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Diving Safety, Accidents and Incidents Post here to discuss accidents, incidents, ideas, gear, or anything else to improve spearfishing safety. Memorials and condolences threads should be placed in that separate forum. |
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08-04-2010, 12:00 PM | #1 |
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Greenwich, CT
Posts: 382
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Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
I usually attach my dive flag buoy to my gun. Is this the best way to do it?
Con: When it's windy, it moves my gun. What length line do you use? I have 60 feet of bright yellow nylon rope. Thanks. Albert |
08-04-2010, 02:01 PM | #2 |
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Rhode Island
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
Hold the line in your other hand about 2' behind the gun. This will allow you to maneuver the float around a bit easier as well as preventing the float from pulling on your gun and screwing up your accuracy.
I use yellow nylon rope also because it's cheap, but apparently a true floatline will have significantly less drag through the water and may make your life easier. Also, depending on what kind of float you use that may be dragging too much. Of course once you start loading them up with fish, they all drag anyway As for a better way of attaching the float to you, I think the gun is the best and safest way. Some guys clip off to their belts which scares the crap out of me and I wouldn't recommend it, but some guys do it.
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08-04-2010, 02:48 PM | #3 | ||
Water is still wet
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Atlantic Ocean
Age: 32
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
Quote:
I use this RA line, zero drag, but its thin. http://www.scubasworld.com/proddetail.php?prod=rob3
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08-05-2010, 01:25 PM | #4 |
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kailua, HI
Posts: 76
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
For me what works best is a float anchor - a separate anchor just for yor float. You could use almost anything that's heavy enough to anchor the float or is capable of anchoring by other means. I use something specifically designed as a float anchor. It's a stainless steel cylinder about 5" x 1" filled with lead and with 4 x 3/16" ss pins protruding from one end, with a closed ss loop at the other end. It weighs about 1 lb. A 50' or 75' tag line connects the float at one end and the anchor at the other. Whether I'm diving off the kayak (usually) or from shore, I use this setup. Simply hold the weight (towing the float) in opposite hand from the gun hand. When you reach a spot you want to check out drop the anchor. You can now dive close to your flag with no pressure from a float tugging on you (some guys attach tag line to themselves) or the gun. I also like the freedom of not "kicking" a float line all the way down. With a reel and this float setup, It's just me and the gun when actually hunting
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08-05-2010, 04:54 PM | #5 |
Shooting & Stringing!
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: North Port Florida
Posts: 201
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
All good info but if your drift diving with the float attached to yourself you might want to tie a small piece of light weight mono fishing line in so if the float gets hung up on something it breaks away without ripping you to the surface.
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08-05-2010, 09:41 PM | #6 |
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Cleveland, OH
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
Keep the line on the gun; you won't lose it if you drop it. Also works without a reel (duh). When you're swimming on the surface, just start coiling the line so you have a bunch of slack on the way down. That'll reduce the tugging while under.
Mako sells a really small anchor that you can use for the float, it's pretty cheap. Hana'paa [sp] has the anchor Divnsurf is talking about. I made floatline, but the RA line from Scuba's world works well too. If you really want to go cheap, you can buy 600 feet of foam filled line from: http://www.wallacecordage.com/proddetail.php?prod=56665 for $46.
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08-06-2010, 02:44 AM | #7 |
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
Here's a picture of the anchor I was talking about:
This one is designed to work in reef and for that it does very well. It will only work in sand if there's little or no wind, as it only weighs a pound. I think I paid about $30 for this. Pricey, but will last forever. I will never go back to a float line on the gun when diving reef. |
08-06-2010, 07:56 AM | #8 | |
Half Assed Astronaut
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Lost at sea
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
Quote:
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08-06-2010, 08:26 AM | #9 |
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Location: MS Gulf Coast
Age: 72
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
IF attaching the float to yourself be sure to have a "rotten stopper" close to you. I once had a float that was clipped to my belt picked up by a water skier. There was a FAST uncontrollable trip to the surface involved in that incident. I won't clip either a gun or a flag to me anymore at all! A rotten stopper is a low strength line spliced or tied into a much stronger line to allow it to release if the loads in the main exceed what is desired.
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08-06-2010, 09:15 AM | #10 |
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Join Date: May 2010
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
I use two setups. (Though I'm completely new and just learning...)
First - I have made a Float Line per the "DIY" section on this board. I actually like it a lot. First I use the Float - FloatLine - Gun set up. I tend to clip the line direct to my Gun - Not direct to my Spearline. I wrap the float line up my Right Arm, down my back, and over to my left hand (Which is generally trailing by my waist) (If you know the Reppelling position where you place your hand on your hip - it's much like that...) Second (I'm glad other people are doing it too... I thought I was just being a noob.) Since I fish from shore a lot - I don't want to have the float have free range to go where it wants. So what I do is anchor the float in a region (Tip of a jetty) and clip my float line to the anchor line. I essentially use what a pole/line fishermen would call a "Fish Finder Rig". So - the float is anchored direct to the bottom. My float line clips direct to the Anchor line. Since it floats - it generally stays near the top of the Anchor Line. I use 5" Longline clips, Loops, and the knot called a "Monkey Fist" for connection points. |
08-09-2010, 08:22 PM | #11 |
ADCI Diver
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Re: Safest way to attach myself to my dive flag.
having a commercial diving backround i prefer to use snap shackels with a Broco torch collet with a tuna cord braid handle always connected to a d ring on my left hip usually on my bailout harness that i like to dive with. the nice thing is no matter how hard somone or thing pulls you can grab for that shackel with 1 good pull it will open up and release you from the line unless you let it get a turn or two around your leg. but i have that action hardwired so you need to be consistent with that method because if you change it up but remember it one way chances are that in the heat of the moment one may make a mistake that could prove to be a disaster but thats just the way diving is.
the only problem with the rotten stopper is that you can never rely on what the actual breaking force will be it could break with minimal force or 500 pounds of force or 3 times that much and any of those can make you have a very bad day.
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