Standard #24 cave line vs low-stretch/hi-viz for primary reel

[elgoog]

Hi -

I'm looking at buying a primary reel for an upcoming cave trip and am going for a Light Monkey 400. I tried the DiveRite slide lock reel during my Intro class but much prefer the simpler LM/Halcyon design.

The question I'm facing now is if I should get the hi-viz line on it or not. I don't need the extra length hi-viz gives on the same reel, 400' seems quite enough for the dives I intend on doing.

The main thing I wanted to get feedback on was this - DGX advertises the hi-viz line as being lower stretch than standard #24. Is this desirable for cave line? Low stretch seems counterintuitive to me as a little stretch would be better in that it allows you a little wiggle room to make tighter tie-offs. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance,
elgoog

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Friction is your friend -- especially when running a primary reel. I can make standard nylon lines hold to tie-off's that confound students' imaginations. To them, the line sticks like magic the way watching professional rock climbers confounds me. How do they manage to stick to sheer walls and overhangs? Amazing. A couple of my students recently showed up for cave class with the new line. I ran their reels a couple times and didn't like it. I don't know if it was the line, the style of reel, or both. I use a Halcyon reel with standard white line. I have had the original line on the Halcyon reel I use for teaching for 15 years. I cut it a lot during cave classes to teach guideline repair. I'm still waiting for it to break.

I logged back in to edit this post because I just happened to read the reviews on the Dive Gear Express website. A poster named Mitch S writes, "Good stuff. It's a little slippery compared to regular nylon but that's just how Dacron is ..." That's one reason I hated it.

 

[uncfnp]

FWIW. In my Intro class (Florida) I had the hi-viz line on my LM reel. The instructor took one look and said it was fine for that class but to have standard line on it next time.

 

[tbone1004]

what @Trace Malinowski said

Dacron is a fancy word for polyester made to sound more interesting. For jump spools and what not it's perfectly fine, but for primary, I prefer #36 braided nylon.

one other point to @elgoog make sure you try a "standard" reel before you buy. While the sidewinder style reels look fancy, and are really nice for deploying line, they are NOT designed to reel line back in and they are infinitely harder than the standard old school style reels. I have 3-4 big sidewinder reels that I've acquired for pennies over the years, but my primary is a big ol' dive rite and I hate if I have to use one of the sidewinders

 

[Jack Hammer]

I have both. The regular line is stretcher and "sticks" to rock so tie offs are easy. The hi viz you need to be better at picking tie offs and need to keep tension on it, it's less forgiving, but it's super easy to see. I haven't really had any issues overall as you get used to it.

 

[bamafan]

The only reason I know you would care about stretch is if you were surveying. Even then you just put the knots a 9'9" instead of 10'. Even a fiberglass tape measure stretches considerably so nothing is perfect.

 

[elgoog]

make sure you try a "standard" reel before you buy.

Does this mean the ones with the lantern style handle? I've actually used one during a local reef survey and didn't notice much difference during reeling back (admittedly, it was only 100ft)

The hi viz you need to be better at picking tie offs and need to keep tension on it, it's less forgiving

Well, that explains why my tie-offs during Intro were sloppy
....
Oh wait, that reel had the regular line. Never mind.

 

[tbone1004]

@elgoog
yes, this guy
Classic Primary Reel w/ Shackle Snap | Dive Rite

try reeling a sidewinder in when getting pushed out with flow *JB, Little River, Ginnie, Madison Blue, etc*. You don't really have any way to put tension on the line so it doesn't rats nest. With the sidewinders you're constantly pulling it to one side of the reel and have to redo it when you get out. The notch on the top also is a good place to stick the light head so you don't wave it around like an idiot in the cavern

 

[The Chairman]

String be string. Some of it's stretchy, some of it's slick. It takes nano seconds to figure out how it lays and/or binds on a tie off. Most reels have too much line on them. That's my real bitch.

 

[elgoog]

The notch on the top also is a good place to stick the light head so you don't wave it around like an idiot in the cavern

I'm trying to picture how this works. Does your light end up pointing off to the side when you're reeling? With your thumb holding the Goodman handle to the reel handle?

No experience with flow yet as I've only dived Mexico caves (and that's where I'm going back later this year). I recall, with the side handle reel, my light was mostly pointed at an angle downwards but I can see how it would point straight forward and up if you lose concentration with it.