Lift Bags, please help!!!

[roakey]

I posted this a couple months ago on another board when I first started practicing shooting bags and doing deco. I use a Halcyon 80lb closed lift bag and a EE safety spool (about 150').

Original post location: Diverlink

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I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.

Something I’ve been reading on various lists is the ability to let go of the spool when shooting a lift bag and letting it unwind in mid-water right in front of you. Supposedly the spool hangs in the water right where it is released and you can just hang there and catch it when the bag hits the surface.

Yhea, right, and pigs fly.

Well, I can’t speak to pigs, but letting the spool unwind without going up or down works *exactly* as advertised!

Tried it this weekend at Blue Hole three times. Hit the lift bag with my Argon line and as soon as it started rising I simply let go of the safety spool I was carrying.

There it sat, right in front of me, unwinding! As soon as it stopped I simply reached out and grabbed it and I was good to go to simulate my deco. Worked flawlessly three out of three times even with a poorly wound spool. In a real deco situation I’d rewind the spool so the line was smoothly wound. This was bunchy, unevenly wound spool and it still worked great!

I won’t go into Joe (scubaturek) shooting his bag with his reel the first time. Well, maybe I will.

I looked over right after he put some air in his bag and his hands are working a mile a minute trying to get the line off from around the hub of the reel. As he started up from the bag’s lift he just released the reel and let the reel go up with the bag (good choice). I think I could hear the expletives even underwater.

By the end of the weekend he was carrying my gap spool instead of his reel.

I’m sold big time -- a spool is the way to go for shooting a bag!

Roak

 

[Frog]

Ali

Here's a link for you of a movie of an obviously skilled diver deploying a liftbag (Halcyon I believe).

It's 17 megs, but its worth it, it's very good quality. Not sure how much of a proficient internet user you are so let me try to make the d-load easier if u want to keep the movie. First click on videos on the right. Then right click on the link on that page that says "liftbag" ( hehe) and click "save target as", save it to somewhere on your computer where you can find it easy after its d-loaded.

I hope this helps. Cheers

PS: Good luck on passing your Trimix course

 

[ali]

lots of information

I will look into all of it. Tomorrow I will go practice, again, I will try the spool (though my ad. nitrox instructor does not recommend it). I am going to buy the Halcyon bag, couple of people have recommended it as well.

 

[roakey]

ali, what reason does your advanced Nitrox instructor give for not recommending a spool?

A reel is used when you need to take up a lot line quickly, such as when you exit a cave (your primary reel).

A spool excells at short lines and lines you don't have to take up quickly. You don't take up line quickly when you're in deco.

Roak

 

[ali]

He just says they are more difficult to use.

Actually, I have never handled one before, so I would not know. (I do my jumps with safety like reels).

 

[roakey]

...as I was shooting my bag using a spool.

>>He [my advanced Nitrox instructor] just says they
>>[spools] are more difficult to use.

I am absolutely stunned by this statement. You can't get much simpler than putting gas in a bag and letting go. There are so many things that can go wrong with a reel that can't go wrong with a spool, I find it amazing that someone can hold this opinion.

Roak

 

[Mario S Caner]

I can't say I agree with the claim that a spool makes it more difficult to deploy a lift bag, but the right reel makes a big difference in functionality. The Manta is my choice. It also locks easily and has light mounts for both deployment and retrieval.

 

[ali]

I went diving this weekend. I tried the lift bag with the spool and with the reel. I found the hard part of deploying though has more to do with the lift bag itself and the way I have to put gas in it since is not closed. I am going to buy a closed one, buy meanwhile, I will go tomorrow to a deep pool to practice some more.

(I could not convince my instructor even when he did deploy with a spool). stuburn guy.

ali

 

[scubaturek]

I was roakey's buddy in the Advanced Nitrox/Deco Procedures class this last Saturday. Our instructor was very impressed with the Halycon closed-circuit bags we used, because they "save a step or two". We used spools, and I'm glad, because every other time I use a reel (Dive Rite) it snags, and then you lose the reel and the bag. Do you carry backups? A spool is foolproof. A closed-circuit bag can't collapse. If your instructor isn't comfortable with spools, listen to him anyway, and learn. Then work with a spool and learn some more.

 

[Warhammer]

I own one of the EE delrin spools myself and will have to try this. I've been holding the thing via the bolt snap or just unspooling enough line to do the trick. Thanks roakey!