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

[Ankush Mittal]

While we're on the subject, some of you may find this useful. I got tired of hauling around and messing with reels and spools on most dives. It finally dawned on me that 80-90% of my dives never require a stop more than a few minutes below 20'. I also hate dealing with small line (string) in cold water. I did some experimenting and found that 1" webbing was much easier to handle and stored nicely. I now carry this most of the time.

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Interesting DSMB, What brand is this?

 

[Akimbo]

Interesting DSMB, What brand is this?

I have two set up with 20' of webbing. One is the 6' DAN and the other is a no-name 5'. The webbing came from a local hardware store.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Akimbo

How do you handle the strap on ascent and handing off the SMB? Do you wind it up on your hand, pass the snap though the coil a couple of times, and clip it to the SMB? Did you do your own sewing, hand or machine? I think this is a pretty attractive idea for my routine drift diving, takes up less room too. Obviously a longer line and spool might be needed for other conditions.

Thanks, Craig

Edit, sorry, see you answered some of this for me in #101

 

[FinnMom]

I bet many, if not most people who dive these quarries hope to make it to Florida or El Caribe to do some diving. If there's a good chance they're going to need this skill sometime, why not give it to them?

Our club teaches it in the basic OW course. And students are advised to always carry a DSMB in any sizeable body of water. Finland is not a suitable place to risk spending extra hours in the water.

Our new divers, confidence-building divers and just training concious divers also spend a fair bit of time in local quarries. Some of these quarries are a bit barren and exceptionally familiar, so it's fun to have something a tiny bit challenging to do. I try to get our new and less experienced divers to launch a DSMB (using a spool) at the end of every single dive. It gets easy quite quickly. Or at least launching the thing gets easy fairly soon with regular practise; re-rolling the thing and having it fit nicely secured back in your pocket, esp. while maintaing bouyancy control, that's the most difficult part. We're all wearing thing drygolves BTW.

Most folks I dive with also send up a DSMB at the end of most ordinary, i.e. just-getting-wet-for-fun dives. Except under the ice, although I've seen that done too just to be cute.

 

[Akimbo]

Did you do your own sewing, hand or machine?

I finally bought a cheap medium-duty sewing machine off Ebay but used a sewing awl for decades.

Obviously a longer line and spool might be needed for other conditions.

For sure. I use a reel instead of a spool in those conditions -- but I find myself using it less and less. This webbing system is one of those experiments that worked a lot better than expected.

 

[scubadada]

I had a buddy from Australia on a liveaboard in Egypt that had a SMB with a nylon strap. We took turns sending up a SMB when needed, his was simpler and easier than my traditional setup. His was a commercial product, unfortunately, I forgot to ask where it came from and have not been able to find one. Now I'm going to make my own and try it out. Thanks @Akimbo

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Lift bags are for lifting.

Surface markers are for marking.

You can tell because of the name.

You can also tell because of the location of the dump/OP valve. Lift bags have them near the top of the bag, where you can release air in a controlled manner as you ascend. SMBs have them at the bottom, since you are deploying the bag to the surface and won't need to release air until you are also on the surface. Plus you generally want the bag to fill with air before the OPV starts releasing it.

Never use an SMB to lift an object, as it will be difficult to manage air expansion ... which could result in an unintended rapid ascent.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

This has always been my understanding as well, with the key differentiator being the presence or absence of an OPV, something that is required if you are going to deploy at depth. When I read SMB I understand no OPV.

Not true ... SMB's typically have an OPV. Otherwise deployment at depth could cause it to burst at the seams if it expands beyond capacity on ascent ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

@NWGratefulDiver, what did you do in your ow courses with DSMBs?

Nothing in OW, other than a simple overview. However, DSMB training was a required skill taught in my AOW (ASD, technically) course, as that's where I emphasized diving in different local conditions. The class consisted of six dives, each skills-based and focused on skills useful for local, independent (non-guided) diving. DSMB deployment is a useful skill to have here because most of the better dive sites are current-sensitive ... particularly once you get away from shore and start doing dive charters in places like the San Juan Islands or the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

I once had a student send me a Thank You card two weeks after completing the class, as he'd gotten swept off a wall in the San Juans and by the time he surfaced he was more than a quarter-mile from the dive site. But the boat was right there waiting for him because as soon as he lost the wall (and spent the next several minutes ascending in deep water) he deployed his SMB as he'd been taught and the boat simply followed his buoy as it got swept away from the site.

The other benefit in a scenario like that spooling up the line helps give you a depth reference as you're ascending without any other visual cues.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Akimbo]

His was a commercial product

I found two commercial webbing systems after the idea came to me but they both were more complicated than just wrapping it around the rolled buoy. One stored the webbing on a plastic device and another used a bag. Let us know if your experiments find any better tricks.

The fundamental concept is that 1" webbing is much easier to handle in the water than string. The most useful trick I have found is to let the webbing hang off the side of the boat (or a balcony) when you wrap it around the buoy. That lets you wind it without twisting.