Bag Shooting

[PerroneFord]

Ok, so I had two opporunities to shoot a bag today from about 50-60ft and have a couple of questions.

1. Is there some trick to get the bag to stand proud on the surface without attaching a lot of weight to it? I shot a 4' bag today and though it was a decent shoot, and there was a good bit of gas in it, it wouldn't stand tall at the surface.

2. When filling the bag, do you leave some slack line off the spool to give yourself time to let go as the bag takes off? Seems this would be a good idea, but just wondering about the "DIR" way.

3. If you are using a closed bag and use your BC inflator like I did on my first shoot today, is there any secret to the thing not taking your ARM with it as it goes!? That thing SHOT up with major quickness...

Thanks. (And yes I've seen the videos of Andy G. I'm not that good)

 

[Cacia]

GUE has an excellent video. I think TSandm posted it recently. I use the spool with my fingers like a spindle through the center and it spins rapidly as the marker (Halcyon) shoots to the surface. Once it is bouyant, a small amount of tension on my cave line keeps it erect at the surface.(I hold the spool and the two way clip attached, Dennis puts the clip on his D ring, which I may try as I have dropped the two ways and they run me twelve dollars)

I use my marker on 80% of my dives due to boat traffic and drifts where the captain may need to know my position, so the method is something I have really worked on. The Halcyon marker has a high pressure relief valve and the inflater connection.

Yes, I provide about a foot of slack when I insert the inflater because you do need to nimbly release the bag and insert the fingers quickly. When I started, I used to hand the camera and strobe off to my buddy in order to keep the strobe arms clear. Now, my goal is to get nimble enough to do it all one handed (like if you were doing your stop in a swift current). I am not there yet. Good luck...this is a fun skill!

The GUE video, I am confused about whether that is the "official" DIR method, guess that is debatable, I am not clear even after following a very long thread on the subject. Perhaps I should not even answer in the DIR thread, but this is a pet skill for me and I love Halcyon equipment.

 

[amascuba]

I've only shot an SMB a handful of times, but have watched people do it, read about doing it, and watched the 5thd-x video on doing it. Here is what I do.

1. unclip the spool/SMB
2. unclip the bolt snap from the spool and clip it to my right shoulder d-ring.
3. unwind the SMB.
4. verify that the line isn't tangled on the spool or SMB.
5. blow gas into the SMB.
6. release the SMB.
7. Let the SMB shoot to the surface while holding the spool loosely with my finders so that the spool and freely let the SMB shoot to the surface.
8. Once the SMB is to the surface and all the line is let out that is going to let out; I will wind the spool up a few notches to take the slack out of the line. This pulls the SMB into the water abit, which makes the SMB "stand proud at the surface".
9. unclip the bolt snap from my d-ring.
10. pull the bolt snap lever back.
11. wind the line around the bolt snap loop once.
12. snap the bolt snap to the spool.

that should be it. As you make your stops you will wind more line onto the spool and the bolt snap and secure the bolt snap to the spool.

 

[PerroneFord]

Ha!

#4 got me on the first bag shoot. Silly mistake, but it was the first time EVER shooting a bag. And I was golden until I realized that I had not undone the line from the spool correctly. Had to let the spool go up with the bag. DOH!

As I made the stops, I would it up. The MAJOR problem with this was that the surface current was running opposite to the bottom flow! So I was fighting surface current pulling the dang thing back, and swimming INTO the flow! I burned up JUST a little gas doing this every 10ft!

Thanks for the idea folks.

 

[Diver0001]

1. Is there some trick to get the bag to stand proud on the surface without attaching a lot of weight to it? I shot a 4' bag today and though it was a decent shoot, and there was a good bit of gas in it, it wouldn't stand tall at the surface.

Who are you trying to impress with that? It needs to not sink so you have a stable decompression platform. nothing more. What it looks like on the surface is completely irrelevant. It's an SMB, not a penis!

2. When filling the bag, do you leave some slack line off the spool to give yourself time to let go as the bag takes off? Seems this would be a good idea, but just wondering about the "DIR" way.

Less than an arm's length. The last thing you want is for that "slack" line to get tangled around something (like your reg) that you either can't or don't want to let go of if you have to.....

3. If you are using a closed bag and use your BC inflator like I did on my first shoot today, is there any secret to the thing not taking your ARM with it as it goes!? That thing SHOT up with major quickness...

Not with one like you're using. With the open ended ones there are much cleaner ways to launch them.

Thanks. (And yes I've seen the videos of Andy G. I'm not that good)

Neither is he. I've been told he did it like that on purpose but most divers who are good at launching a blob would have a moment during that video when they say "oh....dude...."

R..

 

[Ben_ca]

uhmmm Who's Andy G?

 

[cool_hardware52]

It requires a minimum of 4 lbs of weight to make a small marker (1 meter) smb stand up at the surface. Larger markers take more.

An upright (proud) smb is easier for a boat captain to follow.



Tobin

 

[Diver0001]

uhmmm Who's Andy G?

He's a DIR super-hero. If you see the video then what you see is (a) that his buoyancy control is *really* incredible and (b) he's slow and clumsy with an SMB. (I have also been told that the slowness was deliberate to show all the steps).

But that's jsut my read..... Compared to him I'm sure I'm just a hack with no right to have an opinion about this stuff..

R..

 

[Diver0001]

An upright (proud) smb is easier for a boat captain to follow.

If you flew kites as a kid then you can get the same effect if you think someone needs to follow you. There's no need to carry 2kg extra weight to get your SMB to stand up.

R..

 

[PerroneFord]

Tobin, what do you put on that line that's 4+ pounds? Your hand? I've seen tech guys on deco using reels... I'd imagine they weigh quite a bit, but then they also rest their hands on them as they deco. Not hanging from the reel per-se, but just tactile connection with it as a strong reference point.

I have to be honest, doing deco today with the spool, and making 10ft stops was the cleanest deco I've ever done. I've been trying with marginal success to just do it looking at my depth guage, and I'm just not good enough yet. The spool made things a LOT easier.