Safety Sausages and Surface Markers
What You Need to Know About Safety Sausages

Do You Feel Lost?
Have you ever found yourself on the surface wondering if the dive boat sees you? Maybe you spent an extra few minutes on the perfect photo opportunity or in search of the elusive spiny lobster, and found yourself separated from your dive buddy or group. As you reach the surface, you look around... only to notice the dive boat is picking up other divers a mile away. The only question that runs through your mind is... "Do they see me?"

Virtually regardless of your dive destination and especially in a drift diving environment, a safety sausage can be an incredibly valuable tool. Visible for a great distance, a safety sausage can easily be the difference between two minutes or two hours floating on the surface.

The Anatomy of a Safety Sausage
Although safety sausages and surface markers come in an array of sizes, shapes, and colors, the basic safety sausage has a rather simple design. With typical dimensions of 3 to 3 1/2-feet in length and 3-inches wide, standard designs are brightly colored (i.e. orange or fluorescent yellow). The basic design is also manually inflated through an oral inflation valve similar to your BCD, and easy to secure with a velcro or elastic closure and clip.

You will find that certain sausages include a small dive flag, sleeve to insert a glowstick, or message printed along the sausage (i.e. Diver Down). In addition to the standard sausage design, you will also find a wide selection of larger and wider designs incorporating distinct features such as radar reflective materials and inflation by your low pressure hose. You may also consider attaching your whistle to your safety sausage for easy access to both safety tools.

How to Use Your Safety Sausage
After you've reached the surface and established buoyancy, look around to locate the dive boat. After you've located the boat, give your prescribed 'okay' signal. If the captain or crew does not return your 'okay' signal or if you're not able to immediately locate the boat, reach for your safety sausage, unclip, unwrap, and inflate it. Hold it above your head in an upright position. If there is any doubt that the captain or crew sees you or there is any significant distance between you and the boat, deploy your sausage. This not only increases your visibility to your dive boat captain, but equally important, makes you easier to spot by other boats as well. Of course, avoid waving it like a diver in distress, unless you are truly in need of assistance.

Lift Bags: Your Other Alternative
In a drift diving environment, divers occasionally find themselves separated from the group. An alternative to waiting to reach the surface before inflating your safety sausage and drifting mid-water column unmarked is to deploy a lift bag, often referred to as a diver surface marker. Similar to safety sausages, you will find that lift bags come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors while each manufacturer offers slightly different features.

Typically, in this situation, you would deploy your lift bag attached to a dive reel either as you began your ascent or as you reached your recommended safety stop. This system helps the dive boat locate you long before you actually reach the surface. Additionally, you get the added benefit of an ascent line to control your ascent and stabilize yourself during your safety stop.

You can deploy a safety sausage attached to a dive reel or 15 to 25-feet of line in a similar fashion, but lift bags usually offer more support during your ascent and safety stop. More and more frequently, divers are carrying both a safety sausage and a lift bag with a dive reel.

Safety Sausage Selection
A safety sausage, diver surface marker, or lift bag should be considered when planning virtually every dive, and your selection will inevitably depend upon your diving environment.

If you plan on diving in Palm Beach County's drift diving environment, we highly recommend orange safety sausages, diver surface markers, or lift bags. Seemingly regardless of the diving or weather conditions, we have found that orange is easier to see than fluorescent yellow or white. According to Captain Dean Shuler, "Those colors (fluorescent yellow and white) have a tendency to blend into whitecaps on a windy day, but regardless of the color and conditions, we appreciate a divers willingness to use a safety sausage."

With a continual concern for diver safety, Dive Rite introduced the Diver Surface Marker. Visible for miles, it is bright orange, over 4-feet long, 8-inches wide, and incorporates radar reflective tape. A cross between a traditional safety sausage and a lift bag, you can attach it to a dive reel and deploy it at depth or easily inflate it on the surface to mark your location. The primary advantage of Dive Rite's Diver Surface Marker is that it much larger than most standard sausage designs and stands further out of the water than a lift bag.

Dive Safe and Dive Smart
Although safety sausages and lift bags are not your only option, they are a smart starting point, and in certain dive destinations they are required. Before you depart on your next dive adventure, check to see if you've got the appropriate safety equipment for your specific dive destination as well as the knowledge to use it.