how many spools?

[adm3745]

I am thinking of building some mini delrin spools for cave divers to use as well as something else that could be used for jumps. Not being a full cave diver, I have no clue about procedures involving jumps and gaps.

How many, on average ,jump/gap spools do you carry/use when cave diving?

How much line is needed for these maneuvers in popular florida caves? And what thickness is prefered?

Where do you stow all of the spools?

Could the spools used now be better?

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I carry a minimum of 3 safety/jump spools(50', 125', and 160') and a primary(400') for the entrance. All are 24# line. If I do more than one jump, I'll carry another.

Ones in my pocket, two clipped to my ass, the primary is in my hand until I deploy it usually.


Could they be better? *shrugs* They could be cheaper, for what they are... Design wise, I think the are pretty ideal.

 

[The Chairman]

I am thinking of building some mini delrin spools for cave divers to use as well as something else that could be used for jumps. Not being a full cave diver, I have no clue about procedures involving jumps and gaps.

How many, on average ,jump/gap spools do you carry/use when cave diving?

How much line is needed for these maneuvers in popular florida caves? And what thickness is prefered?

Where do you stow all of the spools?

Could the spools used now be better?

Good questions... I carry three spools in caves too as that's as many jumps as I am allowed to do. I carry them on my butt plate (D-Ring).

In OW, I carry a LARGE SS spool made by Deep Sea Supply and a safety sausage. If I get separated from the flag, I inflate my Safety comensurate with the depth. 2/3s at 16' 1/2 at 33', 1/3 at 66' and so on, AFTER I attach it to my reel and then I let 'er fly to the surface. Great for a make shift flag. IOW, you don't need to be a cave diver to use a spool.

More importantly, owning a spool, or even a LOT of spools does not make you a cave diver. I am sure you understand this, so I am preaching to the choir, but it's better said than assumed.

 

[adm3745]

I guess I should just tell my idea so it can get shut down before I try to design one. From the few accounts I've heard, alot of jumps and gaps in Florida are short. I thought of making a reel with 3 or 4 preloaded "spools" of around 20-30 ft. At the first jump you could deploy the 1st spool, and then re attach the reel to your back D ring, and repeat as necesary. Then you could place each spool back onto the reel. Would this have any value at all?

 

[ucfdiver]

I've done as many as 8 jumps on one dive, each dive buddy had 4 spools and 2 safeties, with the Halcyon pockets, you can barely fit 4 on one side, but it's doable. Mini spools would be useful, but realistically, they fix an issue that doesn't exist.

 

[TSandM]

If the jumps are that short, you don't really need a reeling mechanism. But a casing that you could fit a spool into and have a handle on it to reel might be useful for longer jumps. The problem is that spools come in different dimensions, and any casing you put one in has to fit precisely or it's possible to jam the line. A Canadian fellow was making a combination spool and reel gadget (Whatworksworks.com, I think). I bought one, but it didn't last very well.

 

[LiteHedded]

I've done as many as 8 jumps on one dive, each dive buddy had 4 spools and 2 safeties, with the Halcyon pockets, you can barely fit 4 on one side, but it's doable. Mini spools would be useful, but realistically, they fix an issue that doesn't exist.

maybe it doesn't exist with your pockets james
try fitting four spools in one of my pockets sometime

 

[Cave Diver]

I guess I should just tell my idea so it can get shut down before I try to design one. From the few accounts I've heard, alot of jumps and gaps in Florida are short. I thought of making a reel with 3 or 4 preloaded "spools" of around 20-30 ft. At the first jump you could deploy the 1st spool, and then re attach the reel to your back D ring, and repeat as necesary. Then you could place each spool back onto the reel. Would this have any value at all?

You can take the double ender from the spool and clip it off to one of the holes around the edge. Then put a finger of one hand through hub of the spool and use the the double ender as a handle to wind the line back onto the spool making it an improvised reel.

Our team carries 1-2 more spools than the number of jumps we intend to do. Reels and safety spools are not counted as part of this total.

 

[Meng_Tze]

I carry one more spool than I need for jumps. So if I do three jumps, I carry a fourth spool. This is would be used for line search, buddy search, fixing a line, etc.

 

[ucfdiver]

maybe it doesn't exist with your pockets james
try fitting four spools in one of my pockets sometime

Well if you decide on new pockets, I know of a shop that will unsew and unglue your pockets for free...you don't even have to ask....