Best DSMB/spool?

[tracydr]

For some reason, a lot of this "it will work great in class" or "do it this way in class" advice is nagging at me. So if I may, I would like to put the original question back into context.



As important as it is to get gear that is suitable for the class, it is even more important that the gear is suitable for the diving you will be doing after class. If the gear only works for class, then I would question the value of the class and (its required gear) in the first place.

The 3.3 ft Halcyon SMB is a great choice, not because it maximizes your chances of passing Fundies but rather, it works quite well for recreational dives. I would also argue that it also works quite well for Tech 1 dives where teams are doing drift deco. I believe g1138 works as a deck hand on the Escapade, a boat that the GUE divers in Northern California use almost exclusively when doing recreational and technical diving out in the ocean. Based on the observations he has posted, it seems clear that from a deckhand's perspective, the 3.3ft SMB is, in most cases, the most visible of the various SMB sizes offered by Halcyon. This particular model of SMB has a lot of great features including an inflator mechanism that can be either manually inflated or inflated by using a low pressure inflator hose.

This is a great choice for an SMB for boat diving. At least, that is what my experience has been. For this reason, it is the one I recommend. Whether or not this SMB will make it easier for you to pass Fundies should be, IMHO, the last consideration.

Also, regarding the spool size, if you "begin with the end in mind", you will consider that:

• for recreational diving, you will be diving to depths of 100ft
• for T1 diving, you will be diving to depths of 170ft
• for T2 diving, you will be diving to depths of greater than 170ft

In my experience, there is no point in getting a 100ft spool "for now". For sure, the 100ft spool will be useless if/when you progress to T1 dives. In the T1 dives I've done, the 150ft spool has been sufficient. (Usually we deploy SMBs in the 90ft to 120ft depth range when diving the pinnacles around Carmel, CA). The 150ft spool is no more difficult to manage than the 100ft spool. Getting a 100ft spool to use just for recreational dives or even worse just for class seems pointless. If you can't use it in your diving, why bother bringing it class?

For T2 dives, if you get that far, you will likely be shooting a bag with a reel anyway.



So.. what happens when you have to deploy your SMB from 90ft? Or if you have to deploy it at 70ft and there is current?

Perfect, very logical.
i have an oldr SMB from my Galapegos trip it's oral inflate with an OPV. I have no idea what brand but it's one meter. It will work great for practice but I think I'll splurge on the recommended Halcyon for class and beyond, along with the larger spool. This makes so much sense.
My husband has a Halcyon lift bag that he bought recently. Not sure why he bought this instead of the SMB but I guess it will come in handy for something. Maybe it's the wreck diver mentality coming out? We'll usually be a team. So, we'll have that asset on the team, too.

 

[g1138]

Yes, I do work as the DM/Rescue swimmer for the Escapade from time to time. If you are diving the Escapade w/ BAUE I would recommend always using the 1m Halcyon even in rough terrible conditions. When there's swell of any sort, the flat fully inflated 4.5' SMB disappears as the sets pass over it.

Really any SMB bigger than the Halcyon 1m SMB will always lay flat if you're holding it with neutral trim. And speaking from personal experience, you can see the small 1m SMB even when the rain is literally washing your eyes out on the boat deck and the fog is picking up. I would say the max range in those conditions was about 50yds; barely see a orange glimpse, but more importantly it was standing up in the waves and bobbed above the horizon (ie. definite contrast).

That day we were diving Hopkins Deep Reef and lost sight of the bubbles. For those not familiar w/ the site, it's not a pinnacle so the boat protocol is usually to run and follow the diver's bubbles. The bags did end up shooting pretty far away. We still spotted them before the 3rd bag came up, and they usually come up in pretty quick succession.

The trick with using the small 1m SMB exclusively is you have to have a crew that knows to be actively looking for it. Having an approximate time for when the bags goes up helps too.
If you're diving off a boat that doesn't have this crew, you should probably shoot a bigger bag in rough conditions and hang from it so you know it's upright. I'm not sure how this would work with stages though; perhaps someone can chime in.

 

[nimoh]

So.. what happens when you have to deploy your SMB from 90ft? Or if you have to deploy it at 70ft and there is current?

ascend a bit first. You could make the same argument for a 100' spool on a 120' dive.

 

[Adobo]

ascend a bit first. You could make the same argument for a 100' spool on a 120' dive.

No. I could not and would not make that argument and certainly would not recommend it to anyone seeking advice. You might. Except your 100ft spool only has 80ft of line on it.

The argument I would make, and its the one I am making for the third time on this thread already, is that it is pointless to buy a 100ft spool for this purpose in the first place. One should buy the 150ft spool as it is no harder to manage than the 100ft spool. This way, the dive dictates when and where it is appropriate to deploy the bag, not the amount of line you have on your spool. This will be true for all recreational diving and it will be true of the vast majority of Tech 1 diving where drift deco is part of the plan.

