Bag Shooting

[Rick Inman]

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.

I think it can be a crutch.

Sure, it's easier to hold your depth by being just a little negative and slightly hanging on the spool. The way I try to avoid that is by just hanging beside the untouched dangling spool or just doing the OK with my thumb and index finger around the line to prevent it from drifting away. Otherwise it's easy to get used to having something to hang on to.

MHO. YMMV.

 

[Diver0001]

okay....I am treading lightly here. Rob, you are teasing right? What if you are in high seas with big swells and the boat is searching for you? We sometimes have to wait some time to be spotted and as my friends will attest, I am often shreiking for them to "get those sausages higher!" once I start to decompensate a bit. My buddies find this quite entertaining. I am serious. Often, we can only spot the boat when we are on top of a swell.

My beautiful, new, shiny, stainless steel spool is heavier than my old plastic one, if anyone cares.

Well I guess it depends on why you launched the blob. If seas were that bad you wouldn't be very wise to try a free floating deco. You'd want be hanging on the boat's anchor line.

R..

 

[JeffG]

No ... the way I do it, you hold the spool and bag in your left hand ... spool between thumb and forefinger, bag between the two middle fingers. There's no need for slack, as the bag and spool are right next to each other. Use your right hand to remove your reg ... blow a tiny puff of air in the bag to make it vertical ... once you're sure nothing's entangled, blow the rest of your lungful of air into the bag. No need to rush the release ... you simply transferred air from your lungs to the bag, so there's no change in buoyancy. Let the bag go as you're replacing your reg ... and before inhaling.

Maybe another 'ism I do it with my right hand.

 

[onfloat]

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..

I think Ben ca got ya... But I'll let him explain.

 

[PerroneFord]

No ... the way I do it, you hold the spool and bag in your left hand ... spool between thumb and forefinger, bag between the two middle fingers.

Thank you for this GEM of information. It was hard to see that in the video, but I'll do it that way next time.

There's no need for slack, as the bag and spool are right next to each other.

On the oral inflate, I'll agree. On the power inflate (like with the closed bag I used) I'll have to disagree.

once you're sure nothing's entangled, blow the rest of your lungful of air into the bag. No need to rush the release ... you simply transferred air from your lungs to the bag, so there's no change in buoyancy. Let the bag go as you're replacing your reg ... and before inhaling.

Now this is a beauty piece of info. However there is a large assumption being made here.. and that is that you can fill the bag 1/3 full with a single breath. So essentially, you are betting that you will, or that you will have a bag that won't be full at the surface. Either way I understand the issue and can work with it. Thanks a TON!

 

[PerroneFord]

Rick, I agere with you. I'll continue to work on holding depth looking at my guage, but in meantime I have to use the tools available to me to dive safely. My original reason for doing this with the spool was to have visual reference only for the hang. Not to have something to hold onto.

But I do understand your point, and it makes good sense. Thanks.

-P

I think it can be a crutch.

Sure, it's easier to hold your depth by being just a little negative and slightly hanging on the spool. The way I try to avoid that is by just hanging beside the untouched dangling spool or just doing the OK with my thumb and index finger around the line to prevent it from drifting away. Otherwise it's easy to get used to having something to hang on to.

MHO. YMMV.

 

[Diver0001]

Now this is a beauty piece of info. However there is a large assumption being made here.. and that is that you can fill the bag 1/3 full with a single breath.

If you do it right you'll get two full breaths.

R..

 

[PerroneFord]

Alright, explain please.

 

[Diver0001]

The first one goes from your lungs into the bag so nothing happens with your buoyancy. Probably you'll become a little negative because not all the air will go in the bag so you will be able to partially inhale again and control your buoyancy with your lungs.

The second one you line up and do quickly and let go as soon as you're finished exhaling.

It works best if you set your buoyancy neutral with fullish lungs before you start.

Holding your depth is easiest, btw with a visual reference. If you're diving with a buddy, let him/her hold depth precisely so you don't need to look at your meters. You just look at your buddy.

R..

 

[Spoon]

when i took my fundies, my instructor taught me to release my spool as the balloon shot up to the surface. i would watch it and grab a hold of it when the smb reached thesurface and thespool stopped winding. i however had problems with this method and would sometimes loose sight of the spool momentarily.