Speccy reef

[neilegend]

Free to good home: one brand new reel, used only 1/2 a time, pick up from bottom of speccy reef!
bugga! get to go out and try my smb and reel for the first time and shot the smb up and dropped the reel down and the line went up through my fingers and then it kept going and the reel didnt come up! watched it go down and my first thought was "do i go get ---- no better not! " but then i look up to see where my smb is floating above us as the string had gone through my fingers and couldnt see it anywhere, i thought "this diving lark is a REAL expensive hobby! how can i not tell the wife about this??" when we got to the surface i looked around and didnt see any red/yellow sausage bobbing around once we were all on board the boat Tom gave me back my smb with the line and clip wound around it so that was $76 saved!!
but it is all alearning experience and the Doc is going to help my out coz he is a champ (that and the fact that he should have the right line for me to use next time instead of some of my wreck line!!! )

[neil_richardson]

oh no,, what kind of reel was it? and what line was on it?? note to the wise, having now amassed a reel and spool collection that would make most dive shops jealous, for some strange reason a lot of spools and reels come not tied of at the core.. likewise, be wary of the line the reels and spools come with, as most manufacturers, good and bad, will put the cheapest line they can find on the reel, and put as much of it on as possible, as hey, its better marketing to offer a reel which comes with 100m of line, then a reel which comes with 50m of really good line, but works best when only holding 40m of line...

[chewy]

Ha ha...I could have given you mine had I not also lost my SMB during the same dive...

It was my fault b/c I had clipped the reel's scissor-clip to the handle and it was a bugger to remove resulting in a loose loop of line to get entangled around the handle.

I then used both hands to clear the entanglement, only to forget I had let go of the SMB which had the audacity to flap/wave at me as it descended to the bottom (~90m). Now why on earth would you put lead weights to an SMB that's supposed to float ?!!!

I suppose there's a veritable dive gear store at the bottom of some dive sites !!

In fact I had trouble with SMB deployment the entire weekend of diving which is so contrary to dives I've enjoyed doing - most with successful SMB deployment where the only problem from time to time is a floppy sausage which is sorted with a good stiff breeze up the skirt rather than a half-arsed regulator purge...

Incidently I do like the 25lb SMBs like Dive-Rite, OMS, AP Valves or Deep Accesories (i.e. Cape Byron Imports).....they have decent size/lift and the U.S. DAN's SMB has reflective SOLAS tape which nice.

Moral of the story: the leading prevention lost dive gear (and incidently DCS) is don't dive at all :O

Chewy

[Sealinator]

possibly the funniest dive ever - i have NEVER seen as much gear fail on one dive in my life !

but then, i had never seen a reel get wedged so perfectly in a wreck after dropping it to shoot a bag, either........