my new patent just issued

This is pretty much irrelevant to underwater photography, except that the idea came to me when I was being swept out to sea with my hands full of cameras. So, I came up with the idea of having the safety sausage integrated into the BC and inflatable via BC pneumatics. See http://www.stephenfrink.com/sf-sos.php -- It was licenced it to Auqa Lung.

Just this week a continuation to the patent was issued incorporating a one-way valve so the SOS can be blown up with the BC and then the BC trimmed to comfort without the sausage deflating. This will be in the new model Aqua Lung SOS units very soon.

Again, just an indulgent post becuase I am excited about the new patent coming through. FYI.

Steve

Hi Steven,

congratulations! I did not know that you were involved in this nice little thing. After my exam I had 15 minutes to pass by a local dive shop and take a look at your innovation. It looks great. Unfortunately I cannot mount it onto my Cressi jacket without machining an adapter. Also I do not like to sacrifice my rear valve for it. But I like the idea so much that I want to make it work somehow. We'll see...

One question about the nice movie you did. Did you really blow up the sausage with your mouth? I cannot believe that you did not use your octopus :wink: Is this to make it more marketing-wise or are you a very bad bad man who goes diving without an octopus.

Anyway - great stuff, I think I need one for me!

Hi Steven,

 

congratulations! I did not know that you were involved in this nice little thing. After my exam I had 15 minutes to pass by a local dive shop and take a look at your innovation. It looks great. Unfortunately I cannot mount it onto my Cressi jacket without machining an adapter. Also I do not like to sacrifice my rear valve for it. But I like the idea so much that I want to make it work somehow. We'll see...

 

One question about the nice movie you did. Did you really blow up the sausage with your mouth? I cannot believe that you did not use your octopus :wink: Is this to make it more marketing-wise or are you a very bad bad man who goes diving without an octopus.

 

Anyway - great stuff, I think I need one for me!

Thanks Andi - The valve is specific to Aqua Lung/Seaquest, so yes, it would take some modification to make it work with your Cressi. However, I have taken the rear valve from other BCs for some of my friends, and added the SOS to that, so it isn't such a big deal. The real problem is making sure the hose is very secure to the BC valve. You don't want it blowing off in use because it is just secured with a tie-wrap. A hose clamp is better.

Also, the use of the SOS does not interfere with the functionality of the rear dump valve. Unless you pull the rip-cord to release the safety sausage, the BC and dump valve work as normal.

And as for the movie, this particular Brand-X safety sausage only had an oral inflator so I could not use an octopus. And while I may be a "very bad man" as you suggest, it is not because I don't use an alternate air source ;-).

Steve

Hey Steven,

First, congrats, this looks like a great concept. Is there any way to get one of these other than through an Aqua Lung / Seaquest dealer?

Thanks

Tom

Congratulations, Steve!

I like the tremendous effort put into blowing up the sausage by "hand." hehehe.

It all began in the waters off Palau in Micronesia. I was diving the Peleliu drop-off, and as is typical of this dive, the current was quite swift. I needed to offgas before surfacing, but the current swept me off the ledge into nothing but blue water. Which left me with the uncomfortable conundrum … do I surface now and risk decompression sickness or do I do my safety stop and assume the guy in the dinghy will be following my bubbles and pick me up? Having been bent before, and having no desire to do so again, I chose to hang.

I have a few things that I would like to say about this (not saying its a bad thing, i think it is brilliant but anyone who reads about it may assume its a means to doing without everything else)

1) instead of worring about loosing cameras your thoughts should always be on saftey.

2) Ok yes cameras are expensive so you need to worry about them, but there are things you could do before this, in my mind it is essential to be able to free up your hands at anytime. attach some simple rubber bungy cords (that attach to your BC with quick releases) to your camera and BC, that way if you need to free up your hands you can eaither drop the camera and it dangles below you, or clip it to the quick release so the bungy is slack and the camera is tight to your body

3) Safety stops are always important, but if you stick to a good dive plan and safety figures and table then you will only need a 3 minute at 15ft, or a nice slow accent depending on your profile so you wont be drifting for 10 mins. And with that margin of saftey and without multiple dives you may even in an emergency easily be able to forgo the safety stop.

4) You should always have a buddy for any sort of help you need, holding cameras, alerting others to you emeergency blowing up sausages etc.

Now just to make sure everyone understands I am not bad mouthing Stephen or his Device the SOS, I have dived with Stephen in Grand Cayman and theres nothing wrong with what he does for his experience and knowledge as is the same for many photographers. And I also understand the needs of a proffesional photographer and how they must dive sometimes to get the shots they need in the time frame they need. The device as I said is a great idea.

I just wanted to mention these things as we do have new divers looking at this site, and also with the cost of underwater cameras being so affordable especially with the costs of other equipment being high, many new divers do have cameras.

This can cause dangerous problems like; divers forgetting their profile and going to deep for too long as they chase a turtle or something, divers loosing their buddies, or groups, divers running out of air as they forgot to check, or going solo diving without sufficient experience and getting lost. All because they are more interested in taking photos, which is understandable but unacceptable.

Now that I have said those things let me repeat, I am not bad mouthing Stephen or the SOS, I believe both to be top notch and well worth taking diving with you I would take Stephen diving anytime again (last time was when i worked for Fisheye of Cayman) and when i purchase some new equipment if the SOS comes with the SeaQuest BCD I buy it will stay.

btw .. was the video shot in Grand Cayman .. i noticed our iron shore .. a cruise ship and stingray city !!!

love and regards to all

Giles

3) Safety stops are always important, but if you stick to a good dive plan and safety figures and table then you will only need a 3 minute at 15ft, or a nice slow accent depending on your profile so you wont be drifting for 10 mins. And with that margin of saftey and without multiple dives you may even in an emergency easily be able to forgo the safety stop.

Ok so what is the "good dive plan" that allows you to go to 200ft+ and only requires a 3 minute safty stop? Just curious because I got to get a copy of chart you are using.

3) Safety stops are always important, but if you stick to a good dive plan and safety figures and table then you will only need a 3 minute at 15ft, or a nice slow accent depending on your profile so you wont be drifting for 10 mins. And with that margin of saftey and without multiple dives you may even in an emergency easily be able to forgo the safety stop.

I'm glad you're happy diving within the recreational limits, and that you do a 3 minute safety stop. Couple minor points though. First, 3 minutes should be a minimum, and new guidelines that are becoming more accepted say that you should also do a 1 minute deep stop at 1/2 your maximum depth in addition to the 3-5 mins at 15 ft.

More importantly, while the vast majority of divers are only trained to 130 feet, there are quite a few people (and growing) that are trained and certified to do deeper dives than that, and a 10 minute safety stop is not really that long. I don't advocate doing decompression diving without being properly trained, equipped, and having planned for it, but it's naive to say that you should only have to do a 3 minute stop.

4) You should always have a buddy for any sort of help you need, holding cameras, alerting others to you emeergency blowing up sausages etc.

Again, I respectfully disagree with the absolute nature of this statement for a number of reasons. In my experience, having a buddy is not always an asset, especially if you happen to be on a trip on your own and get paired up with someone you don't know. Yes, a buddy who you are comfortable with and who's limits you know can be in some circumstances, an asset. But diving with someone you don't know or just met simply because a dive operator wants you to follow the buddy system is risky. Better to be prepared and equipped to take care of yourself in my opinion.

Not to be overly critical, but it's my feeling that if you have to rely on a buddy to hold a camera or to be the one to inflate a safety sausage, maybe you should consider not having the camera in the first place, I do agree with having some sort of a lanyard or clip to allow you to go "handsfree" with your camera though.

Hey Steven,

 

First, congrats, this looks like a great concept.  Is there any way to get one of these other than through an Aqua Lung / Seaquest dealer?

 

Thanks

Tom

Tom - At present it is an Aqua Lung/Seaquest exclusive, available through their dealer network. I'm told the new version, with the one-way valve, should be in dive shops very soon.

As for the safety issues, I actually agree with all who posted about how diving ought to be done, and for sure I don't take offense with Giles observations. (Thanks again for all your help on the Cayman shoot ... that was a nice day).

But being out there on a live-aboard, far from the chase boat, has always been one of my paranoias. I figure if I can do something to be seen quicker, all the better. And if the SOS takes the hassle factor away and makes it more likely to inflate a sausage more often, that's a good thing.

Last month a close friend was run over by the dinghy. Got some stitches in his foot and banged up pretty good, but came out OK. It could have been FAR worse. The driver couldn't see him in the glare of the sun off the water, and my friend looked right at the boat (sun at his back), assuming he was spotted and he'd soon be picked up by a driver who knew exactly where he was. He wasn't thinking he had to be responsible for an evasive action to avoid being chewed up by the prop, and the driver had no clue a diver was there in the water until he heard the thump. My friend even had an SOS on his BC, but hadn't inflated it because he was so close to the mother ship.

The point is, in bad light or choppy seas it is pretty important to be seen, and with all our black "camo" wetsuits, mistakes can happen. Whether its my SOS or any other safety sausage, these things ought to be as mandatory as a safe second, and certification agencies ought to teach their proper deployment considerations.

