Strobe Light

strobe light

Day or night, an inexpensive flashing strobe light hanging from the anchor chain will guide you home. At night, it may be the only thing that leads you back to the up-line, and even during the day, it is reassuring to look up and see it blinking in the distance. Under some conditions, it can relieve you of the need to use a wreck reel, something that any spearfisherman would appreciate.

In fact, the more strobe lights there are hanging from the anchor line, the better. The presence of your strobe light signals to other divers that you are still down. Don't get one of the miniature AA-powered models, get a big bright one that you can see from a distance through murky water. The tektite Strobe 300 (pictured) is the biggest and brightest model available, and probably the best for use in our murky waters.

Strobe lights wear out. Depending on use, a strobe may last several years, but over time it will flash slower and slower until eventually, it is too slow to be useful. Battery condition has nothing to do with this - it is the capacitor dying. If you buy a Tektite strobe, the company has an excellent policy on repair and refurbishment. For around $20, they will replace the sealed electronics unit and any other worn parts and return the unit to you, usually in a week to ten days.


lift bag
lift bag

Lift bags are commonly used for recovering heavy objects from the bottom. The bag is simply tied on, inflated from a regulator, and shot to the surface. An often-overlooked use for a lift bag is to get yourself to the surface in a safe manner when you have become lost and can't find the anchor, or if the anchor has pulled out of the wreck. Using your reel as described above, you can shoot a bag directly to the surface and then ascend on the line.

However, under such circumstances, I prefer to get myself off the bottom and up to my decompression or safety stop depth as quickly as possible, and then deploy a bag to the surface using a short length of line attached to the bag for just that purpose. Either way, the bag marks your position for the crew of the dive boat. You should write your name in bold letters on your bag, so you can be identified before you surface. The bag will also keep you from being sucked down to the bottom if there is a strong current. Most lift bags have open bottoms. A bag like this can hit the surface, tip over, and deflate. For self-rescue, as described, you should use a bag with a self-closing bottom.

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