REEF HOOKS DO YOU USE ONE?

HI All,

We here alot about reef hooks, but what is your opinion, good,bad &

do you use one?

Andy :ph34r: :ph34r:

I used it in Palau, as general it better stay not connected by any way to the reef but when the situation is that you are static for long time in one place and there is a current like in the Blue Corner its better to use the hook then using your hand and lay down on the reef.

I think i Palau they are great, designated hookin places and dead reef in those areas.... I Tahiti we used to give the to the guests, and in a strong current no matter ecologically friendly the diver, mistakes happen.... So, if you can be strong willed then they're great, but you must be experienced enough to know when its time drift and miss the shot! Overall they're good! But could be dangerous in areas of abundant soft coral..

Simon

I have used one and carry one. When you need one you really need it. Been in Palua in 85 and wish I had one. Was inh The Solomons when I also needed one and had none. I had one in Indo and was able to use it well. Mark

carry one and only use it when necessary, I was in PNG where you must carry one the same as a safety sausage.

If used correctly I think they are a benefit.

I carry one but use it only very rarely. Any current strong enough to require a hook or make it useful will make it difficult to deploy and later remove and restow the hook using one hand while trying to hold my camera rig and keep it safe with the other.

I did use mine as a reef hook a couple of years ago, at German Flag in south Komodo. It's a flat bottom, lots of rock and dead coral, and there was almost 3 knots of current, very difficult. Several mantas hwere olding position relative to the shallow bottom, and could be approached quite closely (though with great difficulty due to the current). I tried using my hook attached to the scooter ring on my harness so that I have both hands free for the camera to get the shot, but the strobe arms just bent back on their clamps when I tried to hold the housing out in front of me in the current.

There are other uses. I've used mine several times i to mark locations of interest, attaching the hook to a hole in rock, then attaching and inflating an SMB (sausage). The SMB will float about 3 meters above the hook, so it can be easily seen from a considerable distance.

Hint: Rather than the "Palau" style reef hooks made from a big marlin fishhooks that most people seem to use, mine is made from a "reefing" hook. (A "reefing hook" is an "s" shaped piece of stainless steel used to hold down the luff of the mainsail down when the sail is reefed. Unlike a fishhook, it's not sharp and is unlikely to puncture a palm or finger if something goes wrong. You need to open one end a bit after you buy it - just put the hook in a vise and use a length of pipe to bend open one end. I'd be happy to post a photo if anyone is genuinely interested.

I also use a sailboat snap-shackle at the other end of the reef hook - it's easier and faster to release, and 4 or 6 mm braidline, not for its strength (which is excessive), but because it's easier to handle without gloves and tangles less. This is gear for a medium-sized crusing sail boat, available at any yachting supplies store. (While you're there, buy extra braindline, shock cord and rubber tubing in the diameters you need by the meter - the choice and price should be better than at a dive shop.

Frogfish

See: http://www.divernet.com/technique/0101hook.htm

The side bar shows my own design of reef hook that is designed to be used in a variety of ways.

The blunt end can hold on a rough surface or dig in a small hole and the wide jaw can hook round a larger rock. I find it invaluable, and have even used it to rock climb (underwater) once (like using an ice-pick) in an emergency. (Remember Marks Sharks, Robert?)

Hey Robert, I just read that piece again. Do you recognise yourself in it?

No, I don't use one......EVER!

Well Paul, you have not tried to take pictures at any of the following then:

Aldabra West Channel

Komodo Marks Sharks

Palau Pelelui Wall

Rangiroa Tiputa Pass

Apataki The Pass

Cocos Alcyone

Raja Ampat Cape Kri

Galapagos Darwins Arch

Maldives HP Reef

Sudan Shab Rumi South Point when its blowing.

Need I go on?

Yes, and I have been pinned down by both strobe arms bent back and wrapped around me! Moral: Get better kit!

Paul... you don't dive in anything but Stoney Cove..

I have one in my pocket at all times, rarely use it these days..

Used it a lot when i lived in Palau and Tahiti

Whilst I do dive in currents (believe me I do!), my problem with gear like this is not when its used properly, but when its seen to be used and is viewed as acceptable by less competent divers/photographers!

I always work on the basis of minimal imapct (as much as is possible) - if I have to destroy/kill anything to take a photo then the photo isn't worth taking! Depends on your view though - I would describe myself as a natural history photographer and work to the associated ethos.

May not be a popular view, but there you go.

As I live 7 miles from the Menai Strait which runs at up to 10 knots, I do understand currents (and low vis, and how easy it is to cause damage).

But the whole point of a reef hook is to NOt cause damage. Like anything you must be judicious about how you use it but if you hooked into coral or any living thing you would not be there for more than a moment. I have started calling them in print current hooks or rock hooks because it saves silly misunderstandings about their function. They do a lot less damage than a gloved or ungloved hand.

I occasionally use them, and I think that PROPERLY used (i.e., making sure you're buoyant enough to keep you AND the hook string OFF the reef) they are an excellent tool that helps preserve the reef.

Unfortunately, I've seen people with poor buoyancy skills shred sections of reef with them (dragging the string and their body back and forth across the corals!), so I think there should be a law requiring that they never be handed out without some accompanying education...

Whether using reef hooks or not, there will always be bad divers who trash the reef. It's easy to blame the reef hook for someone's behavior, but they're really two separate issues. Good divers make good use of reef hooks. Bad divers are destructive no matter what equipment they use...

I agree with almost everyone so far,

Both myself and Mike used to give a 40 -60min "Pass flying Course" to the guests every week in Tahiti. We would explain and thouroughly brief all the guests on the proper methods for drift diving and reef hooking in very challenging conditions - But everyone makes mistakes, its only human.

I've had a gusty 4-5 knots tear open 2 metal D-rings on Pelileu Cut in Palau - It would be lunacy to try and use one in a 10 knot current. Even a lowly amateur wildlife photographer seemed to grasp that fact....

I think this is a good subject, more opinions would be great!

I was in Rajah Ampat Missol tour over the year-end and on one dive site - manta ridge- a dive with more than 20 mantas. On the first dive the current was that strong, holding the equipment with one hand and one hand to hold myself, it was impossible to take any shots at all! then I spotted a diver/photographer from another group just 20 meters away from me and he was shooting with both hands on the camera with ease! I almost got crazy when I saw this and was absolutely not able to shoot despite the many mantas very close....the next dive on the same location I was using also a reef hook. And I tell you, this little simple thing was becoming a standard part of my equipment.what a difference for taking pictures. just make shure that you hook it somewhere where it does not damage any live corals.

...

The blunt end can hold on a rough surface or dig in a small hole and the wide jaw can hook round a larger rock. I find it invaluable, and have even used it to rock climb (underwater) once (like using an ice-pick) in an emergency. (Remember Marks Sharks, Robert?)

 

Hey Robert, I just read that piece again. Do you recognise yourself in it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, I do. However, though we didn't have dive flags, we both were carrying sausage-style SMBs. Yellow dive flags may be one of those Brit vs. non-Brit things. I believe both will do the job, but I'd be happy to test my 10 foot long OMS SMB against your flag in a visibility distance test anytime.

I remember that trip (my first ever with a housed camera, the F801s) and I definitely remember the Marks Sharks fiasco, which still ranks as one of the scariest dives I've ever done in my life. I've stil got a (terrible) photo from that dive. Remember the GAO guy who had discovered the million dollar toilet? This is him, hanging on to the pinnacle with both hands, bubbles streaming back and down out of sight. What I was thinking, trying to take a photo in those conditions, I have no idea. A few minutes later, the four of us (Larry Smith, Sandy, the GAO guy and me) started the long hand-over-hand crawl up the pinnacle.

But all this reminds me of the dive on which you invented a new use for a reef hook. As I recall, you (and two others who shall remain nameless) went back to do a 2nd dive at GPS Point , with the current ripping, to shoot the dead shark in the loose drift net. You were also testing a new BC with velcro-secured integrated weight packets (!) and lost one on the descent. But you figured out how to do your 6 and 3 meter deco stops in the rushing flow by (sacrificially) snagging your reef hook on the top of a bommy at about 12 meters. I was impressed.