Steve

The point is, in bad light or choppy seas it is pretty important to be seen, and with all our black "camo" wetsuits, mistakes can happen. Whether its my SOS or any other safety sausage, these things ought to be as mandatory as a safe second, and certification agencies ought to teach their proper deployment considerations

Amen - truer words never spoken. I was not taught the proper deployment from depth until I took a "non traditional" class, GUE's DIR-F. I'm still shocked at the number of divers who don't carry one.

Chris

They are required equipment for diving the Flower Gardens - 110 miles offshore...

Cheers

James

Steve - quick question - I have one of the original models, and can see the advantage of the one-way valve. Will there be any way to retrofit this enhancement to the original models? I agree that they are a good thing to have when diving off a liveaboard in a remote location ..

Linda I.

Steve - quick question - I have one of the original models, and can see the advantage of the one-way valve.  Will there be any way to retrofit this enhancement to the original models?   I agree that they are a good thing to have when diving off a liveaboard in a remote location ..

Linda I.

Linda - That is indeed a good question for Aqua Lung. I'll have to ask them. Thanks for the thought Linda.

Steve

Hi Steve,

I read your patent and it seems to me that the Aqualung implementation of your invention is quite different than your original intention. Your drawings show a sausage mounted on the shoulder of the BC with a separate low pressure supply hose and a diver operated valve which allows independent inflation of the sausage and the BCD. I tried an Aqualung SOS in the pool on my Seaquest Balance BCD. In order to inflate the sausage I had to blow the BCD up completely before the sausage inflated. Problem was, the back inflation design of the Balance pushes the diver face down into the water when fully inflated.

Why didn't Aqualung implement your original design?

Bruce Dickson

Hi Steve,

 

I read your patent and it seems to me that the Aqualung implementation of your invention is quite different than your original intention. Your drawings show a sausage mounted on the shoulder of the BC with a separate low pressure supply hose and a diver operated valve which allows independent inflation of the sausage and the BCD. I tried an Aqualung SOS in the pool on my Seaquest Balance BCD. In order to inflate the sausage I had to blow the BCD up completely before the sausage inflated. Problem was, the back inflation design of the Balance pushes the diver face down into the water when fully inflated.

 

Why didn't Aqualung implement your original design?

 

Bruce Dickson

Bruce - Good observation. The patent drawings are never meant to be literal, and the patent does not depend on where on the BC the safety sausage is mounted. In our earliest prototype testing with Aqua Lung we found that a shoulder mounted SOS was too sensitive to wind knocking it down. Given that rough seas, and therefore windy conditions, were the most logical application for the SOS, we wanted it to be very robust and rigid. Putting the SOS low on the BC creates a situation where water pressure compresses the air in the cylinder and makes it much more rigid than simple air pressure alone could do.

As for the "face-down" posture, that's why we created a one way valve in the new product release of the Aqua Lung SOS. Now you inflate the BC, launch the SOS to full inflation, and you can dump all the air from your BC if you want to and the SOS still stays fully inflated. The one way valve allows the BC to be trimmed to personal comfort without affecting the fuction of the SOS. Back on the boat you pull the dump string and the SOS deflates to repack in the holster.

It sounds complicated talking about it, but it is super easy. I too use mine on an Aqua Lung Balance, and even though it has most of the floatation in the rear I've never found a face-down float to be an issue in real life. Just because a BC utilizes a rear dump doesn't automatically make a BC float you on your face. At least that's been my experience. But having said that, it sounds like you would benefit from the one-way valve for sure. Stop in to see me next time you're in Key Largo. You too Linda.

Steve

Steve,

I have a question about the one way valve. If you have a situation where you've deployed the sausage, but then decide you need to deflate it for some reason, is there a way to exhaust the air in the sausage while wearing the BC?

I had just purchased one of these, but it isn't yet installed. I'm wondering if the one way valve is worthwhile enough to return it and get one of the new ones...

thanks

Another Linda

Steve,

 

I have a question about the one way valve.  If you have a situation where you've deployed the sausage, but then decide you need to deflate it for some reason, is there a way to exhaust the air in the sausage while wearing the BC?

Linda - The pull cord for the SOS-modified dump valve will deflate the sausage. With the SOS in the holster it works as any other dump valve, but when an SOS is inflated, that cord is what is used to deflate the safety sausage. It can be deflated on the surface, but you'd no doubt prefer to roll it back into the holster on the boat.

Actually, it will work in that respect just like the SOS you have now because the one-way valve is on the back (BC) side of that chamber. Also, as clarification, I just found out that the new SOS units are in not in dive shops just yet. As they say in the islands ... Soon Come.