both ends of the line, with one connect to the bolt snap. Tie the other loop off to the SMB, let the bolt snap drop, and inflate the bag.

This worked fine, but I will probably carry a 100’ spool in the future.

 

[Cave Diver]

Zept once bubbled...
Alternatively you could use a small reel -- probably a safer option.

<snip>

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

You alluded to a safer way in the first part of your post. But instead of using a reel, I would suggest a small finger spool with about 50' of line.

If you would like more in depth details on using one with your safety sausage, let me know and I will either post an answer on the board or via PM.

 

[mer]

Cave Diver once bubbled...

You alluded to a safer way in the first part of your post. But instead of using a reel, I would suggest a small finger spool with about 50' of line.

If you would like more in depth details on using one with your safety sausage, let me know and I will either post an answer on the board or via PM.

Cave Diver,
I'm currently researching what other safety gear to buy, and would love to hear the rest of this discussion on-line. Could you elaborate on using a safety sausage with a finger spool?

Thanks

 

[hantzu701]

Hey, did these guys go out of business?

I can't seem to bring the web site up.

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EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see the other post. It's too bad that canadianextreme doesn't exist anymore.