On Fri, 25 Jan 2002 02:03:35 -0500, Brad Stambaugh wrote:

>With all the talk about safety sausages, this seems like a good time to
>ask for recommendations for one of these.  Is there a brand/model that
>is favored by any of you. I will consider Halcyon's, but what about the
>rest.

The OMS sausage SMBs are well-made, from some kind of coated fabric
rather than plastic.  The largest model (BCA 268) is 10 feet in length,
bigger even than the largest Halcyon Diver Alert Marker.  There is a
one-way valve on the neck, so it will not invert and dump air on the
way up or on the surface.  It has a standard pull dump valve for remove
air and water once you're back in the boat. Fully inflated, this device
has 90 lbs of lift.  There is a loop at the top of the sausage which
could be used for attaching a slate or small flashing strobe.

        http://www.omsdive.com/lift-smb.html

I recently purchased the OMS 10' sausage and have used it on about 20
dives in Palau. With its size and the one-way valve, stowing and
deploying it underwater is somewhat different than with a regular SMB.
I use an open spool rather than a safety reel, and my previous practice
was to deploy the sausage as soon as I reached the safety stop.

Initially, I found it clumsy to handle and difficult to inject enough
air to make it full when it reached the surface before it started to
pull me up.   It is almost impossible to do this at the 5 m safety stop
depth.  At 5 m, the top of the 3 m sausage sausage is already very
close to the surface.  I found it much easier if I released the sausage
at 15 or 20 m.  A few seconds of air squirted into the neck at that
depth would expand to fill the sausage satisfactorily.

If you try to shoot a big single blast like I used to do with my old
sausage (Scubapro), there's too much air to get through the one-way
valve at one time.  Bleeding air slowly from the octo into the neck of
the sausage works better.  This sausage is so big that it takes several
seconds for the air to reach the closed end and begin to ascend.
After a few dives practice, I had no trouble getting the right amount
of air into the sausage to make it full or nearly full when it reached
the surface.

Even full, however, this sausage only lies on the surface - it won't
"stand up" erect while the diver is below.  Because of its huge size,
however, it is still much more visible from a distance than a standard
BC.  The boat drivers liked it because it was immediately recognizable
from a long ways away.

Once at the surface, I was only able to get it to "erect"  by adding
more air and then standing on the strap attached to the neck of the
sausage.  This would be worth doing if you were in big waves.

Instead of rolling it, I flake the sausage three or four times and stow
it behind my butt, with the ends of the package tucked into two small
loops of bungie cord tied to straps at the lower corners of my BC.
This works very well, keeping the sausage secure and out of the way
during the dive, but easily accessible when I wanted it.

Unlike the Halcyon markers, however, there is no reflective tape on the
marker, and the reflective tape that I used on my old sausage wouldn't
adhere to the fabric surface.

Robert Delfs

>
>How about a favorite inflator hose air horn?
>
> I'm in the process of shopping for gear for the Cayman Islands. There
>are a few things that I don't have because they aren't so practical
>where I live. I will also probably buy a 3 mil wetsuit (instead of lycra
>because I intend to stay wet and warm). Strike, if your new suit turns
>out to be good choice, I'd consider that. But for a week of diving as
>much as possible, warmth is going to be important for me.
>
>...Brad


Robert Delfs
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