DSMB Technique

[Brett down under]

No “adapter”. Use the Mouthpiece on reg, stuff the black rubber inflator from SMB into the mouth piece airway, hit purge button.

Lotta people been doing this since safe-second octos got popular.

Didn’t realise that would work to get enough air in quickly enough not to throw off buoyancy. I assume the rubber widget you’re referring to doesn’t have a collar / mouthpiece

 

[60plus]

My DSMB is about 5 ft long. I just give it a quick shot from my octopus and let it go. I probably breath out to make my buoyancy a bit negative until I check my depth. Never had a problem.

 

[blueskies_up_ahead]

My DSMB is 1,50m long I think (4,92 ft according to google). I was taught to never ever use my octopus and now that I dive with a long hose setup that wouldn't make much sense anyways. Orally inflating it through that little tube doesn't work for me for some reason. So I use the bubbles from the exhaust tube of the second stage I breathe from. I don't have buoyancy issues. When the tension gets too much, I let go. The DSMB is maybe not 100% inflated but I guess it's enough to be seen when under tension and deployed from 5m depth. I see no issue with that. The tricky part is getting those bubbles to go inside the DSMB but with practice it gets better.

 

[Angelo Farina]

My DSMB is 1,50m long I think (4,92 ft according to google). I was taught to never ever use my octopus and now that I dive with a long hose setup that wouldn't make much sense anyways. Orally inflating it through that little tube doesn't work for me for some reason. So I use the bubbles from the exhaust tube of the second stage I breathe from. I don't have buoyancy issues. When the tension gets too much, I let go. The DSMB is maybe not 100% inflated but I guess it's enough to be seen when under tension and deployed from 5m depth. I see no issue with that. The tricky part is getting those bubbles to go inside the DSMB but with practice it gets better.

Who told you not to use the second reg for filling the buoy?
If your second reg is bungeed, just breath from it and use the primary for filling the buoy...
Using the exhaust of your primary reg looks gimmick and slow to me...
And it increases the risk of entanglement.

 

[Klopo]

My DSMB is 1,50m long I think (4,92 ft according to google). I was taught to never ever use my octopus and now that I dive with a long hose setup that wouldn't make much sense anyways. Orally inflating it through that little tube doesn't work for me for some reason. So I use the bubbles from the exhaust tube of the second stage I breathe from. I don't have buoyancy issues. When the tension gets too much, I let go. The DSMB is maybe not 100% inflated but I guess it's enough to be seen when under tension and deployed from 5m depth. I see no issue with that. The tricky part is getting those bubbles to go inside the DSMB but with practice it gets better.

For what reason were you taught not to shoot the buoy with the Octo ?
We very rarely use buoys in the Swiss lakes, but when we do, it is always with the Octo. Regardless of whether SSI / PADI / SDI / TDI etc..

 

[blueskies_up_ahead]

Who told you not to use the second reg for filling the buoy?
If your second reg is bungeed, just breath from it and use the primary for filling the buoy...
Using the exhaust of your primary reg looks gimmick and slow to me...
And it increases the risk of entanglement.

My instructor told me. The reason being I dive in cold water and a frozen reg is to be avoided. I'm also interested in going into tec sometime down the road and have never seen this method used by tec divers, so I don't see why I should pick up a bad habit. That being said, I do want to learn to inflate it the correct way, using that little tube, but I just can't get it to work. I can blow into it on the surface, no problem (some resistance but it works). When I try that under water the air goes on the side and not into the tube. I have no idea why and more importantly how to make it work. Something to figure out down the road. For now and rec diving, I've got a working method. It's not gimmicky. Takes about 3 breaths to fill. No entanglement. I hold the reel in my right hand with no loose dangling line and away from my face (bubbles coming out on the left side of my face obviously). Works fine.

 

[Kendall Raine]

My instructor told me. The reason being I dive in cold water and a frozen reg is to be avoided. I'm also interested in going into tec sometime down the road and have never seen this method used by tec divers, so I don't see why I should pick up a bad habit.

The freeze up is a fair concern.

Two alternatives: for a closed cell bag use the dry suit hose (if you're concerned about freeze up you should be diving dry) and on an open cell/baffled bag you can use this attachment to the dry suit hose Quick Release Rubber Air Blower Nozzle

/2039?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9fqnBhDSARIsAHlcQYR8owr3Ykscw5OOYwlbtBfaom0IdS8vm33G_8V4nG_ymHgFxWhh20caAl_rEALw_wcB&sku=2039

Either method beats the second stage/oral inflation methods

 

[blueskies_up_ahead]

I learned using the DSMB while diving wet so the inflator was not available. In the meantime I started diving dry, but have yet to try that as an inflation method. I feel like my current way is more versatile as it doesn't depend on an additional inflator hose. Also, my local dry diving is in lakes, so the DSMB is just there for practice. It's not a necessity. My next ocean dives will be dry though, so I'll give it a shot. Still need to figure out the oral inflation though. It annoys me when I can't get something to work But it's not my top priority at the moment as I can safely launch my DSMB. I'll try the inflator method though

 

[steinbil]

I learned using the DSMB while diving wet so the inflator was not available. In the meantime I started diving dry, but have yet to try that as an inflation method. I feel like my current way is more versatile as it doesn't depend on an additional inflator hose. Also, my local dry diving is in lakes, so the DSMB is just there for practice. It's not a necessity. My next ocean dives will be dry though, so I'll give it a shot. Still need to figure out the oral inflation though. It annoys me when I can't get something to work But it's not my top priority at the moment as I can safely launch my DSMB. I'll try the inflator method though

Norwegian GUE divers made special orders from Halcyon to make an SMB with an oral inflation mouthpiece and an OPV (over-pressure release valve), because of the cold water diving we do here. Orally inflating the standard one (that also works with an inflator hose) is very hard with frozen lips as it's hard to create a seal with the metal. And oral inflation is the standard for small SMBs. But Halcyons SMBs with the oral inflator mpc did not have an OPV, because they were meant to be inflated at the surface. Apparently the European Halcyon distributor is now offering this as a standard option for the smaller 1m (3.3') SMB. Bigger ones will need to be used with an inflator hose.

TLDR: Try one of these if you want to orally inflate an SMB in cold water.

 

[JMarc]

The freeze up is a fair concern.

Here, dives for which freezing is an issue are made with valves allowing to put two regulators and cutting them independently even when using a single tank. Is this not a common practice elsewhere?