Is the PADI SMB specialty a waste of money?

[Steve_C]

A few comments.

-An SMB or DSMB is useless if the diver does not have one. Most divers I have seen in warm water locations do not carry one with them. On many trips in the Keys I will be the only one with one.
-I had a small SMB with me on a drift dive out of Jupiter. Came up to find the seas had gotten much bigger (like 5 ft). Went home and got a much bigger DSMB and the kind that has an open bottom that is self closing. Easier to keep everything out away from me.
-It is required for some NC dives.
-I received some DSMB instruction in Search and Recovery and SOLO and maybe some other places. One of my instructors is a friend and currently a dive buddy so I have had a lot of unofficial instruction and discussions along the way.
-I was taught using a spool but quickly decided that I liked the reel better especially for cooler diving. So I use a reel.
-I practice. Saw the reel shooting up more than once when I first started. Shoot the DSMB from about half the quarry dives. The issue for me is not buoyancy but rather taking my time and working carefully.

 

[DanielRJones]

I was thought dsmb deployment in open water and again in AOW.
part of my ppb course was midwater deployment of a dsmb.

I would never do the smb/dsmb course but then again I have been diving in places where nobody uses them or carries them so may not have had the exposure to them I have.

My second dive after ow was a drift dive where everyone had to have a dsmb up at all times and my 3rd was a shore dive with active boat traffic so needed to shoot when surfacing (if you had it up the full dive it would get blown into and get stuck in the rocks.
Dsmb is something I have used on probe rely 50% of all my dives I carry a 1.2m self sealing attached to a 50m reel attached to my back d ring and also carry a simple open end on a finger spool in my drysuit pocket