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Manta is by far the best but for most divers a bit "overshoot". Personally I have a finger spool. No problems with it . The slow rewinding at shallow depth is what you want. If you need to keep the SMB vertical, buy a CLOSED smb that always stays inflated
I once bought a smaller Dive Rite spool, about 75 or 50 feet. I used it once and have never gone back to the thing...just too small. Unless you dive no deeper than 30 feet a 50 foot spool is not sufficient. I now dive with a 150' finger spool on a dsmb.
Makes good sense. I use mine at 30' feet when I am heading for my safety stop. I am not sure how much is on the reel exactly. I am guessing around 80' feet of cord or so.
I got one of those Buddy Reels for Christmas. I will be using it to tow my dive flag (solo diver). I haven't gotten the chance to use it yet but will be testing it out in Hawaii in April. Someone was asking about a U.S retailer. Northeast Scuba has them.
For recreational diving I use 2 finger spools 45m (150'). For tech diving I have the same spools and 2 DSMB and a reel longer than my proposed depth 85m (280'). I have tried cheap plastic reels and all have broken quickly. My reel is a diverite, and everything else is finger spools. To reel in the finger spool I use a double ended clip over the line and use it as the winder to put line on the spool. At depth I clip the line to the spool rim so its locked, then just hang on until my next deco level when I unclip from the rim and reel in more.
I find finger spools so very simple. Reels can tangle and wind line around the outside the axle shaft, a pain. More care is required for reel use over finger spools. If the spool comes out of your hand while deploying, it goes nowhere quickly and just spins in the water so can be retrieved quickly (generally).
Drop a reel and its usually gone until it reaches the end of its line (and if attached to the line).
The smallest reel for a dsmb is somewhere around 1.5 - 2x your max depth. I launch mine on a 400' LG reel with a ring line stopper - regardless of depth just for practice.
I used to always dive a reel, couldn't get on with spools (finger reels) - I tried a few then I found the Apex lifeline spool As you can see from the pictures they are small. I use the largest (blue) which has 45m of line on it (140')
The line is a thin kevlar type so very compact with space for more line. The leader has a swive to reduce line twisting
Easy to use with a gloved finger and the flanges are wide to allow a good grip. you lock the line off with by clipping a double ender to the reel trapping the line and you can hang there all day.
Simple with no moving parts to break, easily fits into a BCD pocket
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