• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Freediving Line

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

loopy

Deeper Blue Hypoxyphiliac
Oct 24, 2002
719
51
0
41
Anyone have any experience setting up/making a dive line? What kind of float/anchor system did you use? How did you stretch the rope?

Thanks in advance,

Brad
 
Some thoughts about it...

My brother and I think about making a line for summer holidays, but we have no experience... We thought about several floating devices and think that those inflatable sailing race buoys would do very well. They come up in several sizes, are easily visible for others on the lake/sea and -well- thei`re inflatable. Thing is that they cost quite a bunch so if you`re on a tight budget like we do, this may be no option. For anybody else, they might be the perfect choice. Don`t forget to attach something the divers can get a save hold on the surface, kind of an ring or so (check out the cyprus photos...)

The rope is easy, go to the sailing shop and buy some thin white rope(thick enough to have a good grip, thin enough not to be dragged around too much by the current, say 10mm or so). We also think about using some weight disks as used for barbells. Make sure you take enough weight to make the thing stable.

Do we still need an anchor? Don`t know actually, I suppose if you take enough weight at the rope`s end this shouldn`t be necessary... And, BTW, you don`t want to go down to tear a stuck anchor out of the mud or rocks by the end of the day I think!

As I have never done such a diving line before, this is all just thoughts... If there`s anyone who REALLY KNOWS how this is to be done, please correct me if I`m telling wrong things. You might save my holidays. :eek:

Greets to all, dive often, Joe

P.S.: Make sure the whole thing is stable enough to savely carry at least two divers ascending at the same time (see 20 freediving rules).
 
It sounds fine.

For the really good permanent solution (not a weekend one) I would use a small cement block 15kg or so, and a heavy chain of 4 metres then the rope and the buoy on top. This is the one we use for boats, and it is allways in place and works with the tide. (bigger weights for bigger boats of course)

But you could make a small version for constant, like 6-7 kg block and 4m chain, the chain is flexible and wont cause as much truble as different weights( but it cost a little more ), and for buoy well anything inflatable, if you are really on a budget, a tube from a car tire, paint it or something.
 
chain me up

Down here we use a chain, not a rope. Start with a car tyre inner-tube, attach a disc of marine plywood to the inner tube by loops of rope, drill hole in the middle of plywood, fix chain solidly to it. Buy 30m+ of chain (not too heavy).
You do not need a heavy weight on the bottom. The chain is quite heavy by the time you get 30-50m of it, though. We find it is good in our local lake because if we are in say 40 m of water and have a 50m chain, the chain still hangs straight. In sea water deeper than teh chain you may still need to weight it.
You can esily attach markers to the chain with plastic ties (we use brightly oloured octopus regulator covers). We also attach a torch pointing upwards to the chain for deep dark dives in low vis.

Good luck
 
Nice idea Reid, thatnks for the tip!!

PS love the video of abs on your site :D
 
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT