liormic once bubbled...
Everything that has been said so far is true and very important.
I must say that using a sausage, as funny as it might heared, requires practice and a safe relise of it to the surface reqires the physical help (by grabbing you) of your buddy.
That's how we do it on a tak dive.
My belive is that if you want to go on the safe side you should pay some money and purchase a second bludder for your BC so if one fails, you have the other.
The most expensive advice, yet, the safest.
Mickey.
I had to read that twice to understand what you were trying to say. I also do tech diving, and I have never had anyone hold on to me while deploying either a lift bag or SMB/sausage. I have twice let go of the reel, bag, etc. when the reel fouled, and had to go to my backup reel/bag.
If you are having someone hold on to you then I would guess that you are trying to mitigate a situation where the line gets fouled on your person. My suggestion would be to hold everything at arms length, and to not allow extra line to spool out. Some people inflate by exhaling through the reg in their mouth, which brings everything in closer. I've been taught to hold everything out and use my long hose to inflate as one more step to minimize the risk of fouling.
A second bladder is worth discussing as it may indeed save you from a primary bladder failure. I have chosen to use a single bladder as I am more concerned with the extra failure points introduced into the system by the second bladder / inflater / hose / etc than I am about a bladder failure.
I am already carrying two bags (one bag and one SMB actually) for redundancy, so I feel that a failed bladder can be managed safely.
On the other hand, if I were to add a second bladder I would double my chances for a runaway inflater valve, etc.
Some of my friends do dive with double bladders. About half of them have disconnected one of the bladders and just put a cap over the opening on the BC. The ones that haven't have done well too, and haven't experienced any problems with them (yet?).
Best Regards,
- Atticus
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