PSDarchives.tethered

Tethered vs. non-tethered

8-1-02

I'll throw one in per the tethered vs. free searches. We do use
a jackstay, either to walk a pattern around or a circular pattern. It is
not for those divers like you were talking about being overweighted.

We put a red pelican buoy on the end of the jackstay, and a white one on
the downline end. Tenders can see exactly where the pattern is, and we
tether the diver to it with a small biner. The diver stays good and
neutral on the pattern as not to disrupt the line, but a good diver can
feel the tension from the biner. I like this for the ability to search
areas with stumps, bushes, etc., and its ease of operation. I use this a
lot with some small cord and two 5 pound weights for those annoying "I
lost my cell-pager-keys-glasses" searches. I also like to move this
pattern from deeper water to shallower, as it seems to eliminate some of
the bounce diving with a semi-circle sweep from shore.

Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather do a tethered operation, and can
cross the jackstay with a tethered op, (walking the dog type search, if
that makes sense), but this is one option for us that works.....

Digger
MFD Dive Rescue

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