Looking for advice on dual purpose SMB/Safety sausage

[HowardE]

One thing to pay attention to if you're planning on using the Zeagle sausage as a diver down flag is that you should check with local ordinances to see if it's a large enough flag to comply with the laws.

I don't know about local laws where you are located, but in FL, you are required by law to have a minimum of a 12X12" diver down flag when you are diving or snorkeling in the open water, and this would not be acceptable by those standards.

 

[Charlie99]

My method may or may not be suitable for your needs .....

For a simple "don't run me over" and "I'm over here doing safety stop" sausage I use the common 4" x 44" made in USA orally inflated sausage sold under many brandnames as a surface only sausage. I wrap 25' of 2mm cord around it with a boltsnap as a weight. At 20' or 15' depth, I let the boltsnap peel off all the line and then orally inflate it. One full lung is good (and you don't change buoyancy since you are just shifting air from lungs to sausage). Any excess pressure just bleeds out through the fabric, leaving lots of internal pressure to make the sausage very rigid. Concerned about the lack of overpressure relief valve, I did a couple test shots with the sausage fully inflated at 100' with no failure.

In addition to the small, everyday use sausage, I carry a Trident orange plastic open tube sausage 6" x 88", aka the big orange garbage bag. This rolls up very small and I keep it inside a length of small bicycle innertube for protection, with a whistle and lanyard wrapped around it.

 

[Code Monkey]

Yeah, that's the one I found. Doesnt look like it has the purge valve on the side and nothing mentioned about the duck-bill valve at the bottom so I'm assuming it doesnt have it.

Okay, I've done some emailing and here's the scoop. Zeagle has two different devices: standard and deluxe. Only the deluxe model has *all* of the desired features: the duck-bill valve, the oral inflator, and the overpressure valve.

I had my LDS order the deluxe model. It arrived (after 3 weeks!) but it looks like it'll do the job. My LDS bought 3 when they got mine and tested one out in their pool. I'm told that all their DMs are going to convert to the Zeagle deluxe.

 

[carldarl]

I just bought what you are looking for from my LDS made by Dive Rite. Duck-Bill bottom opening with low-pressure inflator as well as over pressure relief. I haven't tried it out yet but Saturday I may take it to the lovl YMCA pool and try it out if I have time. New Transpac, new tanks and new DUI weight harness get first priority.