Monterey on Saturday (3/7)

[mikemill]

Mike, there are a couple options. One way is to disconnect the LP hose from the inflater and then push the hose and the value together in order to inflate the sausage.

Another way is to take a breath from the reg and exhale into the sausage and then go back to the reg for another breath.

I also so a quick inflater that would attach to it's own house. Looks like it is designed to attach to a pony bottle but I suppose one could get a hose long enough to come off your primary first stage.

 

[sarita75]

Shouldn't this be much the same procedure as you would have used to manually inflate your bcd?

 

[Anti-Hero]

Ron,

How would I inflate it underwater? I'm a little confused on that part but any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I do know that you have to push the valve in on the tip to allow air to enter the chamber.

This is what made it hard when my mouth was so cold, I couldn't produce enough force to drive the air into the ***. And on top of that I had to push the tip in with my teeth and then blow, it was hard but I ended up getting it fully erected after 3 minutes of play.

MG

MIke - I've got the same lift bag as you. Here are my thoughts on it:


It's a good bag to have for signaling, but its a royal pain in the ass underwater. I've deployed mine several times from depth and as Chuck mentioned Boyle's law comes into play. As a matter of fact I used it during a class this weekend at the breakwater during a bag drill.

With that said it has a couple really bad design flaws. 1) the inflation nipple is garbage. 2) there is no OPV. 3) It's VERY hard to blow enough gas into due to the crappy inflation nipple before the thing starts spooling on you.

I would say buy a new 3ft bag and pre-rig it on a 100ft. spool and stow it one pocket. Then clip the large bag off to a butt D-ring or some other out of the way place for use at the surface.

I'm assuming you've not had any formal training with bag drills? Like Rhlee mentioned, the whole thing can go sideways pretty quickly if you do it wrong. Have someone show you the proper protocol for deploying a marker, or get some formal training.

 

[Ben_ca]

Mike,
Where was your buddy for this dive? Did you agree to solo before hand? I know I've cut my dive short because I brought up a wayward new guy but ruining my dive is better than recalling the whole boat for a missing diver. Imagine if your buddy was looking for you and did a 1 min search then had to initiate an emergency recall...

 

[mikeguerrero]

MIke - I've got the same lift bag as you. Here are my thoughts on it:


It's a good bag to have for signaling, but its a royal pain in the ass underwater. I've deployed mine several times from depth and as Chuck mentioned Boyle's law comes into play. As a matter of fact I used it during a class this weekend at the breakwater during a bag drill.

With that said it has a couple really bad design flaws. 1) the inflation nipple is garbage. 2) there is no OPV. 3) It's VERY hard to blow enough gas into due to the crappy inflation nipple before the thing starts spooling on you.

I would say buy a new 3ft bag and pre-rig it on a 100ft. spool and stow it one pocket. Then clip the large bag off to a butt D-ring or some other out of the way place for use at the surface.

I'm assuming you've not had any formal training with bag drills? Like Rhlee mentioned, the whole thing can go sideways pretty quickly if you do it wrong. Have someone show you the proper protocol for deploying a marker, or get some formal training.

I will be purchasing the the Halcyon 3ft lift with OPV that Rhlee mentioned tomorrow. I will keep my trusty surface marker on my butt D-ring just as it was during this emergency procedure.

I will also buy the 100ft spool to go with it.

Diving has become my passion and I want to expand my knowledge and want to learn to deploy at depth, to prevent surface accidents.

With 6lbs of lift I think the Halcyon will do the trick just fine.

I'm going to get mine at Anywatersports in SanJose they carry lots of good stuff and have a very knowledgeable group of divers on hand.

Ben my dive buddy was Greg but somehow we got separated at the beginning of the dive and I never saw him again until I was rescued by the Sanctuary and Captain Mike and deck hand Matt.

MG

 

[mikeguerrero]

I was looking at several other deploy markers and this one looks interesting. It's Halcyon's new 4 feet non-baffle open ended. It looks super easy to get my second stage octo air into it. It appears that the nibble 6lbs surface marker would be more complicated to disconnect my hose from either my drysuit or inflate BC and then hit the nipple and go forward.

Here is a pic of the new design what do you guys think?

 

[Anti-Hero]

Get a closed or semi-closed - then learn the proper techniques used to deploy it safely. I suggest keeping the one used for mid water pre-rigged. Fumbling around trying to secure the line to the bag is just another way to get wrapped in the line; especially in current or surge.

Good luck and keep practicing!

 

[Gombessa]

If you're trying to get a visible SMB to the surface, I say it's much easier to have a closed circuit smb. If the bag tips over at the top, your bag goes completely flat, and won't be visible. If you're deploying for safety reasons, that's not what you want. You don't want to have to drag it back down to deploy again in a situation where you need to have a visible signal now.

I've never used my LP hose to deploy my 3ft SMB. The nipple can and should be inflated orally. In fact, with the 3ft bag, it'd be severe overkill to hook it up to an inflator.

Here's a video of the deploy method: YouTube - SMB deployment v2
Normally you can carry the smb and spool pre-rigged (so you don't need to take the extra step of threading the line).

 

[rhlee]

I was looking at several other deploy markers and this one looks interesting. It's Halcyon's new 4 feet non-baffle open ended. It looks super easy to get my second stage octo air into it. It appears that the nibble 6lbs surface marker would be more complicated to disconnect my hose from either my drysuit or inflate BC and then hit the nipple and go forward.

Here is a pic of the new design what do you guys think?

With the small bag (the 3.3' closed circuit one), you can inflate it by blowing into the nipple (it can be used either orally, or with an LP hose). With the small bag, I usually inflate orally (it's faster).

I've never used the 4' open-bottom one so I can't comment, but we do have a 4.5' closed circuit bag that we use in when conditions call for it. It's got 40lbs lift and it's a real bear to shoot (and make sure it reaches the surface full). Personally, I don't like shooting it from less than 100' or so because it's just got too much lift.

Head over to AWS and talk to Frank. I'll be there this afternoon, incidentally, if you want to chat further.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Get a closed or semi-closed - then learn the proper techniques used to deploy it safely. I suggest keeping the one used for mid water pre-rigged. Fumbling around trying to secure the line to the bag is just another way to get wrapped in the line; especially in current or surge.

Good luck and keep practicing!

Current and surge are generally not an issue to doing stuff in the
midwater. Current just moves you along, surge is an effect of the
wave interacting with the bottom, and you are off the bottom.

But having the bag and spool prerigged is a good idea. The less
you have to do to deploy the better.

Me, I do carry a sausage, I don't carry a spool. I just navigate
back to the anchor line. An SMB is not a substitute for
navigational skills.