lift bag failure question

[madmole]

Reels are just dam useful, Can use em as distance lines and wreck penetration lines, Buddy line, easy to deply at bottom or mid water and a lot smaller than carrying a spool. Much easier and faster to wind in

Spools are unheard of in UK, never used one so cant really compare on ease of use

 

[MechDiver]

Fetch once bubbled...
Not to pick fights as I am far from a technical diver, BUT: wouldn't it just be easier all around to use a spool? No worrying about jams, etc.

jeff

Spools have a limited amount of line on them and, IMO, are more hassle to wind up. I always have a spool in my drysuit pocket, but if I'm gonna use a bag, I take a reel.

 

[Fetch]

Madmole: size - a spool is 3" in diameter by approximately 2" wide.

MechDiver - you can get 150' (maybe even bigger) spools. I agree, btw, winding them up is a hassle, but at the rate you need to wind them for ascent (assuming a nice slow ascent speed), they really aren't much of a hassle for shooting a bag.

*shrug* Madmole, you might wanna try one in the pool or something (spool runs about $30). Not having to worry about jams is VERY nice.

I do understand it would be less useful in a penetration/exploration context, btw.

jeff

(edit: typo)

 

[madmole]

Ahhhhh you mean an open reel, I assumed you meant those dirty great up line spools you see US divers lugging around the size of an 80 strapped on their back

Open reels have been tried, they jam more than winder reels on long ascents as they have no feeder arm and there is no tension on them (from the bearing or the operator). They do work for shallow deployment from say 10m

I have a buddy who uses one for shallow dives, but >50m he swaps to a proper reel

 

[padiscubapro]

Madmole,

You are were thinking about "jersey Uplines", personally I use a reel and a bag but the uplines do have a use.. They are popular on the deep offshore wrecks.. shooting a bag from >70m in a ripping current is a crapshoot(and now you need to carry an explorer type reel with heavy line, my largest reel with heavy line just makes about 100m, not much of a margin).. All the boats up here anchor into the site so a blue water hang is not an option.. With the jersey upline just tie into the wreck and begin an ascent, when you get to the surface cut the line... Its generally sisal so its biodegradable ..., I have also seen people shoot a bag on their last deco stop while still hanging onto the upline.. This gives the boatr a chance to get a line out to you so you don't have to fight a ripping current in full gear, its muc easier for someone in just mask and fins...

 

[madmole]

Thats why our reels tend to big bigger than the Dive rite and other US ones, and our bouys bigger. We also have strong currents as normal.

The advantge of shooting a buoy is that the moment you let go of the wreck, you are drifting and hence dont have to fight any current. The large (6'-10'/2m-3m) sausage upright on the surface allows the boat to easily follow. If you were on a 50m upline on some of our wrecks you'd just be 50m from the wreck horizontally (one wreck we do regularly has 6 knots over it apart from the 20 min window)

Also here leaving 80m of line on a wreck would be considered ecologically bad and dangerous to the next wave of divers. Many of out popular deeper wrecks may have 100 divers each weekend on them. If each pair left a line!!!!!!!

Shooting works well, especailly for us non bubblers, by the time we pop up, all the others have been up and back on board for 30 mins we normally arrange that the boat leave us on the surface for 5 mins before picking us up so we can have a good 100% session before climbing out (although our normal boat has a tail lift (bliss!))

 

[padiscubapro]

people leaving uplines on our wrecks isn't really a problem.. Shooting a bag is considered an emergency situation.. The ships tie into the wreck and can't really chase divers.. if you shot a bag for a legimate reason great, if you shot a bag because you got lost, you'll generally get a lecture from one of the captains about navigating a wreck.. do this too many times and you'll end up on the "boat's full" list on more than one diveboat.. if you do a free ascent and have the boat chase you and you bought the entire boat drinks...

 

[madmole]

No boat here anchors to the wreck, its too rough and in almost zero vis you'd need to run distance lines to find the upline again

Normally we just drop a shotline on the wreck as a downline. every one shoots a blob to come up. If we tried coming up a static line we'd have 6 ft arms or need jon lines an inch thick!!!!

Amazing all the different ways each country throws up to solve the same problems

 

[padiscubapro]

yup,
we all run reels from the downline(actually tie in near it), and use jonlines at the hangs..
although sometimes we get blessed with viz in the 5m-10m range on the closer inshore wrecks 3m is about normal most of the year.. Some of the offshore wrecks can have excellent viz.. but its all a crapshoot.. I remember one day getting at least 30m viz and went back the NEXT day to the same wreck and had 1-2m at best!!!!

the further offshore wrecks 40+ miles/65km off shore we can get 20m viz during the summer if we get a good stretch of weather without any major storms