shooting smb from depth

[Centrals]

Shooting a bag with finger spool is far easier than reel and less dangerous as well.
Chance of entanglement is reduced. The spindle of the reel is the main culpit.
I am left-handed, a fast rotating reel's spindle is pretty lethal on my left thumb. There aren't many scuba items specially designed for left hander!!!!
Clip the reel on the bc before firing the smb/bag!!!!! You must be joking.
I gave up the reel when spool first appeared in the market. It is also much lighter and easier to pack for travelling.

 

[vinegarbiscuit]

Oh, I am so clueless I thought the issue was the reel.


Clipping something off to your body always has it's risks, but nobody clips a reel to their body WHEN sending up a float... do they?

I haven't seen anyone clipping a real to their body WHEN sending up a float, but I've seen someone do it when using the SMB as a drift-dive marker. Scary didn't even begin to cover it, especially given the amount of boat and jet-ski traffic that was whizzing about over our heads. I know that dragging a marker is a PITA, but doing a sudden impression of a Polaris missile when your line is run over by overhead watercraft or whatever would induce pain of a much more awful variety!

 

[Akimbo]

Shooting a bag with finger spool is far easier than reel and less dangerous as well.
Chance of entanglement is reduced. The spindle of the reel is the main culpit.
I am left-handed, a fast rotating reel's spindle is pretty lethal on my left thumb. There aren't many scuba items specially designed for left hander!!!!....

Sounds like you need a better reel, myself and several others shoot a bag on a reel all the time. I use an ambidextrous reel you may find effective:

Manta Industries - Products

I chose this reel for other applications as well, but since I have one I find it far preferable to a thumb reel, especially when winding back up.

 

[mikemill]

Oh, I am so clueless I thought the issue was the reel.


Clipping something off to your body always has it's risks, but nobody clips a reel to their body WHEN sending up a float... do they?

Well....

For me 50' is a good depth; the reel is clipped off to a chest d-ring and "locked" open, I am upright and negative enough to require gentle finning, holding fill valve in left hand. Quit finning, take good size breath, remove reg, blow in valve while "looking" up, as soon as bag starts to lift me; release bag, replace reg, exhale completely, deflate BC as needed, release reel "lock" and "reel" to desired depth.

After Red Hill Drift it is shallower and I am sometimes lighter, having given up more weights than the extras I started with, but for that one you can easily start off by "kneeling on the bottom" with a fully deflated BC.

I read that as the reel being clipped off while shooting the bag.

 

[DevonDiver]

Clipping something off to your body always has it's risks, but nobody clips a reel to their body WHEN sending up a float... do they?

It seems like Halemano..and anyone he teaches/mentors/advises do!

 

[Centrals]

Manta Industries - Products
I chose this reel for other applications as well, but since I have one I find it far preferable to a thumb reel, especially when winding back up.

Agree on "winding back up". Neat and tidy.
For finger spool I tend to "twist" the line on my way up. The line will tend to coil together when I play it out on drying. I have to be very careful otherwise.....no fun at all.

 

[Akimbo]

…For finger spool I tend to "twist" the line on my way up. The line will tend to coil together when I play it out on drying. I have to be very careful otherwise.....no fun at all.

Have you tried a battery powered drill to rewind on land? It is much easier to fill the spool evenly — one hand on the drill and the other guiding the line. With a little practice you can make it look like it came from the factory.

Slip a 3/8” bolt with a fender washer through the finger spool. Tighten down another fender washer and nut to secure the spool and chuck into the drill. It helps if you can find a piece of pipe/filler that fits the finger spool hole to keep it on center, otherwise you have to tighten the nut more than feels comfortable.

The only problem is you can do such a neat job spooling with the drill that you can never get that much line back on when winding in the water. Just don’t fill the spool more than about 70%.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Ha ha ....

As I typed in the first words of this thread's 1st reply, "For me ...."

Then at the end of the post, my smile use was intended to indicate that the ensuing conversation would be stimulating ....



I have only "shot" with a reel as a warm water drift dive guide; never from deeper than half the visibility, never from deeper than 60', never in crowded boating waters and never even close to ndl limits.

After "clipped shooting" I usually end up "clipped guiding" for some time, using strobe camera system, large slate and dive light, with the boat captain "orbiting" my marker.

I am fully aware that there are risks to the way I "shoot a marker" and "guide with a marker" but AFAIC the risk is predominantly embarrassment, not injury. As an instructor and/or mentor, I have never been in a bag deployment situation, so to my knowledge there is no diver out there doing it my way because I taught them.

At some point during the dive I like to unspool 5 arm spans of line, reeling that first 30 feet meticulously, so any elevator ride should only be a max of 30', ending with me at 30' deep.

Considering the fact that I am regularly tasked with guiding divers fresh out of their OW course on nearly 100' deep wreck dives and surging cavern dives, for me the clipped shooting and guiding risk is akin to the risk driving home after the dive with one brake light out.

There have been numerous "how to shoot a marker" threads, and they are all mostly "white bread" with regards to "mental nutritional." My favorite Junior High education memories were the "Primitive Pete" videos in Shop. Actually, they are my "only" Junior High education memories. :shocked2:

:kiss2:

 

[Deefstes]

halemanō, I'm not sure I even understand what you just wrote. The typical responses to these questions are white bread mental nutrition so you decided to hand out advice that is more like sugary lard mental nutrition?

Sure, you started with "for me" and you added a smiley at the end but for me (notice the use of "for me") that doesn't change the fact that you were the first responder to a person who asks advice on shooting a SMB from depth and you implicitly recommend clipping off the reel to your BC before sending it up.

(the smiley is to absolve me from any responsibility from what I just wrote).

 

[DevonDiver]

For me, I don't bother with a reel. I just clip the DSMB to my harness, inflate it...and up I go. It saves swimming up.





(Oh yeah, I see how the use of smilies and the phase "for me" works)