supplies for offshore diving

[Green_Streak]

doing some offshore diving here a 20+ miles out, thinking of purchasing one of those PLB's and a cannister from OMS for the thing, also was looking at one of the massive sausages ~10' range, (have a little like 3-4 foot one currently) and picking up a strobe, any suggestions?

 

[divengolf]

On the PLBs, I recently bought a McMurdo Fast Find 210 after doing a good bit of research. It cost less than $300 and has GPS. I would not buy the cheaper FF200 model without GPS. McMurdo advertises a yellow plastic canister for it, but has had production problems with it. They sell an aluminum one for more than the PLB. I settled on the OMS canister, which is currently backordered.

The DAN 6' sausage is popular and it comes with a whistle, mirror and light stick. You might also consider a small strobe. I got mine from Princeton. It's small and takes a single AA battery. It lasts about six hours. I've tested it on a fully charged battery.

Make sure that you get a thumb reel with the sausage to float it from depth. And practice deploying it a few times from depth. It can be tricky.

 

[christo651]

I researched for a while and decided on the ACR resqfix and the only canister is the OMS one, which is way, way over priced IMHO. But I saw the acr promo stuff and they looked like they had it right. Also an American company, good for 2 reasons. 1 obviously emlpoy local people pay taxes, etc. and not made in china yeah for that one, and 2 if ever my family has to recover damages due to faulty unit, far fetched I know, they may have a slightly better chance with a U.S. business in U.S. courts. And since the only canister available is the oms, I paid the price and got what is needed. In for a penny, in for a pound concept. I talked directly with an ACR tech regarding ways to store while diving, and waterproof is not the problem it is the pressure setting the switch off, so double vacuum bagging would not work. I suppose you could make your own or go with some otterbox or such. Even though I think they are overpriced they oms container is suited perfectly for the acr and is simple in design and would seem with reasonable care the unit should last a lifetime, although only 1 year warranty. There is another slightly smaller oms canister so be sure to check which you want. And is the basis of my feeling like the larger one is over priced. My sausage is the biggest of my buddy group, good genes I guess. I think that was oms as well, also serves as a lift bag, at least this one does some do not. It is about 8 inches or so wide rolled flat and to large to clip on the chest area, but I want to be seen and make it home. I have to go at least 20 miles or further to dive good water and many have already lost their lives in this area. So I want to do everything I can to make sure I make it home. For lighting I would reccommend the new "eled" technology, mainly for brighness as signalling device but for battery life as well. I always have my main light clipped to my bc even for daytime dives, if you get stuck out there at night that light will come in handy.