"Shooting the Bag" ?

[justme]

ok not sure if this should be here but wat do you mean by shooting the bag? i know its a silly question

[Garf]

sending up a lift bad or dsmb

[Richie]

Originally Posted by Garf

sending up a lift bad or dsmb

Garf; overcome by his (over) purchases, is refering to a lift bag.

This bag can be used for porthole recovery, "I am here" signals or simply a way of passing the time whilst playing the games on your shiney new VR3.

Available from all branches of ASDA, Tes............

[Paul Oliver]

Originally Posted by justme

ok not sure if this should be here but wat do you mean by shooting the bag? i know its a silly question

Its takeing a shot at her indoors when she complains about you going diving again.

HTH

Paul

[louigi]

that's what I thought too, Paul, only I didn't know she had to be spacificaly moaning about diving.

[torbaydiver]

Originally Posted by Garf

sending up a lift bad or dsmb

"shooting the bag"

I thought it was something to do with taking drugs :-)

[Paul Oliver]

Originally Posted by louigi

that's what I thought too, Paul, only I didn't know she had to be spacificaly moaning about diving.

She don't, but i thought i'd keep it in a diving context

Dive Safe, Shoot straight,

Paul

[Mr T.]

Hi Justme,

In 'normal' (i.e. non-crowbar-&-lump-hammer-wielding-porthole/telegraph/binnacle/compass-or-other-ship's-brass-recovery-off-the-wreck) diving parlance, "shooting, or firing the bag" means to deploy your Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB) - whether that be filled from your regulator (orally inflated - i.e. deliberately purging your reg into the open end of the DSMB to inflate it) or using a 'crack bottle' (a wee 6-inch air-filled cylinder attached by a DIN fitting to a valve on the DSMB for inflation purposes).

Some divers even inflate their bag by holding the open end over the exhaust vent of the reg in their mouth and allowing it to fill from the unused/exhaled gas. Quite an economical method too - though takes some practice.

'Cracking the bottle' (i.e. opening the cylinder and allowing compressed-air to pass from the bottle into the DSMB) inflates the 'bag' (DSMB) and it 'fires-off' to the surface to mark your position with the dive-boat skipper, so he knows where you are for a pick-up from the sea and so that any other shipping traffic in the area knows that there is a diver down (submerged) who is either on a safety or decompression stop and so to stay clear of the general area.

So when you either read or hear other divers referring to "and then I fired/shot my bag", the are simply referring to making the practiced drill of filling (by either of the above methods) their DSMB so that it reaches the surface to alert all topside as to where they are.

There are a number of reasons to use a DSMB - invariably all are either diver-locator or safety-centric.

Some divers 'fire their bag' immediately on reaching or descending to their desired max depth so that any boat surface cover can follow the progress of the dive - this is common where there are strong currents and allows your boat skipper to keep eyes-on you and your buddy for the duration of the dive.

Some divers only ever fire their bag (from what ever depth they're at) when they get to the end of a dive and want to mark their position topside before making their ascent - this is the norm where no shotline or descent/ascent or anchor line is in use and again where there might be current.

Then there are other schools of diving-thought where divers only ever fire their bag (assuming there's no emergency) from an agreed or required min/max depth - e.g. when they have ascended from depth a either a gas switch (for deco) or deco hang at that depth.


I say 'normal diving parlance' above, as there is a second version of 'the bag' to be fired - and this is a 'lift bag'

Those divers who seek to retrieve items from wrecks (brass, loot or salvaged materials) are often faced with items which are very heavy (a brass binnacle or ship's telegraph, for example). This is where expanding gasses comes into its own.

Half-ton lifting bags (referring to its lifting weight capacity) are by no means uncommon.

The principle is exactly the same as the DSMB in that air/gas is fired into the lift bag to inflate it. Given the amount you might need to inflate a lift bag, divers either use their 'back gas' (the gas they would normally breath off) or the reg off a stage bottle to inflate the lift bag. As the bag ascends, gas expansion laws do the rest and the bag heads topside. Depending on what is to be lifted, muliple lift bags may be used for one item.

They attach the lift bag (via clips, lines or ropes) to what ever it is they wish to lift from the wreck or seabed and then inflate the lift-bag ('firing the bag').

Hope this helps mate and sorry if it appeared that I was trying to teach you suck eggs

Cheers,

[Scuba1]

Not that we ever ever use one to get stuff of a wreck. No honest never never.

MIchael