Safety sausage

[JamesBon92007]

you have thousands of dives and you've never used a SMB????? (I'm not trying to mock or anything, I'm just trying to figure it out how it could be possible)

Well, I guess for the same reasons that I dove 2-3 times a week for many years without a depth gauge, SPG, BC, Octopus, or even a J-valve. I never even saw a SMB until I got to the Caribbean about 3-4 years ago. In some situations I find that some gear is essential and in others it's optional. In my case some of the gear simply wasn't available yet. I never used a BC until a few years ago when I was in Hawai'i and it was required. I've been on one boat that required on octopus. I've never used a dive computer but someone gave me one so I'll take it with me next time. Personally I think a SMB would be a very good idea to bring along in such places as Cozumel and Isla Mujeres for the reasons I mentioned. I can't see any reason to take one beach diving is Southern California. When I had my boat I had a diver's flag flying while in the water and surfaced near the boat. I guess you could call me a minimalist diver--I can't see any point in bringing along a bunch of stuff I don't need. The SMB that I have was a recent gift and I've not taken it on a trip yet. I've gone over it many times in my mind and all I can say is that I hope I don't find myself on the surface and missing my safety stop when I inflate it.

 

[rabe]

Well, I guess for the same reasons that I dove 2-3 times a week for many years without a depth gauge, SPG, BC, Octopus, or even a J-valve. I never even saw a SMB until I got to the Caribbean about 3-4 years ago. In some situations I find that some gear is essential and in others it's optional. In my case some of the gear simply wasn't available yet. I never used a BC until a few years ago when I was in Hawai'i and it was required. I've been on one boat that required on octopus. I've never used a dive computer but someone gave me one so I'll take it with me next time. Personally I think a SMB would be a very good idea to bring along in such places as Cozumel and Isla Mujeres for the reasons I mentioned. I can't see any reason to take one beach diving is Southern California. When I had my boat I had a diver's flag flying while in the water and surfaced near the boat. I guess you could call me a minimalist diver--I can't see any point in bringing along a bunch of stuff I don't need. The SMB that I have was a recent gift and I've not taken it on a trip yet. I've gone over it many times in my mind and all I can say is that I hope I don't find myself on the surface and missing my safety stop when I inflate it.

That is very interesting...
Regarding the SMB: here in Queensland is mandatory. If you don't have it, you don't dive.
Than it's up to you use it or not. But in my experience, I'd suggest to use it whenever you're feeling it.
Down here, many dive spots are in the middle of nowhere, and currents can be very strong. That means you can really surface far far far far away from the boat. It happens many times, to everyone, independently on your certification level, and how many dives you've logged so far.
I personally use it so many times for those reasons, but also it's very useful during drift dives, during deco stop in the middle of nothing, etc etc.
I guess my point is: if the SMB exists, why don't use it and take advantage of it? (this applies to everything when technology is involved)

(I can understand diving w/o BCD, and computer, but w/o SPG and depth gauge, how can you even dive?)

 

[Snoweman]

...you're doing it wrong.

Watch some of the many excellent YouTube videos on how to shoot a sausage (and some of those on how not to), and practice a few times at your favorite training site. After that, you're good to go and probably won't tangle in your spool line.

It ain't rocket science.

My bad. I was playing off of the "practice, practice, practice" post, but didn't quote it. I was trying to say not to practice at depth in case a mistake is made. It's not rocket science, but "practice, practice, practice" is good advice. I think it's also good advice to make any mistakes where the danger is minimal.

 

[jgttrey]

If you can shoot a bag that is reasonably full from 20', then anything deeper is a snap. Like most any skill involving buoyancy control, mastering it 10' or 20' - is far harder than doing it at depth. Nowhere more true than the SMB -- you have to hang onto the bag a lot longer at 15' feet to get it filled enough to stick up on the surface than if you were filling it at 70' and it will really want to drag you up.

There's a trick to exhaling and getting a little negative as the bag is filling and wanting to pull you up. Just takes a little practice. It also helps (me at least) to put a tiny bit of gas in first -- just enough to unroll and straighten the bag out but without getting too positive. That orients the bag so it doesn't move around a lot. Then you can jam in whatever else you need to get it filled and release it. You need to master holding spool/reel and bag with one hand in such a way while filling that there are absolutely no dangly bits of line and you can control the fill with your other hand.

 

[JamesBon92007]

(I can understand diving w/o BCD, and computer, but w/o SPG and depth gauge, how can you even dive?)

Like I said, I intend to use the SMB when I feel it will be helpful.

