Is the PADI SMB specialty a waste of money?

[Taronmyheel]

How many people make less than 10 dives a year? Do you really think that even if they take the class they are going to be able to shoot a bag effectively after leaving the bottom? Chances are they will empty the BC and drop anchor on whatever is below them and deploy from a kneeling position and if it doesn't turn into a rats nest and take them with it reel themselves up the line like they are fishing. Skills need to be practiced and shooting a dSMB should probably be a part of every appropriate teaching dive after OW if you want to have any real comfort with the skill. It's not a hard skill to do but it's not hard to mess up either.

Totally agree. We agreed to take a newer diver out and he brought a reel with him. It was a big mistake. I turned around and he was covered with line. We take it away and gave it back at the end of the dive.

 

[Cr.padlo]

I think PADI should include DSMB training in OW-- it is a very important skill that I believe should be taught as a matter of course. a safety sausage was one of my first purchases because my instructor believed it was important and made sure I knew how to deploy one

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

I would be more interested in PADI "Weight belt specialty."

 

[DevonDiver]

I think PADI should include DSMB training in OW-- it is a very important skill that I believe should be taught as a matter of course....

Woukd you have been prepared, at that stage, to have paid for an extra days training to cover it?

Most wouldn't... which is why it's basically an optional extra for those who want/need it.

 

[Cr.padlo]

Woukd you have been prepared, at that stage, to have paid for an extra days training to cover it?

Most wouldn't... which is why it's basically an optional extra for those who want/need it.

i can see the point you are making, but I feel from a safety perspective it should be taught...it does matter a bit if they aren't going to be diving that often...but maybe make it dive 6 of AOW then?

 

[DevonDiver]

i can see the point you are making, but I feel from a safety perspective it should be taught...it does matter a bit if they aren't going to be diving that often...but maybe make it dive 6 of AOW then?

Course syllabus have to cover a global need. DSMB is beneficial, but there's regions where the average diver will never need to deploy one.... other regions where they're virtually mandatory.

The speciality was originally written for UK divers.. as for a while it looked like DSMB would actually become mandatory (it didn't).

It'd be great to include such things at entry level (OW and AOW), but when it comes to recreational diving training demand tends to dictate supply. What most people invariably demand is cheap, quick and easy.

 

[boulderjohn]

Course syllabus have to cover a global need. DSMB is beneficial, but there's regions where the average diver will never need to deploy one.... other regions where they're virtually mandatory.

This is an important concept that some people have trouble understanding. In education circles, some people contrast just in case learning with just in time learning.

When I teach an OW class, one of the first things I do after students get in the pool is swim around on scuba, first on the surface and then under water in the shallow end of the pool. When they come up, I jokingly tell them that they have learned how to dive, thank you for coming, etc. Then I seriously tell them that nearly everything that follows in the class is really about how to respond just in case something goes wrong.

When you teach things just in case the diver needs it, you have to consider factors like the importance of being able to do it when needed and the likelihood that they will need it. If the factors do not indicate an immediate or especially important need, you are better off not teaching it, because the student will likely forget it by the time it is needed, and the time spent learning it detracts from the ability to learn the more important and more timely stuff. As an example, in deciding whether or not to teach out of air skills, you realize that the odds are the diver will never need it (I never have), but it will be both extremely important and unpredictable when it is needed, so it should be taught from the start.

With just in time learning, you determine that the diver is unlikely to need the skill at that time, and when the diver needs it in the future, the diver should be able to predict it and be able to learn it just in time to use it. As an example, the OW book gives only the briefest mention of tides. It does give some information, but it mostly tells the diver to get local knowledge if diving in an area where tides affect diving. I personally went nearly 900 dives before I was in a situation where tides made even the slightest difference in my dive planning--Puget Sound. I learned about them from local people before I did those dives. In contrast, someone who lives in Seattle and dives locally needs to know about tides from the very beginning.

PADI has made the decision that deploying a SMB is now important enough to make it a requirement for OW training. As for a DSMB, many divers will go hundreds of dives without ever seeing one deployed, so it makes sense to teach it only to people who will find themselves in a situation where it could be important to them.

 

[blac86]

If you need and smb speciality you should go ask your ow instructor for your money back because they failed you.

 

[scubadada]

I think @DevonDiver and @boulderjohn have it right. It would make sense for a PADI instructor to consider teaching DSMB in an area where the skill is likely to be needed and used.

I do much of my diving in SE FL in Boynton Beach, Jupiter, and West Palm. I have deployed my SMB on multiple occasions when I have ended up separated from the person with the float and flag on a drift dive, particularly in strong current. This has happened most when diving with the DM that Jupiter Dive Center puts in the water with the group. This is not uncommon or unexpected. On a few occasions, a well meaning diver has unhooked the line to a wreck and I have made the ascent on my SMB. The current can be quite brisk and one can end up surfacing a long distance from the wreck. Personally, I believe having the skill to deploy a SMB is very valuable in these situations.

 

[boulderjohn]

Personally, I believe having the skill to deploy a SMB is very valuable in these situations.

Very much so. Diving in nearly the same area, I once (unbelievably) had a private dive boat decide that my dive flag was the one their diver had abandoned earlier. They came by, grabbed it, gunned the engine to break it loose from where it was supposedly hooked to the reef, and drove off with it while my dive boat was blowing its horn, shouting over the loudspeaker, and heading for them at full speed. When I felt myself heading to the surface with the flag, I decided to let go of the flag rather than take an unexpected ride in their wake. With no flag, I simply sent up my DSMB and went on with the dive.