Deploying a Safety Sausage w/ a Reel - Tips?

[diver 85]

Originally Posted by comet24

I use a finger spool reel to deploy you sausage. Don't put your finger threw the hole but hold it with your thumb and pointer finger. Doesn't take a lot of air to deploy them. Remember air expands.

If you have never deployed one under water practice before you go. Find out what works for you and what doesn't. Last thing you want is to have to use it for the first time under stress.

This above post is good advice--ESP the practicing it once or twice ........I just statrted carrying one in the last few months after 23 years of diving......an old dog can learn new tricks..lol.....

[crpntr133]

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

Can you provide a photo of this?

Sorry for the late reply. I don't know how I would show this process in a photo.
Basically clip the double ender to the line that is running up to your SMB after it is deployed. Pull the DE around the spool to wind the line as you go up. Same as doing it by hand but you are using the DE.

[Grin]

I have shot 6 ft sausages from the bottom over a couple hundred times. I use a small reel. Any reel that can be completely freespooled will work. The cheapest reels with no drag(just a freespool or lock type) might work best for this. It is dangerous to shoot bouys from depth, so when you do it, make sure you take the bouy shooting seriously. Never, ever shoot a bouy with the reel attached to you. I have had exactly zero incidents shooting bouys from the bottom on my standard 70-80 ft dives. I used a small Dive Rite reel for a couple years and they work pretty good for this. I always clip the reel to my speargun, or lobster snare/bag, or anything that gives it a little extra bulk to help keep it from going up with the bouy as the reel inertia starts up. Attach it to anything that won't get bent(never clip to a person or yourself) if the reel ever does jam or backlash. I've never had a backlashed reel issue. I use my regulator to fill the bouy about 1/3, the gas expands and is completely full by the time it hits the surface. Simply, make absolutly sure the settup looks snag free before filling the bouy, unroll and get the sausage a little straight and then take your reg and start purgeing it into the bouy opening, and hold on while filling it until it starts taking you up with it. Let go after about a 1-2 ft ride up, and then let it rip up to the surface. The entrie time your purging your eyes are on the line and reel and double/triple checking nothing is snagging. As soon as the bouy is let go of you instatly need to grab the reel and make sure it doesn't get away from you or snag or backlash etc...
It is really very easy. Just realize the ramifications of attaching it to you, or getting snagged in it after the bouy has been inflated. The reel being under water seems to keep backlash issues nonexistant to me. I've never had a issue with that or a line tangle snag while the bouy is on it's way up.
The safest way to start the process is to let some air out of your BC and rest yourself negtively bouyant right on the bottom. Get out the reel/sausage rig and get it ready. Then give the bouy a super little shot of air, from your reg, to get it straight and ready for the main fill. After you recheck everything is 100% snag free and in freespool etc... then fill it until you can't hold on without going up with it.
I rarly let air out of my BC for this process, and you don't have to attach the reel to a object to keep it from going up. These tips just make it easier, and should be done at first, as is available. I often shoot my bouy from 20ft off the bottom as if I leave a wreck deck, or something. I'm not starting my accent by going back down 10-30 ft to deploy my bouy. It is alot easier when you are directly on the bottom though.
6 ft sausages are typically 50lb liftbags also, so they can be used for double duty. OMS, Zeagle, and a bunch of others make nice ones. We do alot of drift diving here in Florida, alot of the time the current is ripping. So the situation is to dive the wreck or spot, while the boat idles on the spot via GPS, then the diver shoots a bouy as he leaves the wreck to accend. The boat sees the bouy and follows it, while the diver slowly accends. Depending on the current, the diver might finally surface anywhere between 10ft and 1 mile from the spot the bouy was sent up. Obviously if the bouy was not used, the boat might not see you surface a mile away, and you would be lost at sea. Obviously a good boat driver is needed to be aware of all of the possibilities. A diver might shoot a bouy and if it gets away from him, or the line breaks or something. That is my worst fear in current situations. The boat driver who has no brain and follows a broken free bouy to the next state. It could eaisly happen, but has not happened to me. I figure if the bouy gets away from me, and is up top, I will be drifting at close the the same rate as I acend so I should be semi close to the bouy when I surface if it ever gets a awy from me. So the boat should be close enough for me to get their attention in that case.
Much of the time I feel much more at ease just dragging a float the entire dive. But high current can make that impossible. And zero current makes it not neccessary. Everything inbetween makes shooing bouys a great way to go if your crew can handle it.

[mm2002]

Great post Grin! Timely too, as I'm getting ready to start working with my reel and SMB. Thanks!

[ReefRatRick]

I use a kite flyer's line controller/brake for my sauage. It is a rectangular plastic piece that the 40' of line wraps around and has a "line stay" that holds the line at any given point. I remove the line from the stay, give the saugage a little air, point the controller up and the line "freespolls" off as the saugage deploys. Hand wind the line as you assend. Real fast, no hassles.

Rick

[Splitlip]

Originally Posted by ReefRatRick

I use a kite flyer's line controller/brake for my sauage. It is a rectangular plastic piece that the 40' of line wraps around and has a "line stay" that holds the line at any given point. I remove the line from the stay, give the saugage a little air, point the controller up and the line "freespolls" off as the saugage deploys. Hand wind the line as you assend. Real fast, no hassles.

Rick

Yeah, I actually used those for a while sending a small SMB froma safety stop.
But for the big ones deep, a reel or conventional spool is better.
I am going back to a reel after a recent situation with a spool.

[oddbod]

Originally Posted by ReefRatRick

I use a kite flyer's line controller/brake for my sauage. It is a rectangular plastic piece that the 40' of line wraps around and has a "line stay" that holds the line at any given point. I remove the line from the stay, give the saugage a little air, point the controller up and the line "freespolls" off as the saugage deploys. Hand wind the line as you assend. Real fast, no hassles.

Rick

used to use one cut out of a thin lead ingot for a small SMB from safety stop with 5 meters of line attached, when at stop hold uninflated SMB and drop weight, fill SMB and let string run through fingers until weight is back in hand. Can't tangle as line dangles first. Found the idea too complicated for deeper stops or where weight may hit bottom.

[Splitlip]

Oh, one more tip. If you get tangled and the bag starts pulling you to the surface. Scream like hell. Keeps the air passage open.

[CompuDude]

Originally Posted by Splitlip

Oh, one more tip. If you get tangled and the bag starts pulling you to the surface. Scream like hell. Keeps the air passage open.

[mm2002]

Originally Posted by Splitlip

Oh, one more tip. If you get tangled and the bag starts pulling you to the surface. Scream like hell. Keeps the air passage open.

According to PADI, I think that would be scream like hell........while making the ahhhhhh sound.