Most of my early diving was along the coast of Southern California in various locations with a single tank with less than 70 cubic feet of air. The depth was almost always around 35 feet so there was never any danger of going over the NDL. At some point some rich guy must have brought along a depth gauge because we knew about how deep it was. I had a watch and experience tells you how long your air will last. Based upon that knowledge you can calculate about how long your air will last at other depths. The SPG was fairly new and only wealthy dive instructors etc had them. I was 16 and barely making enough to eat, get my tanks filled, and get to dive spots. Running out of air at 35-40 was not something we worried about. As soon as the tank pressure drops below the IP pressure (1st stage) it becomes harder to breathe and you can easily make a normal ascent but without a safety stop. Normally we would be swimming back toward the beach and gradually getting shallower so the safety stop was built-in, but really not necessary. Everyone is my original dive class was perfectly capable of making a free ascent from those depths. The only thing that resembled a BC was a Mae West or Horse Collar, both of which are really only good on the surface, not so much for buoyancy control. I usually wore my Mae West when doing deeper dives, such as at Catalina Island. We weighed ourselves with a good guess, went diving, and added or subtracted a pound or two until we were slightly negative at the end of the dive. Nobody seemed to give much thought to perfect neutral buoyancy for the kind of diving we were doing. The old wetsuits didn't compress as much at depth as the newer, stretchier suits so we were able to use our lungs for buoyancy control, at least with a single steel tank. In 1983 I bought a new regulator (age 30) along with a depth gauge and SPG. The depth gauge verified the depth but the SPG revealed that I could have been staying down a little longer than I thought. Right around 2010 I went to Hawai'i and wore my first BC. They had been common for quite some time but I never felt like I needed one. My ex-wife had one and she liked it. These days I'm mainly a "vacation diver" and always have a depth gauge, SPG, and BC. The dives are generally a lot deeper so the gauges became more important. I would not recommend doing the deeper dives without a depth gauge and the SPG is very handy and instead of "calculating" your remaining air you actually know so the dives are likely to last longer, plus the safety stop becomes more important so you really need to know how much air you have left.

I would still dive along the coast here without a depth gauge or SPG if I didn't have one. But since I do it would be silly not to use them. Diving with just a tank and regulator is sometimes referred to as "monkey diving." People do it for various reasons and it can be either as safe or dangerous as the diver doing it. There were many thousands of people diving pretty much the way I was at the time and we very rarely heard of incidents so either it isn't as dangerous as it might sound or there wasn't any good way to communicate, like the internet. Seriously, if something happened everyone knew about it from talking to other divers, surfers, and the dive shops.

 

[luscioman]

I have noticed that those that deploy large DSMBs generally are not able to get them fully filled. This results in laying flat on the surface as you ascend. Make sure what ever you choose to purchase you are able to get it fully inflated so it is visible.

 

[Divingblueberry]

I have noticed that those that deploy large DSMBs generally are not able to get them fully filled. This results in laying flat on the surface as you ascend. Make sure what ever you choose to purchase you are able to get it fully inflated so it is visible.

Thanks @luscioman.

When you say "are not able to get them fully filled", do you mean they don't know how to use it or because if the size (6' or 10') ?

 

[Divingblueberry]

If you can shoot a bag that is reasonably full from 20', then anything deeper is a snap. Like most any skill involving buoyancy control, mastering it 10' or 20' - is far harder than doing it at depth. Nowhere more true than the SMB -- you have to hang onto the bag a lot longer at 15' feet to get it filled enough to stick up on the surface than if you were filling it at 70' and it will really want to drag you up.

There's a trick to exhaling and getting a little negative as the bag is filling and wanting to pull you up. Just takes a little practice. It also helps (me at least) to put a tiny bit of gas in first -- just enough to unroll and straighten the bag out but without getting too positive. That orients the bag so it doesn't move around a lot. Then you can jam in whatever else you need to get it filled and release it. You need to master holding spool/reel and bag with one hand in such a way while filling that there are absolutely no dangly bits of line and you can control the fill with your other hand.

I appreciate your input @jgttrey ; thanks a lot.

I'll most likely practice in a pool first, so 15' deep. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's probably the best place to practice since it's shallow and makes the repetitive "surface to bottom" easier.

 

[rabe]

Thanks @luscioman.

When you say "are not able to get them fully filled", do you mean they don't know how to use it or because if the size (6' or 10') ?

...but be careful because a fully inflated SMB can shot you up to the surface
and this is why you don't want fully inflated: a 70-80% will be more than ok
also, consider that air will expand during its ascent to the surface
practice will help

 

[luscioman]

Sorry I didnt clarify this more. The end result is to have the marker fully inflated when on the surface. If it is not it is much more difficult to be seen by a boat.