Diver below 83
Contributor
Ok I’ve come across a few Smb’s that are either full black or half color half black. Why would you want a black or half black smb? Are they suppose to be easier to see since black isn’t a color typically found in nature?
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which anyone looking for me can easily spot on the surface, at distance.Source: Risk Critical
I already grabbed my die pack from dgx. Looking to grab my first smb. Just wasn’t sure what the black ones and black half ones were about. I like the reasoning behind it. Thinking about grabbing and orange and black one nowI can tell you from personal experience as a SAR boat officer on a large US Navy ship (LHD) that the above statement is flawed. In even 3ft swells it is nearly impossible to sea someone floating in the water even from above. Whitecaps make it even more difficult, and the whitecaps indicate wind which will blow smoke smoke signals and SMBs down against the surface making it even harder to see, either from the deck of a ship or a small boat like a 7 meter RHIB...even from a helicopter, without a good vector to the adrift person, it is almost entirely luck. The ocean, even a small quadrant of it, is vast and a human is a tiny spec in very variable conditions that act against us at every turn. I would recommend for a diver to everything they can to not get stranded because relying on an SMB/DSMB with the expectation that it will help you be found is false hope at its best....it will increase the odds, and should be deployed to do so, but the odds are vast enough that they are totally against the adrift diver.
PLBs and die packs are probably the best alternatives for an adrift diver to be found.
-Z
That's a discussion for another thread. Yes obviously try to not get separated and to stay by the boat. Yes a PLB or dye pack or flare gun or whatever else would be better. OP merely asked about coloring options for an SMB. The article says "To maximize the chance of being found.." in the first half of the sentence you quoted.I can tell you from personal experience as a SAR boat officer on a large US Navy ship (LHD) that the above statement is flawed. In even 3ft swells it is nearly impossible to sea someone floating in the water even from above. Whitecaps make it even more difficult, and the whitecaps indicate wind which will blow smoke smoke signals and SMBs down against the surface making it even harder to see, either from the deck of a ship or a small boat like a 7 meter RHIB...even from a helicopter, without a good vector to the adrift person, it is almost entirely luck. The ocean, even a small quadrant of it, is vast and a human is a tiny spec in very variable conditions that act against us at every turn. I would recommend for a diver to everything they can to not get stranded because relying on an SMB/DSMB with the expectation that it will help you be found is false hope at its best....it will increase the odds, and should be deployed to do so, but the odds are vast enough that they are totally against the adrift diver.
PLBs and die packs are probably the best alternatives for an adrift diver to be found.
-Z
Ok I’ve come across a few Smb’s that are either full black or half color half black. Why would you want a black or half black smb? Are they suppose to be easier to see since black isn’t a color typically found in nature?