SMB: Collecting your line on or after ascent?

[DevonDiver]

Finger spool if it has sufficient length for the dive. Otherwise, I use my custom divers reel with 120m of line on it.

Wind up on the ascent... whether it is from the bottom depth, or just deployed from the safety stop. Diving amongst a cloud of floating line is not a clever strategy.

 

[TSandM]

I've done it both ways. If you know you're going to be sitting on the surface, waiting for a boat, and you shot the bag fairly shallow, it's not unreasonable to spool up the line from the surface. The bolt snap has been enough to keep the spool underwater, in my experience, and I have not ended up with a lot of messy line. (That has only happened when I've tried to spool up underwater and lost buoyancy control -- then the spool comes to the surface with me, and leaves macrame all over the water!)

If you are deploying deeper, it's a bit of a PITA to try to spool it all up at the end, and if the dive boat is quick getting to you, you are stuck with the choice of either handing up the bag with unspooled line attached, or delaying your retrieval while you cope with it. I don't try it when I have more than 20' of line out.

 

[BabyDuck]

it also would make a difference with the type of bag, right? if it's not at least semi-closed you need to keep the tension on it or it will dump - or is my thinking off?

anyway, yes on winding it up (usually use a spool) as i come up, unless something happens to take priority.

 

[TSandM]

it also would make a difference with the type of bag, right? if it's not at least semi-closed you need to keep the tension on it or it will dump - or is my thinking off?

No, your thinking isn't off. And with whatever bag you shoot, it's desirable to keep some downward tension on the line during ascent, so that the bag stands up and is more visible. But you can do that simply by grasping the line itself; you don't have to have the spool.

 

[Tortuga68]

If you know you're going to be sitting on the surface, waiting for a boat, and you shot the bag fairly shallow, it's not unreasonable to spool up the line from the surface

What's the benefit of doing this?

 

[TSandM]

The only benefit is not having to manage the task loading of doing it underwater. It's not what I generally DO, mind you, but I have tried it to see if it was a nuisance, and it wasn't.

 

[Blackwood]

I've dropped a ~120 foot stainless steel spool from ~20 feet (something Rainer caught on video, I think). Pulling it up from the surface sucks. It's a big mess, the spool can get caught on stuff, etc.. Not my favorite activity. I ended up cutting the line off the spool rather than trying to salvage it.

If something happens that I need to address NOW with both hands (toxing buddy perhaps), sure, I'll drop it. Otherwise, I prefer locking it off with a double ender.

 

[Tortuga68]

The only benefit is not having to manage the task loading of doing it underwater. It's not what I generally DO, mind you, but I have tried it to see if it was a nuisance, and it wasn't.

I can understand that you would try it to assess the impact on your dive if you needed to do it - assisting a buddy, gear issues etc - but I can't see why you would do it otherwise. Just seems lazy to me

 

[TSandM]

I can understand that you would try it to assess the impact on your dive if you needed to do it - assisting a buddy, gear issues etc - but I can't see why you would do it otherwise. Just seems lazy to me

On the contrary -- I view spooling it up as I go the lazy route, because I keep myself a bit negative and hang on the bag

BTW, I'm not talking about DROPPING the spool. I'm just talking about clipping it off at the depth where you shoot it. Respooling 100 feet of line would never appeal to me.

 

[tkdgodess]

I reel it in unless my fingers stop working (frozen, which is often) so I just do as much as I can, usually it's the last 5'-10' that needs finishing up on the surface.