Safety Sausage and Wreck Reels

[Mark Vlahos]

Thanks Mark, I checked out this video too, looks like fun (shootbag.avi)

http://www.frogkick.dk/multimedia/video/fifthd

Looks good. Notice how when the bag starts to inflate it rolls back under his arms toward hiw torso. This is one possible place for an entanglement. If you give the bag a small squirt of air it will sit nicely in front of you and then when you fill it it will shoot straight up and the only things to look out for are the bits on the bottom of the bag.

Mark Vlahos

 

[lairdb]

Different angle on this for a minute -- how self-sealing are the "self-sealing" sausages? I use an entirely open-bottom sausage that has a small amout of integrated weight to keep it from indavertently dumping. This satisfies my desire for something that I can fill from my regulator, but it means that once I've surfaced, if I wanted to blow it up rigid and wave it in the air, I'm fairly out of luck. The fully-closed (with relief valve) sausages satisfy the second challenge well, but (as UP remarked in another thread) I don't like the idea of having to disconnect the inflator to charge it.

Where's the middle ground?

 

[GoBlue!]

1. How tall is the DiveRite marker? I don't see it listed anywhere, but I must just be missing it.

2. Are the extreme exposure spools neutrally buoyant?

3. There was a good study looking at how well different types & colors of surface markers were spotted by boats & planes. The link is somewhere on this board, but I can't remember where. A search for "safety sausage" will bring up several threads, and it's definitely in one of them. If I get a chance, I'll hunt & post the link.

Jim

 

[GoBlue!]

This isn't the link I was thinking of, but I think it's pretty good: Surface Survival Primer.

Jim

 

[GoBlue!]

Here's a link to the study I was referring to. I cannot speak to its validity; I just stole the link from another thread.

Jim

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Different angle on this for a minute -- how self-sealing are the "self-sealing" sausages? I use an entirely open-bottom sausage that has a small amout of integrated weight to keep it from indavertently dumping. This satisfies my desire for something that I can fill from my regulator, but it means that once I've surfaced, if I wanted to blow it up rigid and wave it in the air, I'm fairly out of luck. The fully-closed (with relief valve) sausages satisfy the second challenge well, but (as UP remarked in another thread) I don't like the idea of having to disconnect the inflator to charge it.

Where's the middle ground?

Hi,

The DiveRite Marker that we have been talking about in this thread fills up solid. I am sitting here at my desk and I filled it up with air and it is completely rigid. I can balance it on my finger and it sits horizontally in front of me, just like a traditional completely sealed one would. I have seen others using the OMS marker and it behaves in a similar way. There are probably others that will also do this.

Mark Vlahos

 

[Mark Vlahos]

1. How tall is the DiveRite marker? I don't see it listed anywhere, but I must just be missing it.

...

Jim

I have inflated the DiveRite Marker and the air filled portion is 44 inches tall, this is just over 1 meter, this is with the marker fully inflated, empty it is certainly a little longer. The Marker has a circumference of about 15 inches when fully inflated. The portion of the Marker that is below the air funnel (the pressurized portion of the marker) is about 10 inches and the webbing to the "D" ring is another 14 inches. This is not one of the giant Marker bags that are available, but I would not want to inflate one of those underwater.

Mark Vlahos

 

[standrod]

I love my reels from reefscuba.com

I have both a couple primary (300' of #36 line) and safety (130' of #36 line) reels.

I use an OMS SMB (surface marker bouy). I have a 6' and 9', but I use the 6' mostly. Dive boot captains love it.

I do suggest getting some training first and practice at a shallow depth.

 

[geraldp]

I am sitting here at my desk and I filled it up with air and it is completely rigid.

Mark:
I've really enjoyed your informative posts about safety sausages, but now you're just getting weird.

 

[Charlie99]

http://www.divebooty.com/equipment_details.asp?pid=3787

Do you want to be able to inflate the sausage while you are still under water? If you do the sausage in your first link will not do the job!

Actually, it will work nicely as a DSMB from safety stop depths, even though it doesn't have an overpressure relief valve. Excess air simply bleeds out through the fabric.

I routinely use mine from 20', and have tested it by sending it up fully inflated from 100'.

30' of 2mm hi-brite cord wrapped around the rolled up sausage will neatly spool off using a small boltsnap as a weight, then you simply put a full lungful of air into it (no buoyancy change as air just changes location from your lungs to DSMB).

I don't consider the 44" size suitable for emergency surface locator aid and in addition carry an 8-1/2' by 8" plastic surface marker.