Finger Reel for Cold Water

[Remy B.]

Can someone recommend a finger reel that can be used with thick gloves for cold water, where the hole is big enough to insert the finger in it.

I have short fingers and to grab the spool with the index and thumb fingers on the sides is not a option with the thick gloves, tried and failed

Manipulating the SMB to keep open the skirt with the same hand that is holding the reel and using my other hand to blow air with the second stage, hand not end good, don't want to waste more time finding a proper Technic I just need the right reel.

if the radius of the spool is small even better, the reel will only be used to deploy the SMB


Thanks for your help

 

[decompression]

I think piranha dive carries them.

Large Hole Finger Spools


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wayne at DiveSeekers]

Practice, practice, practice, we deploy SMB's with finger spools all the time while using drygloves or thick wet gloves with no issues. Some manufactures like Light Monkey , Hollis or DiveRite do make "coldwater" or bigger opening spool but I still caution you on using the technique of sticking your finger in the hole as I have seen that go wrong. Transitioning from warm waters of Curacao co coldwater can be a challenge, but stick with it, practice and will be a better diver in the end.

 

[JohnnyC]

Don't stick your finger through the reel. Best case is you just lose the reel and you pick it up on the surface. Medium case, you break your finger in the process. Worst case, you get dragged to the surface and get bent.

You might look at the White Arrow spools. They're not cheap, but they've got a delrin "axle" that goes through the hole of the spool and essentially offers a static shaft for you to hold, whole the spool spins deploying the line.

White Arrow Srl - Guidelines 

The Halcyon Defender Pro spool with the "Easy Grip" adapter allows you to use a large double-ender through the adapter so it's effectively a handle. Check the video at the bottom of the page.

Defender Pro spools - Halcyon Dive Systems

 

[Remy B.]

The WA is what I'm looking for, with the axle, I see that they are made in Italy, the numbering they are using for the lenght, is that metric or imperial ?

 

[John A Lewis]

Hollis makes a convertible spool reel based on the White Arrow design if that works for you:

Hollis convertible spool reel

 

[JohnnyC]

Metric.

 

[Remy B.]

Thanks for your opinions and help, yesterday and today it went much better, the Instructor give me some tips, yesterday it didn't go so well as the reel had to much line and it slip my hand and it rolled down, today the deployment was successful, but I still will get my own gear me with the large center hole, with the right amount of line.