 

[TSandM]

I don't know . . . I think most anybody who is doing technical and/or cave diving is going to end up owning a bunch of spools. My bag has a 100 foot spool on it, because for the vast majority of the diving I do, a) I'm never deeper than 100 feet, and b) I don't shoot the bag from my max depth. Now, with the new spools that are a bit wider and smaller in diameter, I might go with a bigger spool to begin with, but for the old ones, the 100 is considerably easier to get in and out of pockets with dry gloves than the 150 is, at least my pockets

It's not a big deal to argue about, though. But you will end up owning multiple spools, most likely.

Adobo's point about not buying stuff specifically for class is a very good one.

 

[g1138]

....*misfire of a post*

 

[Adobo]

I don't know . . . I think most anybody who is doing technical and/or cave diving is going to end up owning a bunch of spools. My bag has a 100 foot spool on it, because for the vast majority of the diving I do, a) I'm never deeper than 100 feet, and b) I don't shoot the bag from my max depth. Now, with the new spools that are a bit wider and smaller in diameter, I might go with a bigger spool to begin with, but for the old ones, the 100 is considerably easier to get in and out of pockets with dry gloves than the 150 is, at least my pockets

It's not a big deal to argue about, though. But you will end up owning multiple spools, most likely.

Adobo's point about not buying stuff specifically for class is a very good one.

Imagine that other guy who clipped off 20ft from his 100ft spool. Let's say he is on a dive where the site tops out at 80ft. He wants to shoot his bag now since he has a visual reference for depth. Does he have enough line for the bag to hit the surface? If not, how much does he have to ascend before he knows for sure the bag will make it to the surface?

I have one spool that I use for Monterey/Carmel. Its got 150ft of line on it. It always stays with my SMB. I never have to worry about if it will have enough line on any of the dives I do. Even if spools cost $2, if someone came onto scubaboard asking for advice on what spool to get, and especially if she is also specifically talking about potential use in future classes (and I assume the diving that goes with it), I would say the 150ft spool would be it. Not because of cost or anything else but rather it works in all of the boat dives and shore dives that I do. And because I can explain in what I feel are simple terms why it makes sense. And because it largely eliminates the scenario where the diver is questioning whether he brought the right spool for any dives short of T2.

When someone asks me what drysuit I like, I recommend a couple of drysuits. One of the considerations I make when making the recommendation is what type of pockets the drysuit accommodates. Personally, I dive a DUI suit now but I used to own a Mobby's drysuit. In both suits, I had the DUI bellows pockets. The reason I had such comparatively large pockets is that I knew I had to keep specific gear in my pockets including a bag and spool which I might need for boat dives. And by the way, I would guess that half of the tech divers on the Escapade are diving drygloves. That includes men who have comparatively large hands. I don't know one of them who would tell you to get 100ft spool because they are easier to get in and out of your pockets with drygloves on.

Maybe if someone recommended to us that we buy the 150ft spool when we were about to take fundies, we would not have wound up with multiple spools that sit in a gear bin largely unused.

You guys can feel free to recommend two solutions when one solution will do. That's up to you.

 

[nimoh]

No. I could not and would not make that argument and certainly would not recommend it to anyone seeking advice. You might. Except your 100ft spool only has 80ft of line on it.

The argument I would make, and its the one I am making for the third time on this thread already, is that it is pointless to buy a 100ft spool for this purpose in the first place. One should buy the 150ft spool as it is no harder to manage than the 100ft spool. This way, the dive dictates when and where it is appropriate to deploy the bag, not the amount of line you have on your spool. This will be true for all recreational diving and it will be true of the vast majority of Tech 1 diving where drift deco is part of the plan.

I can understand why you would not make that argument, but don't understand why you could not make it. FWIW, I didn't advise anyone to do as I did, just described what I do, and anyone reading should decide for themselves.

 

[Adobo]

I can understand why you would not make that argument, but don't understand why you could not make it. FWIW, I didn't advise anyone to do as I did, just described what I do, and anyone reading should decide for themselves.

That's a good point. One that I have been thinking about since I responded to Lynne.

I feel like its important for all of us to decouple the concept of what I do vs. the concept of what I would recommend. Because the answer to these questions are not always the same.

There are very good reasons to do something very different than what you recommend someone else do given that the person you are advising might have many other considerations that are not applicable to you.

I guess the other thing I concluded is that really, the best advice I could give the OP is to fire off an email to a GUE instructor and get the answer from the horse's mouth. All of us here are well intentioned when giving advice but I suspect it is very hard for the OP to determine who is giving the best/most applicable advice.

 

[TSandM]

As I said in my post, I don't think it's that big a deal. Make sure you have a spool on your bag that will get it to the surface from the max depth of your dive, because if something goes very wrong, that may be where you want to shoot it. If buying a single, 150 foot spool solves your problems, that's a good solution. I own a bunch of spools. Most people I know do. It just isn't worth arguing about.