Wreck Diver Certification (Blindfolded reel-in)

[NauticalNick]

Hi all,

Not sure if looking for advice or just encouragement but for one of my wreck certification dives I had to do the blindfolded reel-in (simulating coming out of a silted-out wreck with your reel fully wound back up) and while I barely got it done, it was an absolute disaster. The test was in shallow open water with a non-linear line path (bit of zig-zagging back and forth) and I got it done just before I ran out of gas. It was by far the hardest thing I have had to do in scuba so far, my buoyancy was all over the place (it's normally okay) and I guess just looking for tips to get better at this as keeping the line tight in particular was very hard to do.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[lostsheep]

I’d leave the reel and go back later.

Or maybe if it was a family heirloom tie off the line , cut it, leave the line in place and take the reel.

 

[rongoodman]

Leave it. There's enough going on without messing around with a reel.

 

[inquis]

Sounds like it was a task-loading drill meant to be stressful. In actual practice, you'd leave the line and just exit. Come back with more gas for a cleanup dive.

Or, if you know it'll always be silty (i.e., it's tight), then you'd be bumping things enough for reference that buoyancy will be easy enough.

But hey, you got it done. Nice job!

 

[lostsheep]

I’d love to hear the instructors thoughts on this.

It better have been a stress test and not what they are teaching as best practice.

How do you protect your head if both hands are busy taking line in?

 

[gamon]

If it was me in that situation, somewhere inside a silted out wreck with my reel in my hand I would definitely NOT cut the line off the reel and try to pull it tight and tie it off somewhere while making sure the line doesn't get loose enough to tangle me, and then have to deal with the dangers of following the line in poor visibility risking even further entanglement. I'd continue to use the reel and if the line jumped the reel and t the reel jammed I'd simply wind the line around the reel manually like I've done in the past if I've jammed the reel. This keeps the line in front at all times minimizing entanglement and avoiding all of those tying off steps mentioned by the other posters. And you don't have to go back and get the reel or give it up for lost.

 

[inquis]

keeping the line tight in particular was very hard to do.

This will crop up regardless of visibility. Cultivate an effective back kick to allow you to catch-up with the reel/spool winding. If there's substantial exit flow/current (probably not in a wreck, but perhaps on the exterior) and fairly open, you may wish to point into the current and wind up "in reverse".

 

[lostsheep]

Good news for me @gamon , I have no family heirloom reels

 

[gamon]

Good news for me @gamon , I have no family heirloom reels

This isn't about the reel.

 

[inquis]

Another trick if you're using a spool is to hold the exit side hand still on the line and wind the spool toward it across your body. That minimizes the accelerate-coast cycle that happens when winding with the exit hand (spool fairly stationary).