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

[Diving Dubai]

I have done it twice so far with, thankfully, no disastrous entanglements although I still need to work on keeping my buoyancy in check.

Tip:

So buoyancy issues are because you're not really neutral.

Bear with me here.

You are probably neg or positive, but your brain has compensated by breathing from teh top or bottom half of you lungs.

When you launch your brain "forgets" to do this and your buoyancy changes

Go play near a vertical line. Put some reference markers (a bit of ribbon will do) on it. One at your chosen depth and one each 2-3' above and below it.

Now hover keeping you eye on that reference mark and try to keep as level as possible not going up or down further than the other marks. Concentrate on finding the mid point of your breathing and with just breath control keep between them. After that task load little by little, say unclip your dsmb and reel and move it around your wing staying neutral

Breathing precisely is a muscle memory thing and takes practice.

Move on then to shooting, and finally reduce to upper and lower marker distance so your deviation from the centre is reduced to a distance you are happy with.

Might pop over for a cheeky dive to see you soon

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I always teach my OW students dsmb at depth.

This weekend I had a 12 year old superstar, who by OW dive 4 could launch her dsmb just on her fin tips. I had to hold the reel because her tiny hands couldn't' manage reel, reg and dsmb, but as soon as the bag went up she "snatched" the reel back and took control of the ascent and stop.

So proud! I wish I'd have been that confident when I learnt.

My all-time favorite student was a 12-year old girl ... she's in her mid-20's now, and still dives with her dad ...

Oh, and to stay on-topic ... I taught DSMB deployment as part of my AOW curriculum ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Rob Bibber]

Not taught as part of my basic OW class (PADI) but I have tagged along with an SSI instructor on a deep dive (so I could get experience and comfort at greater depth) and deployed one at depth alongside her students. I HAD watched a few youtube videos on how to do it so was not completely inept LOL. Now I carry one on every dive in addition to the basic SMB I carry in my BC pocket.

 

[caruso]

Was never taught but had to deploy one when diving on a wreck and my reel line broke and the vis was poor and couldn't find my way back to the anchor line so up it went, did a safety stop using the smb to help me in the low vis water, then surfaced a bit down current of the boat the alert crew already had someone in the water who swam a line out to me, they said I did everything right better than a diver who simply free ascended and ended up so far from the boat they couldn't reach him or her with a line or even worse wasn't seen.

 

[Ankush Mittal]

Diving without an SMB or a DSMB is in my opinion foolish.

Here is a small incident which took place a month or so back: I was doing my PADI Underwater Navigator Speciality course in Mahabs near Chennai, India and on one of the drills/tests/scenarios I was to make a square. This was just practice as by this time I had completed the requirements and we had time to kill, on the third turn I realised that the current had put my calculations way off and the poor visibility resulted in my separation from the instructor and the two other drivers were nowhere to be seen. Checking my air I only had 60 Bar left and I decided that rather than search around endlessly while getting low on air the smart thing would be to let my training kick in and call the dive. At this point of time I started ascending at a slow and gradual pace all the while checking my surroundings in case I spotted someone (there are no other dive shops in this area), at 5m, I deployed the SMB to give the small dingy boat time to find me and then after the safety stop I surface, detach the reel and hang on the SMB itself, Seeing the boat quite a far away and remembering I had a whistle the boat captain saw me, signalled to me that he is coming right over. 10 minutes later I was safely back on the dingy. Without the whistle I would have probably had to wait a bit longer as the other divers surfaced 2 minutes after I was on the boat since they were searching for me underwater as well. and the boat captain would have eventually seen the SMB, but par that, there is a chance I would not be writing this post right now.

 

[johndo88]

I used a DSMB on drift dives along walls. Boat captains want you away from the wall when they pick you up. At the end of the dive I ascend up the wall to my safety stop. I then shoot a bag and lock in at 15 feet. I put by back to the wall, take a compass heading and start swimming. After 5 or 10 minutes, I'm way out from the wall, the boat captain already knows where I'm at (I always tell the boat captain what I'm going to do before the dive) and it's not long before he picks us up. I would however recommend the following:
1. Get an SMB with an exhaust valve, then you don't have to guess how much air to put in it. You can purposely over-inflate it at depth and you know that it will be fully inflated at the surface.
2. GET TRAINED. Getting tangled is easy and not good.
3. Practice. This is a perishable skill.
Cheers

 

[Bradv1993]

Recently did the PADI smb speciality and it's definitely something that I want to get into the habit of doing regularly on dives. I always have it with me, but as the previous poster mentioned, need to practice using it!

 

[Bubblesong]

My first ocean practice deploying the dsmb was last week in St.Croix. My dive guide agreed to watch me to give advice, and I was surprised how fast he got to me when he saw me doing it wrong, (like a squirrel jumping on a peanut!) and then he demonstrated correct procedure, and i was able to do it correctly without mishap. I will make it a regular practice at ends of dives.