Safety sausage questions.

[Bibendum]

So...as a relatively new diver, when is the purchase of a safety sausage necessary? Do you need to purchase the reel and line with it, or is it mostly for surface use only?

I have only done shore diving in Monterey, although I will be taking my Advanced Classes soon. How essential is this piece of gear?

 

[Meng_Tze]

So...as a relatively new diver, when is the purchase of a safety sausage necessary? Do you need to purchase the reel and line with it, or is it mostly for surface use only?

I have only done shore diving in Monterey, although I will be taking my Advanced Classes soon. How essential is this piece of gear?

My personal advise is to have a DSMB available at all times when diving open water. Deploy it when coming up and hanging deco/safety stop. This will alert water craft of your presence. A spool is needed (a reel may be over kill) and lots of practice to deploy it from beneath the surface. But whatever you do, do NOT attach it to your rig when it is deployed. If a craft 'misses seeing it' and catches it.........no more hang... you are going on a ride up and fast. It further identifies you with your own boat should you drift off or get lost and are on the surface where you are not expected.

It is a crucial safety tool.

 

[Web Monkey]

So...as a relatively new diver, when is the purchase of a safety sausage necessary? Do you need to purchase the reel and line with it, or is it mostly for surface use only?
I have only done shore diving in Monterey, although I will be taking my Advanced Classes soon. How essential is this piece of gear?

Even if you never deploy it from depth, you may at some point need to be able to make yourself visible on the surface, so yes, you do need one before going out into open water.

Carter makes some nice SMBs (Surface Marker Buoys) that run in the 8' - 9' range.

If you surface and need to be visible, you can inflate it orally, or with your reg, or in the case of the Carter, by holding a Dive-Alert on the inflator and squeezing the button.

If you clip your weights off to the botom of the bag, it will stand vertically without you holding it, and get the weights off you, both of which are good things.

A little blow-up safety-sausage is better than nothing, but if you end up in the surface in rough weather, bigger is better.

Terry


Terry

 

[Whale Whisperer]

So...as a relatively new diver, when is the purchase of a safety sausage necessary? Do you need to purchase the reel and line with it, or is it mostly for surface use only?

I have only done shore diving in Monterey, although I will be taking my Advanced Classes soon. How essential is this piece of gear?

Yes!!! I think it's a very important piece of gear! I've heard so many stories where mishaps could have been prevented if the victims only had a safety sausage! A very small investment that could save you and your buddies life. I like my large marker because it's easy to see, it's got reflective SOLAS tape on the end with a clear pocket for a chem light and it has 42 lbs of bouyancy. I even used it during rescue class as an emergency bouyancy device for senarios! I had the victim throw their arms over it like a life ring.

I'm sorry about the confusion earlier, I use my 50' cave line spool, not reel. My 50' spool is small enough to fit in a BCD pocket.

 

[dirtdiver]

So...as a relatively new diver, when is the purchase of a safety sausage necessary? Do you need to purchase the reel and line with it, or is it mostly for surface use only?

I have only done shore diving in Monterey, although I will be taking my Advanced Classes soon. How essential is this piece of gear?

I wouldn't get in the water without it - the sausage or the reel. Makes everything way easier to manage but like any piece of equipment you need to practice using it. We were diving in Cozumel last year when I witnessed someone trying to "wrap up" about 25 feet of line on homemade device... in about 30 seconds they had it around everything including their 2nd stage :shakehead. I use it on every dive as I don't like the idea of haircut from a boat motor. The wife and I each carry one and it fits in the bc pocket. It is an essential safety device IMO.

 

[kb2ehj]

I would agree, It's something should be purchased soon after OW Class.

Me and the wife each got one when we went to Jamacia on our honeymoon just incase we ran into trouble. I've carried it on every ocean dive since.

In the last week I just purchased the DAN safety sausage. I haven't used it in open water yet but it looks like a very nice, thought out and rugged piece of hardware.

It appears to be made from the same material that dry suits are made from. It's about 6' in length has a reflective stripe down one side and a pocket at the bottom for a mirror, light stick and wistle (which it comes with all of those items) I myself removed those items and might add a 1 pound weight so to make it sit straight up.

 

[Fastmarc]

In the last week I just purchased the DAN safety sausage. I haven't used it in open water yet but it looks like a very nice, thought out and rugged piece of hardware.

Can a spool be attached to it or can any sausage be attached to a spool?

 

[H2Andy]

well... the line on the spool is attached to a clip on the sausage at depth,
then the sausage is inflated with your regulator, and released

some sausages are designed to be inflated at the surface, through a small tube
that you blow through. i guess you could inflate those at depth and still attach
a clip somehow... i don't see why not...

 

[Fastmarc]

well... the line on the spool is attached to a clip on the sausage at depth,
then the sausage is inflated with your regulator, and released

some sausages are designed to be inflated at the surface, through a small tube
that you blow through. i guess you could inflate those at depth and still attach
a clip somehow... i don't see why not...

I was a bit curious about the DAN one and it says it has a lpi attachment (what is that?) and a dump valve. The presence of a dump valve would indicate that it may be deployable under water?

 

[Aquanautchuck]

I have dove for years with a smb. Besides using it for safety stops, I have used it to mark thing I want to go back to or recover. Mine is orally inflated, has a holder for a light stick with reflective tape. Not sure of the lift on it. Remember when you deploy it at depth you need to estimate how much air to put in it. I filled one up to much at 80' once and friends said it shot out of the water. Luckily it did not pop.

Charles