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David Chamberlin wrote:

> Paul Braunbehrens wrote:
> > BTW, when you do a hang from your float, do you have a weight
> > attached to the float?
>
> Technically yes.  One of Phil's friends came up with a pretty cool
> little contraption for the spool attached to the lift bag (or safety
> sausage).  Go down to REI and get a one pound exercise weight.  Take the
> line off your spool (or just save yourself some money and buy raw caving
> line instead of buying the line on a spool) and wrap it around the
> exercise weight (make sure you attach the line to the weight!).  Attach
> the line to the bag/sausage and wrap the bag/sausage around the weight.
> Now when it's time to deploy, you grab the bag, let it unroll and let
> the weight and line fall out.  Add air to the bag/sausage (don't hang on
> to it as it ascends! :-).  When it hits the surface, start your ascent.
>
> -Dave

I've barely been watching this thread, as it got answered pretty quickly,
but this last bit made me cringe in my seat at the things that can go wrong
here.  If I've read this correctly, you're (or one of Phil's friends is)
wrapping a line around a weight, and letting that unroll.  When the bag
clears, you add air/exhale into the bag and let this go to the surface.  The
thoughts that initially raced through my head here:

1)  What happens if it slips from your hand before inflated?

2)  What happens if the line become tangled instead of unraveling
completely?

3)  And then you have this line passing by / on your body?

4)  You've just ditched one pound of weight.

5)  You need to bring this up after you get out of the water.

This is in no way a slam, but look at each potential problem.

1)  Granted, this is just one pound, but when the line finishes unraveling,
there's a little tug at the end - sounds like an easy way to lose the whole
contraption, or even if it slips away before you unravel it.  Plus, as
you're getting ready to fill the bag, you've got a weighted line running
down that's soon to be positively buoyant and moving.  To me this is an
entanglement waiting to happen.

2)  I'm assuming this is a moderate length of line, but the statement about
starting your ascent afterward makes me wonder.  Regardless, I think the
line could easily tangle as it descends.  If it does on a short distance of
line, then after filling the bag, the weight goes right by on it's way up -
goodbye weight and bag.  And again, in this scenario, you're just begging
for the tangle to catch on you on the way up.

3)  As I've mentioned in the previous two items, you've got the line running
fairly close to your body as it moves up.  Sure it's a straight line, so no
problem of entanglement, right?  Same as nobody ever gets tangled on a
straight line in an overhead environment, right?

4)  Again, it's only one pound, but if you are weighted properly, why would
you want to carry *any* extra weight around during the dive that you didn't
have to.  And to drop it at the end of a dive, when you're most buoyant of
all?

5)  Assuming everything worked well, you exit the water, and you now have
your bag and line to retrieve.  20ft of loose line?  30ft?  40ft?  It
doesn't matter - you need to drag this loose line out onto the boat while
there may be other divers completing their decompression or exiting the
water.  Bad idea.

There's probably more things that can go wrong, but I seriously thought of
these, "Well, what if..., Why that..." upon first reading it.  I had to
reread it to make sure I didn't misunderstand.  Standard disclaimer being if
I did in fact misunderstand this whole thing.

I carry my lift bag attached to my backplate between my back and wing.  When
ready to deploy, grab my reel, one yank on the bag and I have it.  Clip them
together.  Exhale into the bag.  Let it go.  I've done hundreds of these,
and only once had a problem.  I was new at it, and let the bag rise to
rapidly and the reel overran itself and tangled.  So I had to let go of the
reel.  (Later retrieved it, luckily.)  As you ascend, you reel the line in.
No risk of entanglement, no line around you, no line below.  Easy to hold on
to, and easy to let out more line in strong currents.  And unless the
current is really strong, you could pull the bag first, and just let it hang
there without fear of loosing it (the reel being another matter, of
course).  I've also seen people keep the line attached to the bag during the
dive, but I don't like the line hanging as an entanglement hazard.
Personally, I'd rather decompress in blue water without a reference than use
the weighted idea.

Again, not a flame, just doesn't sound like a well thought out idea.

-Tom

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