Coincidentally, I'm headed back to Komodo next week, a fun trip. This will be the inaugural voyage - perhaps shakedown cruise would be a more accurate description - for Jos Pet and Mark Heighes' new Phinisi schooner, The Seven Seas. A goat and some chickens met their gods yesterday; a champagne bottle was broken today, and we will have cocktails on board tonight. I think this is going to be a great boat. If the currents aren't completely insane, maybe we'll stop at GPS Point on the way and look for your lost reef hook.

Frogfish

Like most say, I think that there are places where they are essential. For divers they are great, but as a photographer I prefer the freedom to move if I can - and will only hook on as a last resort. I find them a bit limiting on my photography - as your movement is limited and you can only fave in certain directions.

They do, however, serve as a great way to control your model!

Alex

Well,

I have started an interesting topic & I am very interested by

everyones responses. I have never used one myself, As I

look from the point of veiw, that if i can not hold myself in the

current then perhaps I should have no right to take the shot.

I agree with everyone that no shot is ever worth taking if you

are going to damage the world in which we shoot.

This is a good debate & I hope we have some more points of veiw.

Thanks for your imput,

Andy :ph34r: :ph34r:

Slightly off topic, but....

"Yellow dive flags may be one of those Brit vs. non-Brit things. I believe both will do the job, but I'd be happy to test my 10 foot long OMS SMB against your flag in a visibility distance test anytime."

I believe that yellow dive flags are the easiest thing and colour to spot from searching aircraft! Sadly, I can't remember where I read this though!

Continuing off topic, I've seen one study that said yellow signal flags (the kind that John Bantin and many BSAC-trained divers prefer) are superior to orange sausage-style SMBs. The test was conducted in UK waters and UK conditions. Unfortunately, the comparison was apparently done using a smaller-sized sausage SMB. I wouldn't be surprised if dive flags can consistently be seen from greater distances than the "toy" 1 m./3 ft. sausages on sale in many dive shops. Those may be fine for letting tender divers at crowded dive sites know where divers are about to come up, but they're not much good for anything else, and certainly not as an emergency marker intended to be visible at distance in open seas in remote locations.

Large 2 or 3 meter (6.5-10 ft.) SMBs such as those manufactured by OMS and Halcyon) are a different matter, however. I personally believe that the OMS BCA 268 SMB (9.7 feet or 2.92 meters long, with 90 lbs/42 kg of lift) could probably be seen at a significantly greater distance than a dive flag under most if not all conditions. I'd also be happy to put the matter to a test.

As far as being seen by searching aircraft are concerned, however, emergency dye-packs that can create a colored area in the water with a total area of several hundred square meters would clearly be superior to both SMBs or dive flags. I carry two dye packs whenever I'm diving in remote locations for just this reason.

If I didn't have dye pack, however, then I think it would be easier for a search aircraft to spot a large SMB (such as the 3m OMS, lying on the surface, either straight or bent into a "V" shape) than a dive flag.

The illustrations on the OMS page on SMBS and lift-bags are worth checking out:

OMS Liftbags and SMBs

By the way, I have nothing to do with OMS - this is an absolutely unsolicited endorsement. I just happen to think that their big BCA268 SMB is by far the best product of its kind available, and that one day it may help keep me and my friends alive.

While we're off subject but on this topic, a new Code of Conduct for Divers will go into effect in Komodo National Park in Indonesia in May. Among other matters, the new rules (which I helped to draft) require all divers to carry a suitable daytime surface signal device (which may be either a sausage-style SMB (minimum length 1 meter) OR a BSAC-style dive flag), AND a night-time signalling device (such as a suitable torch or flashing emergency strobe) AND a noise signal device (whistle, dive-alert style emergency horn, etc.) on every dive conducted in the park, day or night.

Dive safely, all!

Frogfish