Who actually used a "safety sausage"

[sharpenu]

I have a six foot sausage, oral inflation type. (Doesnt that sound bad?) They are available at http://shop.diversdirect.com/item/Innovative 6 Foot See Me Safety Tube_ID35193

A picture of how it is attached is on my profile.

 

[jagfish]

dont know if you can get them in the states but i have a self inflating DSMB,

DSMB

i would recomend one of these however if it is your first one learning how to use a manually inflated one would be a good idea just in case you ever need to.

Sid

I've used one of these, they are totally awesome, though I felt they do take up a lot of space due to the attached "spare air" canister...

JAG

 

[Eli]

This thread is truly a public service. I recently came back from my first drift diving trip, to Cozumel. I had bought safety sausages for everyone in my family. Nobody except the divemaster and my family had these things. I never needed the sausages. I was beginning to feel a little stupid about bringing them, and it made just one more item to clean and dry after the dive each day. Im glad I read this thread, as I will make sure that I bring them on my next drift dive trip.

 

[No Fish]

Looking for opinions on an OMS SMB (BCA-255 specifically), ......

I have and use the OMS BCA-255. I like it. I carry it folded/rolled at the base of my harness held by two surgical tubing loops.

It is easy to inflate, jusy blow exhaust into the bottom and let it fly. I connect it to a finger spool or a reel. depends on what I am carrying.

It is VERY visible and has an overpressurization/dump valve. In Mexico I alway get the comment "nice sal-chicha". I have also used it as a lift bag.You can't go wrong. I do have one of the small oral inflation types too, but I think it is too small to see at any distance.

 

[caymaniac]

I would like to have used one a few years ago, we were diving at Cozumel when my wife and I became separated from the other 6 divers and came up floating 300 to 500 hundred yards from our boat in-fact it was hardly visible on the horizen. We were lucky that another dive boat saw us and came over to radio our boat to pick us up.
Since that time and a number of trips latter, we carry our sausages and have found that most liveaboard ops require them. We have never had to use it yet, but how many times would an out-of-sight emergency come and if you didn't have one what are your chances, 50/50?

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[Albion]

Writing your name in large letters on the SMB is also a good idea, so that the boat knows who it is.

Ben
I have taken to writing other peoples names on mine now, if they know it's me they head off in the other dierection to pick someone else up first

 

[cth6]

I fill it at the safety stop and float it on a rope. Keeps jet skiers away and lets the boat know where we are before we surface.

If you do this, be careful not to ride the sausage up. It can pull you from 15 ft quickly.

 

[Scubamedicjoe]

ok think most of this been covered pretty good matter of fact had to use one this weekend, a diver from NJ was down doing some wreck diving any way to make long story short we hanging out around the down line and notice two divers in trouble in current moving away, noticed it was one fairly new diver and a fresh diver from talking to them earlier on boat.
While I joined them as they wear moving away at a pretty good rate any way by the time I caught up to them we wear quit away from boat and current too strong to fight along with seas picked up. After all the other divers onboard with my sausage inflated they came up to pick us up. Man wear the two divers embarrassed but to be truthful we see it allot of the coast of NC that has a mind of its own with currents and sea's changing at there will .

 

[scubafool]

http://www.carterbag.com/personalfloat.html

I have the 75 lb one. The above link lists it as 58" high, but I am about 6'2" and I have to hold the top of it almost as high as I can reach above my head to keep the bottom off of the floor, so I'd say more like 7' tall. It has an overpressurization valve, an oral inflate, you can inflate from the bottom also, but it has a sort of flap to keep the air inside if it were to fall over when it hit the surface.

 

[wet]

We use them all the time when shooting in the Middle Grounds. We inflate it and send it up while we are doing our deco stops or safety stops as the case may be. They are great things. I actually rigged up a makeshift mylar flag that I can stick into the little pocket for cylumes for radar detection. My pals say that the mylar shows up like CRAZY on the boats radar.