pelican buoy must for solo diver, read on

[porgyhunter]

I use a modified pelican bouy attached to my weight belt, so if i am in current and can not swim with all my gear on. I simply drop my belt, the bouy spins off 150ft of line, I attach it to my INFLATED bc and wriggle out and Vol-La!

 

[idocsteve]

I guess you never dive in areas where entanglements are a problem.

 

[DaleC]

Then what? Now you are adrift in strong current with no gear. What if you exhaust yourself trying to swim for it; what if you wear a drysuit?

As a solo diver I would not enter into a situation where I anticipate needing to lose my rig to make it back to shore/a boat and if I did need to lose my rig I could just loop my weightbelt through my shoulder strap and forget about the whole pelican bouy system thingy? I also have a prerigged SMB in my pocket on a finger spool so I don't need another line anyways.

Sorry to be a wet blanket but I don't see the "must" in your idea.

 

[idocsteve]

I am compelled to return to this thread because the idea is so crazy I can't image what the Op has in mind here.

The premise is that you've got a line attached to your weightbelt, and that line is attached to your rig and to a marker buoy, so if you have to drop your weights and rig, they will be retrievable by, I guess, finding the buoy on the surface later on and pulling the weights up from the bottom?

I see some problems with this.

You speak of attaching a line to your rig so you can slip out of it in the current. We're talking about the same line that is attached to your weights that are rapidly headed to the bottom of the ocean? So they'll be suspended by your rig and hanging on 150 feet of line assuming you're in water that is at least that deep, otherwise they'll be sitting on the bottom and all that extra line will be floating around and possibly getting tangled on a wreck or a reef or whatever else might be down there?

You'd have to find a way back to your buoy, rig, and weights after you've been rescued (or after you swim to safety) from whatever predicament you were in that required you to drop your weights in the first place. You speak of current. Odds are you'd be nowhere near your weights and rig when you were rescued, and then you'd have to ask someone with a boat to go search for your buoy so you can retrieve your weights and rig.

I assume you're talking about "slipping out of your rig" at the surface because if you did so at depth you'd lose access to your breathing gas. So you're on the surface, in a current, and you're going to remove your rig so you can swim better? Your rig isn't really slowing you down especially if you've dumped your weights the traditional way, and if you're prepared as a solo diver should be, you'd have several types of signaling devices on your rig that you'd lose access to, as well as a life jacket. And even if you did slip out of your rig and were somehow attached to it by a line, you'd have to tow your rig and suspended or dragging weights, rather than swim with it on.

Your whole idea is absurd and I suggest you find yourself a buddy to dive with who is more competent than you are.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Steve and Dale,

I understand the "reasoning" that went into the OP's decision to carry a float, but I agree with both of your conclusions.

porgyhunter: For diving in general, and especially for solo, my opinion is that "less is more". I don't carry a single thing that I feel will increase weight, drag, entanglement risk, etc., unless I'm conviced I could REALLY need it.

I shore dive in here in Hawaii where the weather is changeable, and strong offshore winds can kick up during the course of a dive. I have considered the possibility of having to ditch my gear and "swim for it", and what I would do in that situation.

If for any reason I was forced to surface a few hundred yards offshore out in the windline, it is VERY possible I could not get back to shore swimming on the surface WITH my scuba unit, but possibly could make it back into the lee of the shore WITHOUT it. The reality is I can swim faster (much faster) and farther with just my wetsuit, mask fins and snorkel.

In a situation that was so serious that I decided I needed to ditch my weights, tank and BP/W to make it back to shore.... I would ditch them in a heartbeat.

Best wishes.

 

[DaleC]

Hi Ed,
I know there are times when we may need to ditch our rigs but I was responding more to the notion of actually preparing a system in anticipation of ditching; probably could have been more specific. If I have to ditch something has gone v e r y wrong with my dive plan and I'm in survival mode. I would just inflate my BC, hope to find it again and kiss my weights goodbye. Lead I got plenty of.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Hi Dale,

Obviously not enough coffee this morning for me. I'd meant just the first sentence of my post as a reply to you and Steve (agreeing with you), and the rest for the OP (porgyhunter). I fixed it.

Best wishes.

 

[diver_doug]

I use a modified pelican bouy attached to my weight belt, so if i am in current and can not swim with all my gear on. I simply drop my belt, the bouy spins off 150ft of line, I attach it to my INFLATED bc and wriggle out and Vol-La!

Sounds good, but I've got an even better method. Whenever I shore dive, I bring about 600ft of cave line. I tie one end to a D-ring on my BC, the other end to a big ass rock on the beach. That way if I need to ditch my gear i can just swim back to shore and pull it all in. I also bring 3 pieces of 5-foot cave line. I tie a piece to my mask, one to each fin, and then I tie all three of the pieces in a knot on a D-ring; so that way if any of the aforementioned items should happen to come off, I just grab the piece of line connected to it, pull that piece of gear back and Voila! (note, be careful to make sure you grab the right piece of line. One time my fin came off, I grabbed what I thought was the line that was attached to it, yanked, and off comes my mask!)

 

[idocsteve]

Sounds good, but I've got an even better method. Whenever I shore dive, I bring about 600ft of cave line. I tie one end to a D-ring on my BC, the other end to a big ass rock on the beach. That way if I need to ditch my gear i can just swim back to shore and pull it all in. I also bring 3 pieces of 5-foot cave line; I tie a piece to my mask and one to each fin and then I tie all three pieces in a knot on a D-ring as well; so that way if any of the aforementioned items should happen to come off, I just grab the piece of line connected to it and pull that piece of gear back and Voila! (note, be careful to make sure you grab the right piece of line. One time my fin came off, I grabbed what I thought was the line that was attached to it, yanked, and off comes my mask!)

This guy's great

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Sounds good, but I've got an even better method. Whenever I shore dive, I bring about 600ft of cave line. I tie one end to a D-ring on my BC, the other end to a big ass rock on the beach. That way if I need to ditch my gear i can just swim back to shore and pull it all in. I also bring 3 pieces of 5-foot cave line; I tie a piece to my mask, one to each fin, and then I tie all three pieces in a knot on a D-ring as well; so that way if any of the aforementioned items should happen to come off, I just grab the piece of line connected to it and pull that piece of gear back and Voila! (note, be careful to make sure you grab the right piece of line. One time my fin came off, I grabbed what I thought was the line that was attached to it, yanked, and off comes my mask!)

Thanks, that made my morning.

But, Bungie might be better than cave line..... Just think, if a mask or fin came off, it would just "snap" back and smack you, alerting you that there was something wrong... or if you get too far from shore, it would yank you back...

Best wishes.