Toss your wimpy "safety sausage" and go BIG!

[drbill]

Hey... if the dive boat is so far away that they need a 16' SMB to see me, they must have done something wrong! Of course I mainly dive in the calm waters of the Pacific (= calm) Ocean, not the mean nasty ones off the Atlantic!

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

FWIW: I was not promoting a 16' bag as viable, more of a joke - size pushed to unreasonable limits - kind of like spare air but in the other direction. Personally, my 5' SMB is about as big as I can manage safely at my skilll and experience level.

 

[Belmont]

I have a 4,5' Halcyon Big Dam. Last January it helped myself and two buddies stay comfortably at the surface in choppy waters. It's closed circuit kept it inflated floating horizontally. Every one else had smallish open ended 3 footers. After that dive they were reconsidering their purchase. I would certainly consider buying the six foot sausage.

When I need a lift bag I bring my Halcyon semi closed sixty pounder

 

[Scubakevdm]

But I already have a super big sausage.

 

[masterof0]

Now...if Halcyon or anyone else made it in a semi-closed version, I'd be all over it and I'd sing it praises everywhere.

DAN has a 6' SMB that is semi-closed. Can be inflated using an LP inflator or using reg.

https://www.diversalertnetwork.org/catalog/products/641-1000.html

 

[scubadude79]

Of course, if you want to go really big, then try this one. Not sure how you would inflate or if it wound stand up, but you would have the biggest tool on the boat for sure.

OMG, you may make all the others jealous. All the other divers would not let you dive with their wives after you whiped that one out.

 

[ba_hiker]

Check out these.. 6 foot, 8 foot, 10 foot...
Personal Floats Safety Sausage Tubes
Enclosed or open bottomed...
Great bags, gr8 people too.

 

[cool_hardware52]

A SMB or Surface Marker Buoy needs an OPV so it can be launched from depth without risk of rupture. This OPV is usually located near the base of the Marker. Placing it at the top of the marker tube makes the tube more prone to "lying down" at the surface.

A lift bag needs an OPV located at the top of the bag to allow the buoyancy of the bag and load to be controlled during ascent

A Safety Sausage does not need an OPV as Safety Sausages are intended to be orally inflated at the surface only, not launched from depth. No OPV, generally lighter weight construction means a BIG safety sausage can be purchased inexpensively.

There are good arguments that taller tubes are visible at greater distances, but that does not automatically mean a bigger SMB is always the answer.

For a high volume SMB to be effective it must reach the surface full, and it will require a good portion of the bag be pulled under the surface to get the rest of the tube to stand vertical. A 8 foot limp tube laying on the surface isn't very tall, and a 1/2 filled 8 foot bag, with ~1/2 of the filled portion under water isn't much better.

High volume SMB's are more difficult to launch, especially when shallow. Holding depth while filling the bag requires skill. A 50 lbs SMB also has the potential to drag the diver to the surface if they are entangled.

Smaller SMB's are easier to fill, less risk to the diver, and are more likely to reach the surface full. Shorter bags are easier to stand up, without pulling 1/2 the bag under water.

I prefer to use a smaller SMB, and carry a large, cheap, Safety Sausage to be waved at the surface if need be.

There are of course circumstances where the potential for long drifting deco could make a tall SMB useful, but most of the time huge SMB's are just more work and less effective.

Tobin

 

[Life-Is-Good-Diver]

I bought one of these thinking it would be a viable alternative to a lift bag for establishing an up line. It is, but it has some serious limitations.

1. It can be orally inflated, but you can't blow very much gas very fast through the QD inflator and check valve - the only means to orally inflate.

2. You are consequently forced to inflate with a LP infaltor hose - either from one you remove from your DS or wing, or with one you bring along for that purpose. I experimented with using a 4" QD hose on a stage reg. That allows a fairly fast inflate - but not as fast as with a freeflowing second stage into the bottom of an open or semi closed circuit bag. And you cannot dump air from the wing into the bag as is the case with an open or semi closed circuit bag. the end result is that you have limited time before the gas in thebag begins to overcome inertia and start to pull you up, so to get what is in effect a very large and high lift bag full by the time it reaches the surface you have to launch it really deep. Plus, because it is so tall and so large, you need to apply a fairly large amount of tension (negative buoyancy) on the line to keep it standing up on the surface.

The end result of my efforts to see what it could do was to determine that a semi-closed circuit lift bag is a lot easier to shoot and that a large SMB like that makes more sense as something you inflate once you are on the surface.

Now...if Halcyon or anyone else made it in a semi-closed version, I'd be all over it and I'd sing it praises everywhere.

Hanlcyon also missed the boat with the inflator angled across the width of the bag. If they ran it vertically, you could fold the bag in 1/4th's lenghtwise and then roll it up for storage on the bottom of your back plate through two bunge loops. But the way the inflator currently runs you have to roll it lenght wise and the resulting roll is short and fat and stores no where real well.

And yes...the dump valve on the bottom is just proof that a company that caters to cave divers may not be the best company for developing lift bags and SMB's. It is for all practical purposes just for dumping the gas from the SMB when you are done with it.

+1 , I couldn't agree more. I had this SMB, and your right about the inflator when rolling it up, what a pain