Inflatable bladder... ?

[Externet]

Hi all.

Once upon a time, I saw a ~14" long yellow bladder with a CO2 cartridge, unsure about what was used for or its name, -perhaps as aid to surface a speargun ? What is it called or who sells those ?

Very similar, also saw once an advertisement of a similar smaller thinghy to be worn attached to an arm, as emergency flotation, also with a gas cartridge.
Any clues please ?

Miguel

 

[Luis H]

Long before SMB, that is what Mike Nelson (in Sea Hunt) used to use all the time.

 

[Nemrod]

I have one of those, hard to find the cartridges for it. A couple of years ago we did a commemoritive firing at the Wazee vintage dive ralley.

Mine was made by Dacor. I/we, used them as surface floats, emergency floats, marker floats etc long before the modern sausage was around. I used to carry a small spool of line, if I found something I would hook the float to it and pop it and thus mark it's location or I could send it up while on drift so the chase boat could spot me--just like divers do today. As a side note, they were not very effective for surface floatation but better than nothing, you must recall that once upon a time scuba divers did not have BCs and you actually had to be a swimmer to dive. The small floats could be used to assist/augment surface floatation. Like I said, they were not best used for that however. Usually when shore diving you took along a surf float, paddle board or inner tube etc for surface assist. Then we started using the Mae West type (not a BC) vests for surface floatation.

I have not seen any around in years. I will get a photo of mine later. Still works if I could find cartridges. There were BTW singles and doubles.

N

 

[captain]

They ocassionally appear on ebay.

 

[SteveAD]

I have one of those, hard to find the cartridges for it. A couple of years ago we did a commemoritive firing at the Wazee vintage dive ralley.

Mine was made by Dacor. I/we, used them as surface floats, emergency floats, marker floats etc long before the modern sausage was around. I used to carry a small spool of line, if I found something I would hook the float to it and pop it and thus mark it's location or I could send it up while on drift so the chase boat could spot me--just like divers do today. As a side note, they were not very effective for surface floatation but better than nothing, you must recall that once upon a time scuba divers did not have BCs and you actually had to be a swimmer to dive. The small floats could be used to assist/augment surface floatation. Like I said, they were not best used for that however. Usually when shore diving you took along a surf float, paddle board or inner tube etc for surface assist. Then we started using the Mae West type (not a BC) vests for surface floatation.

I have not seen any around in years. I will get a photo of mine later. Still works if I could find cartridges. There were BTW singles and doubles.

N

You can still find CO2 cartridges in the shooting sports department at wal mart.

 

[Nemrod]

Thanks, but most of those are intended for use in pellet rifles and have oil in them. Oil does not do good for rubber products and it gets in the water and all about makes a mess. The cartridges that were intended once upon a time for BCs, floats, vests etc. did not--NOT--have oil in them.

N

 

[jerseysal]

Hi all.

Once upon a time, I saw a ~14" long yellow bladder with a CO2 cartridge, unsure about what was used for or its name, -perhaps as aid to surface a speargun ? What is it called or who sells those ?

Very similar, also saw once an advertisement of a similar smaller thinghy to be worn attached to an arm, as emergency flotation, also with a gas cartridge.
Any clues please ?

Miguel