How many actually use diver buoy or surface marker buoy?

[Z Gear]

I have been diving for a year and a half now and I find it odd that I really don't see many divers using a dive buoy or surface marker buoy. I dive in several areas where there are fishing boats and in La Jolla there are a lot off life guards sometimes patrolling with boats.
When I surface I do look up, but that won't help me if some one is cruising with a boat or a jet ski, I won't be able to see them in time and could perhaps be run over.

This I believe is an important topic because it stresses safety and should not be taken lightly even if you have experience or you think you will never run into this situation. I believe the potential it always there for an accident, unless you either use a dive buoy with flag or deploy a surface marker when you are surfacing.

How many of you actually do this.I would also like to find out HOW do you deploy your safety buoy, do you do it during your safety stop before you surface with a 15 foot lanyard? What is your method I am sure others would like to know what is a good practical way of doing this.

If perhaps you have not felt the need to use a dive buoy and flag or deploy a surface marker tell us why you think it is not
worth the effort.

 

[Wookie]

Drift diving, almost always. Boat diving within 300 feet of the boat, almost never unless lost. Very rarely lost.

 

[iamrushman]

here in Florida it is a law to use a dive flag or buoy when you dive from the beach or drift dive....i use a dive flag on my drift or beach dives. the only time i don't use one is when the dive boat is tied to a submerged wreck and then the boat has a few..

 

[rivers]

Every sea dive, and a fair bit while practicing in the local quarry. I mostly dive wrecks and deploy it from depth. If 30m or shallower, I deploy it before beginning the ascent. Deeper than 30m, it's deployed from 21m when i hit my first stop.
In the off chance i'm drift diving (very rare), it's either deployed once i hit the bottom or I inflate my blob on the boat and let line out of my spool as i descend.

Without my blob, how else is the boat supposed to find me?

 

[lowviz]

How many of you actually do this.

Add one to your count.

I would also like to find out HOW do you deploy your safety buoy,

Drag it with me everywhere I go on NJ shore dives. NJ is really serious about this.

If perhaps you have not felt the need to use a dive buoy and flag or deploy a surface marker tell us why you think it is not
worth the effort.

Mixed feelings. I hate the danm thing, but I also saw what a propeller can do to a tank on the back of a Boyscout. (South Padre Island) First hand experience, I was in the water when it happened. I'd bet someone still has that tank on display...

 

[scottwilson1]

just bought one (smb) so yes i guess

 

[Locus]

I take an smb and spool on every dive, whether from a boat or from shore.

Usually I deploy it from my safety stop regardless of whether I'm in an area where boats are not allowed. This is practice for times when it really comes in handy, like when I'm making an ascent from an underwater pinnacle at 30m with 0 vis in the top 15m due to an algae bloom. I find that gradually spooling in the line makes it much easier to control my ascent rate when I have no visual reference and can barely read my gauges.

Here is the exact method I use: ProTech Skills SMB Deployment
My AOW class was somewhat bare-bones, so I was never actually taught smb deployment by an instructor. This concise demonstration cleaned up my technique significantly.

As an aside, we should all remember that having an smb on the surface does not guarantee that boats will go around you, even boats that should know better. Once while boat diving I was ascending from my safety stop when the dive boat cruised right over my smb, which was 1-2m above me at most. I was surprised to say the least to see the hull coming my way through the water, and I immediately flipped over and descended quickly enough to miss a brush with the propellers. The driver had gotten distracted helping my buddy with something.

 

[tbone1004]

i have an SMB with me on all open water dives, doesn't usually come out, but that's mainly because I'm usually on an anchor line and they can tell by size of bubbles when we are on the stop. For drift dives or dives not off of a boat I will tow a buoy but it is different than my SMB. Mako's Hawaiian Hard Float is probably the best one I have seen for this application. My SMB is a Deep Sea Supply, deploy it with a reel and clip it off. I use light line for this in case it gets caught in something, more likely to break the line than me. #18 is what I use, the floats are on hi-viz dacron so close to #36. Also on a spool that is clipped off unless there are a lot of depth changes planned. Make sure on this one to have 1.5x your depth in line otherwise you're in for a big problem

 

[PfcAJ]

I or someone I'm diving uses one on almost every ocean dive. Lots of drift diving on the east coast of Fl.

 

[Mustard Dave]

I carry a DSMB on every dive. UK skippers will insist you surface on either the shot line or a DSMB. It amazes me that many do not consider DSMB deployment a vital skill.