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Thomas, Thank you for your detailed answer. This is why I chose to post despite my "newbiness". I'm hoping that by doing so, when I say something stupid/wrong/needs-to-be-fixed someone will point it out. More comments below. Thomas McDonald wrote: > 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. Yes. You have the basic idea. Now let me walk you through the evolution of the idea (as I understand it). Be warned, much of this has its genesis in TDI instruction. Also be warned that I may be misrepresenting the procedure, etc. I'll try and have a talk with Phil this weekend about all of this. He might just slap me upside the head and tell me I totally misunderstood and I'm totally messed up. The original process was to clip your reel to the bag and drop the reel, then inflate the bag to send it to the surface. The problem with this was that the reel often jammed on the way down. So then a spool was used instead to avoid the jamming, but the spool wasn't heavy enough and the line would rat's nest. So a small weight was added to the inside of the spool to ensure it would drop cleanly. Then, to keep things even simpler, the line was wrapped directly around the weight and the spool was taken out of the picture. > 1) What happens if it slips from your hand before inflated? Pretty much SOL. > 2) What happens if the line become tangled instead of unraveling > completely? Well, I guess that depends on whether or not enough line was deployed so that it can reach the depth you need to do your stop at. But the point of the simple wrap-around-the-weight concept was to avoid tangles. I haven't used this method much yet (remember I'm a newbie), but from I gather they've been using it with great success. > 4) You've just ditched one pound of weight. I don't consider one pound significant. > 5) You need to bring this up after you get out of the water. Yeah, that does kinda suck. > 2) I'm assuming this is a moderate length of line, but the statement about > starting your ascent afterward makes me wonder. That was haste on my part. You do this from your first stop, and thus you only need enough line to reach your deepest stop (plus some more for current, etc.). So yes, it's a moderate length of line. > 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. This was exactly the thought I had when I started reading your description. You point out a number of times how if I drop the weighted line it might tangle, but with your method you have essentially the same problem - it can jam/tangle and you can lose it. Similarly you could accidentally drop your reel (same argument you used against "my" method) - granted the reel is probably easier to hang on to then the bag and weight... > 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. All great points. But what if you get a jam or other problem with the reel in a current? It's going to pull you up isn't it? > Again, not a flame, Not taken as such. I appreciate the feedback. I'm still learning all of this stuff, so alternate methods and points of view are greatly appreciated. Bag deployment, spool/reel usage, etc. are things that I've had a hard time finding information on. Thanks for your input. Regards, Dave -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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