The art of laying line… is it the skill or the reel that make a difference?
I would say you can lay good line in a cave with a bad reel and good skills, but laying good line without skill is not going to happen even if you are using a high quality reel. Everything about laying line has to do with cave diving safety, our own safety, but also other peoples’ safety.
My preferred primary reel after trying a variety of them is the DITD Pioneer, this is a decent size reel made of alu and delrin, comes in different finishings and there is also a smaller version (for those with smaller hands) called the Scout. Having good quality ger definitely helps when perfecting skill!
Training divers in overhead environments and cave diving is exciting and demanding. There are skills that I know in advance will be a challenge, laying line in a cave is one of them. It is also a skill most people aren’t confident with, or fear having to execute, even after obtaining a cave diver certification. That’s why I work intensively to expose them to line laying for cave diving as much as I can. Following a line is easier than laying one, by the time we finish the class most people don’t remember the first day and how it felt like connecting to a cave line from open water is potential for a disaster.
If you have trained with me, you know I set three objectives on the first day of line laying:
Don’t lose the reel
Don’t entangle the reel
Don’t drop the reel
These three objectives are achievable and measurable easily. It’s important to know that the way to get good at line laying is not avoiding line laying. Some instructors may use line laying practice in open water as a way to give students a first feel of the reel and decrease the stress of the first contact with line laying. I must admit that I am more inclined to bring students in the overhead the first time they lay line in the water, partly because of time management, but partly because I want to empower them with my trust, I know they can do it, so I am not bringing the bar down, a great majority of times, it works.
In my short 2 years of teaching overhead diving, I have yet to meet a student who loses the reel, entangles the reel or drops the reel during their first try. That’s why I also trust myself in that the method I am using to teach line laying works.
How do I make sure you achieve these three objectives on the first day of line laying (and beyond)?
To prevent losing your reel, these are the things that make a difference:
Do not unclip your reel to lay line until you have selected and verified your primary tie-off, swimming with a reel in your hand increases the chances of losing it and dropping it.
When unclipping the reel from your butt d-ring, pass your pinky finger through the handle, using the other fingers to hold the double ender and unclip, like this the awkward way in which reel and double ender tend to move is avoided, the grip becomes steady.
When you come out of the dive and have retrieved the primary reel, wait until it’s clipped away before starting to swim, it’s just a couple more seconds your team has to wait but you ensure you’ve clipped it properly.
4. Clip and tug. I teach to hold the reel with the pinky finger through the edge of the handle, while the hand holds the double ender, thumb opens the double ender gate after you’ve felt with your index finger where the butt d-ring is. Once clipped, you tug. So the sound of the metal doesn’t mistakenly make you think it’s clipped, the tug confirms it’s not coming out.
Tp prevent entangling the reel:
Work with a short amount of line, don’t allow more than 15-20cm to come out of the reel when making tie-offs or passing it under the line to create a lock.
Hold the reel from the edge of the handle so that your hand doesn’t occupy all the space on the handle, this will allow passing the reel from hand to hand with more ease as half of the handle is free for the other hand to hold it and in turn allow keeping tension on the line and a finger stopping the reel from unwinding.
Always keep a finger on the drum, this is essential to control the amount of line that you let out. The drum should be kindly touched by the finger to prevent the spool rolling on its own, but no pressure is needed on that finger, its just touching, not pressing (which is difficult to maintain through the line laying).
When swimming to create a shot, continue placing the finger lightly on the spool, if the reel stalls it means you’re pressing too hard, if the spool moves and spins on it’s own when you swim, you have released the finger and that’s one of the critical moments because the spool turns faster than the line comes out creating a potential entanglement.
While swimming, I originally learned to maintain my arm straight and to the side. Diving Sidemount this makes sense, in theory. But in practice, it’s an awkward position for the wrist, for holding the goodman handle simultaneously and using our primary light to find our way in the cave and find the line. What I have done lately is rather teach that the arm can be lower than my body (so that my horizontal profile is above the line in trim, while the line is away from my tanks) and slightly forward so that my wrist can face forward and point the light to where I am going, as well as being able to move my hand and point my reel to the next tie off. This seems to work and it makes it easier to switch the reel from hand to hand as well, or as I teach it, you switch side of the line holding the reel in place, instead of moving the reel to the other hand, like this you also prevent pulling the line away from your buddy or bringing it too close if they were right behind you.
To prevent dropping the reel:
Always hold from the handle
Reduce the line with the side knob instead of rolling the drum itself with your hand
Always stabilize and take appropriate position before you start making the tie-off, you will save time if you’ve adjusted your buoyancy and you have a good view to back-reference
4. Make space on the handle so that passing the reel from hand to hand is easy. Think of this as one had gives the reel to the other hand, if you hold the reel with your one hand covering all the handle there is no space for the other hand to grab it with a solid grip and one only movement.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
5. Avoid passing your hand inside the handle, you will have very little room for moving and maneuvering so you will end up taking the hand out, which is the moment when you drop it.
6. Hold the reel from the edge so you have more control. The grip is better than holding the handle from the middle of it.
Last but not least, working with a reel is better when done slowly. The slower you move, the better you can plan, anticipate and adjust.
The key to laying line and working the reel is to have basic skills dialed in. While it doesn’t have to be perfect, it is essential to be in control of buoyancy, trim and position, and to be able to recover position when we move accidentally. That’s the moment when I introduce this skill to my students.
If you aren’t able to hold position or recover position, adding complex skills such as laying line can be detrimental, especially for our motivation!
Things you can do to get better at it, outside of the water…
Try holding your reel and passing it from hand to hand in different positions.
Practice keeping tension on the line on dry land, pick a tree, tie your line and practice to move the reel turning and spinning passing it from hand to hand, every time you turn it, take a second to think what is the easiest way of holding it with the other hand… you must keep the line taut at all times.
Once you get it with eyes open, try with eyes closed!
Do a land drill, just like you did during your training, tie-off, tie-off, tie-off! Until you aren’t that scared of the reel anymore.
Things that can help, gear-wise:
Pick the right type of reel! I prefer side handles to top handles, it is difficult to keep tension with a top handle reel and they are generally more bulky.
Size of reel. I prefer to teach everyone to handle a decent size reel, and if they choose to they can buy a smaller reel when they are done with training. A diver who can use a big reel, can use a smaller one, but maybe not the other way around. Having said that, if you have particularly small hands and you can compromise on the quantity of line you can check the Scout reel from Deep In The Dark
Weight of reel, there are heavier reels made of metal, and some lighter ones made of delrin. There are also mix of metal (alu) and delrin such as the Pioneer reel that I use. In the beginning, it can be easier to handle a lighter reel, but I do think that when you learn properly, the weight of the reel should not be a problem for a well trained diver. Think when you will become an explorer, your reels will be way larger, and way heavier, and you can potentially carry more than one on a given dive so get ready now with superior skills!
Please help me share this article with someone who is having trouble laying line. And let me know if it was helpful to get some insight on the details that make a difference.
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