Different Coloured SMB'S

[craig chamberlain]

just wondering - i have seen yellow, orange, red and multicoloured dsmb's. can someone please tell me what do the different colours mean and also when should you deploy a dsmb. Thanks

 

[DevonDiver]

I've seen them used within technical diving.

Orange = OK (normal use).
Yellow = Emergency, please come and help.

In recreational diving, the color only matters if you pre-warn the surface cover/boat that you would be using it for those purposes.

 

[TSandM]

I believe there are places where it is convention to use one color for routine bag deployment, and another for emergencies. (That is not the case in the PNW.) It would be good to know the local procedures before purchasing a bag, although I do not believe the orange ones are used for emergency anywhere.

A DSMB can be deployed at different points in the dive, and for a number of reasons. If you are doing drift deco off a site, deploying before you leave the site allows the boat to track the team. If you are doing a blue water ascent, the line up from the bag gives you a visual reference (and if you cheat, hanging on the bag makes your buoyancy easy to manage, too!). Putting up a bag on a staged decompression dive alerts the boat that you are (or aren't) on schedule. A bag MAY alert water traffic to the presence of ascending divers (or it may look like a great slalom reference, too), and on the surface, an SMB can be inflated to signal a distant boat. They're pretty handy things to own; I never dive off a boat (even my own) without carrying one.

 

[Dsix36]

Whenever we dive with a new operator, we verify with them what color is normal and what color is an emergency and we might need help. I won't say which color is which, as some of the northern divers had stated that they do it just the opposite up there.

Talk to local divers and operaters to see what is used where you dive.

 

[scubamarketing]

Great discussion, I haven't gotten into my tech training yet, so I had no idea that the different colors meant anything in that world. I've worked in recreational training and liveaboards (recreational diving) and they were all fully interchangeable. In that world, they were deployed if you surfaced too far away from the boat/shore and needed assistance.

 

[scubaskipper]

There was an article in one of the UK journals about the color yellow being seen from farther away and the fact that there are many mariners that are color blind. They have a hard time seeing the orange or red SMB. I believe the article was put out by the equivalent of their coast guard.

 

[DCBC]

The World Underwater Federation CMAS has recommended:

Red DSMB - Indicates the position of a diver below ascending normal.

Yellow DSMB - Diver in distress, requires assistance. The buoy may be accompanied by an
attached note determining the required help e.g. ”More air”.

Red DSMB + Yellow DSMB - Red DSMB is usually sent up first to indicate a normal ascent and to the diver’s position. The second DSMB, Yellow, is deployed to say I now need assistance.
Again a note may be attached to determine the required help.

Obviously the most important thing is how the people on your dive boat react to the color displayed and not what any agency stipulates.

 

[peterbj7]

In the UK and UK-dominated areas such as the Red Sea, and in fact in most of Europe, the rule is red/orange for a normal ascent, and yellow for "I've a serious problem and I need help NOW". I've seen the same practice in several cold water areas of north America and I thought I'd seen it in the PNW, but maybe I'm mis-remembering. It's a very useful code. When I do serious diving I always carry two DSMBs, a red one permanently attached to a suitable reel (NOT a finger spool) and a yellow one on a couple of metres of line with a large suicide clip at the bottom. The red DSMB will always go up first, so I attach the clip to its line and then inflate it so it goes up and stays near the red DSMB. Even an idiot boat driver may realise that two DSMBs close together is unusual and may mean something, especially when one has a slate attached.

It's a good idea to attach a small slate to the top of the yellow DSMB to write just what the problem is. It's usually low breathing gas, but what gas? Then someone else can dive down to the diver-with-a-problem with a tank of the appropriate gas with reg attached. Also carrying a slate so they can discuss just what has caused the problem and whether there could be more problems following, such as serious missed deco. If a weighted line can be dropped to the diver he can attach and make his life and task loading rather easier.

 

[farsidefan1]

Great thread! I just have a big a$$ orange on one side red on the other SMB but had NO idea that it any other use than "HEY here I am, come get me when you get around to it". In Coz a while back our DM used one on a spool so the boat could track us during our safety stop. I like the idea to keep from getting run over as you come up. I got one of those for my wife so I can borrow it when I go without her. Good thing I'm not a tech diver, not sure I'd have room for all the different SMBs.




dm

 

[DevonDiver]

I was with a diver once, whose DSLR housing started to flood at 32m. I attached it to my DSMB and popped it to the surface, where it was swiftly recovered by the boat crew. The camera was saved

That'd be a good example of where color coding would benefit divers at recreational level