What is too much safety !!!

[String]

Im trying to think of 1 use for a buddy line yet alone 1001 !

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Heh...I refer to jon lines as buddy lines, you can call'em what you want.

They attach me to the anchor line on deco stops, they attach my scooter to a hole in a wreck when I want to swim inside it without the scooter (with my reel tied off to my scooter!), they attach me to my buddy when we surface from drift deco in 2-3' seas and the charter boat is nowhere in sight, they anchor my scooter to a handy outcrop while I finish pulling on the tanks for shore diving, they sling and make fast around a porthole that my buddy found and wanted to send up on a liftbag, and - while I haven't used it for this yet, you could also use the jon/buddy line to wrap around a part of the wreck when you needed to do an ascent yet remain attached to the wreck on what amounts to a small jersey upreel. My buddy the videographer has used his to attach his camera to an SMB on occasion (it's a friggin huge camera...) (NC charter boats don't do drift deco, and they prefer their divers not to do drift deco either! For one thing, you're in international shipping lanes, and for another you're about 70-80 miles offshore.)

A heavy-duty bit of nylon strap - jonline, buddyline, whatever - can come in handy for lots of reasons, and its one piece of kit I never go diving without.

Best,

Doc

 

[David_57]

I dive with the following

SMB with 50 ft finger reel
40 cuft Pony Bottle (for dives over 40ft)
light bungied to my harness
Small Knife attached to harness
Backup mask in pocket (most of the time)
3ft primary reg hose with Octo on necklace

Started using this configuration after taking SDI Solo Diver course

 

[ebenburger]

I always have the following back-up before entering the water:
Extra mask
additional weights
knife
smb
compass
o-rings
additional whistle
2 underwater lights

Depending on the conditions I take a selection along but not all of it

 

[seaducer]

Heh...I refer to jon lines as buddy lines, you can call'em what you want.

Good stuff. I also know someone who tethered himself to a wreck in current once while he relieved some leg cramps. Kind of like a reef hook. You can also use it to "dummy cord" various gear that you are working with mid water but don't necessarily want a lanyard on full time.

 

[shark_tamer]

I always have the following back-up before entering the water:

additional weights

That's a first for me !!! Everybody I know is diving with the least amount of weight possible.

 

[David_57]

That's a first for me !!! Everybody I know is diving with the least amount of weight possible.

Think he brings them with him but not on him

 

[String]

My "spare weights" are most often many millions of years old and found on the bottom - they're called rocks.

 

[J.R.]

My "spare weights" are most often many millions of years old and found on the bottom - they're called rocks.

Ok... I feel *much* better now. During the summer I was doing a dive in the local quarry and for some reason found myself to be a *bit* on the underweighted side near the end of one of the dives... so I did just that, picked up a chunk of quarry rock that was laying on the bottom and completed the last 15 minutes or so of the dive with this big ol' chunck of rock dangling at the end of my arms as I swam along... the instructor AND the student that we were with were a bit puzzled by it... particularly when I dropped the rock as we got near the surface... They had been wondering if I'd seen something "of interest" in the rock and was going to take it home...

... but I think the jist of this thread is that the *best* thing in any safety kit... minimum or maximum, is having your brain in gear before, during and after the dive. Regardless of how "prepared" you are, the Law of Unanticipated Results is always in full play and the only tool that gives you the best opportunity to deal with the unforseen is the grey stuff between your ears...

 

[Jandee]

I love my shaker thing. I shake it and my husbands knows I'm having a Kodak Moment. Shake, shake, shake means "hey come look at the drum fish".