Have you ever deployed a delayed surface marker buoy or been taught how to?

[Akimbo]

Hi @Akimbo

How much webbing to you use? What do you do with it on ascent and until you have a chance to wind it back up on the bag?

The webbing is a little over 20' and I just let it hang. I made some marks at 10', 15' and 20' but never use them (just use my computer). I found that the weight of the bolt snap is important. I had a little one on there and it wasn't heavy to easily pull the webbing off the roll. I'll try to describe the best way I have found to use it:

• Unhook the snap and let it dangle
• Hold the rolled bag at one end with the fingertips of one hand
• Reach out with wrist bent and fingers pointing down, and "swirl" the bag letting the webbing unwind and sink.
• Shake the bag out to unroll
• Blow a small puff into the bag -- just enough to make it keep up instead of waving in the surge.
• Check my depth to be <20' (only works in 40'+ of water)
• Two options depending on current, visibility, and how I feel that day:
  • Hold the webbing very loosely (more like an OK sign around it) in my left hand and use my second stage to blow a good blast of air in the bag. The webbing will slide through as the my hand as the bag heads for sunshine and I watch for the bolt snap. It slipped past me once or twice but I could reach and and grab it.
  • OR: Pull the bolt snap up and hook onto a D-ring, leaving a loop of webbing hanging down. Making sure I won't get tangled in the webbing, I blast a shot of air in the bag.
• Once the boat is close I start winding the webbing around the inflated bag and hand it off to the boat. I will deflate the bag in the water and wind up the webbing it it is a nice day and I'm in the mood.

 

[Trailboss123]

So I said yes, but it has only been in a pool situation. I am looking forward to practicing this at the Surge in Bonaire. Having a house reef will give me ample opportunity to practice skills in the ocean. I would say it should be part of OW training but it is important to have some sort of handle on your buoyancy otherwise it could be a nightmare for the instructors...imagine all the entanglements, and corks!!

Bonaire is a perfect place to work on this skill! Have fun!

 

[dbnewton]

Bonaire is a perfect place to work on this skill! Have fun!

Bought one recently in anticipation of a Raja Ampat trip (where I understand they are strongly recommended). Funny you should mention Bonaire as the place to practice since that is precisely what I did last month. It seems to me kind of obvious that when you add a piece of equipment you need to practice with it before using when it might be life critical.

While in Bonaire we also practiced out of air emergency procedures just because it seems a good idea to practice occasionally.

 

[Trailboss123]

Bought one recently in anticipation of a Raja Ampat trip (where I understand they are strongly recommended). Funny you should mention Bonaire as the place to practice since that is precisely what I did last month. It seems to me kind of obvious that when you add a piece of equipment you need to practice with it before using when it might be life critical.

While in Bonaire we also practiced out of air emergency procedures just because it seems a good idea to practice occasionally.

Totally concur. All new equipment should be practiced with; too many of us fail to regularly practice important skills after getting certified and I will also add a personal mantra of mine- "Never make more than 1 change to equipment or setup at a time"

 

[The Chairman]

Bonaire is a perfect place to work on this skill! Have fun!

That's why we call them FUNdamentals! It should be a fun, fun class indeed.

 

[Akimbo]

That's why we call them FUNdamentals! It should be a fun, fun class indeed.

Uh-oh. Somehow I must have taken a wrong turn because I came out FUNdamentally flawed and that concept completely eluded my instructors.

​

 

[The Chairman]

Uh-oh. Somehow I must have taken a wrong turn because came out FUNdamentally flawed and that concept completely eluded my instructors.

It's one thing to be trained for combat but quite another to do this for fun and frolic. I like fun and frolic a lot more.

 

[boulderjohn]

It's one thing to be trained for combat but quite another to do this for fun and frolic. I like fun and frolic a lot more.

There is a scuba instructor who participates on ScubaBoard from time to time who occasionally raises his belief that the world of scuba would be ever so much better if the training were of the intense nature of military training. He thinks rigid physical fitness standards should be implemented and strictly enforced. Too many people are out there happily diving on tropical reefs, even though they couldn't handle the intense rigors of boot camp. (OK, I exaggerate his position, but not as much as you might think.)

People who went through that kind of training think that is what must be best way to learn, and people who don't like it are just soft, but it really isn't the best way to learn for anyone.

In the military, it weeds out the ones who might not be capable of tough combat roles, but it is not the best way for people to learn scuba.

 

[Akimbo]

It's one thing to be trained for combat...

FIY, Navy divers are NOT combatants, those guys are the SEALs and their training makes ours seem like a Discover Diving class at a Carribean resort. Our job is salvage and recovery, ship and port repair, and sub rescue.

 

[The Chairman]

it weeds out the ones who might not be capable of tough combat roles,

You never know when you're going to be viciously attacked by a trumpet fish!