Is the PADI SMB specialty a waste of money?

[billt4sf]

Perhaps PADI would consider the course "How to always remember to take your SMB on every dive".

That actually might be more important for many resort divers than the DSMB skill.

- Bill
...just shooting my mouth off until I can get back in the water...

 

[billt4sf]

Humm.

I never thought of that as a specialty, but just something you should know how to do - however you learn how to do it.

And honestly, £120 (or whatever in your local currency*) seems to be a bit expensive learn how to put air in a bag underwater**.

On the other hand, you have people like this fellow (see below) for whom that 120 quid would obviously have been a worthwhile investment.


GOOD thing he did not inflate that SMB !

 

[Coop42]

Darn good thing indeed. I expect he'd hold his breath all the way up... that clip astonishes me every time I see it.

 

[rivers]

It's been a long time since I took AOW, 2004. PADI does not teach DSMB in OW. Personally, I think it is a perfectly fine dive to include as one of the 5 for AOW, more valuable than many of the alternatives.

They do now. Well sort of. Instructors have the choice to either teach surface signal inflation or DSMB deployment. We teach DSMB deployment as it's necessary for UK diving

 

[KenGordon]

This thread seems not to take the skill required to put up a DSMB very seriously. Many, many divers just can't do it. Whether that should be the case given what they are supposed to have been taught does not really matter. They either never knew or have not practiced and as a result can't do it.

It seems as reasonable as a buoyancy class. Next I suggest one for taking a mask off underwater. Lots of divers are scared to try that. These are actual needs of actual divers.

So, if you think you need to be taught this (again) you probably do.

 

[Patoux01]

This thread seems not to take the skill required to put up a DSMB very seriously.

Skill required for any diver: proper buoyancy, kicks, trim
Skill required to launch an SMB: proper buoyancy

 

[Wookie]

This thread seems not to take the skill required to put up a DSMB very seriously. Many, many divers just can't do it. Whether that should be the case given what they are supposed to have been taught does not really matter. They either never knew or have not practiced and as a result can't do it.

It seems as reasonable as a buoyancy class. Next I suggest one for taking a mask off underwater. Lots of divers are scared to try that. These are actual needs of actual divers.

So, if you think you need to be taught this (again) you probably do.

I think you misinterpret what you read. The skill required to deploy a dSMB is indeed a high one, but the learning curve is about like mask remove/replace. Once you can do it, everything else is fluff. The initial question was, do you need a separate class, and the only one I found was 120 quid. The answer is, it takes about 2 minutes to learn the skill, and hours of practice to perfect it. Everything else is fluff. I give the fluff for free. I teach the skill for free. as an operator, if someone came up and showed me their PADI dSMB card, I would have a very serious look on my face, but I would die inside a little.

 

[Diver0001]

Thank you Frank. I've been tossing around all day trying to find a way to say exactly that. You said it better than I could have.

I took my PADI OW in 1984 so the DSMB skill was not in it. In fact, I'm not sure if the DSMB was even a "thing" back then.

My first "experience" with trying to deploy a DSMB was in Mexico. It wasn't required by the operator but I wanted to try it so I bought one at a shop in Cozumel and wrapped the string (which was loose) around a snorkel. I figured that just like a kite I could let it unroll at my leisure.

I lost it on my first attempt to launch it.

Subsequently I played around with it and figured it out myself without any instruction after a few attempts.

In my technical training it was given more structured attention.

In the intervening time we took several trips to Egypt to dive and we needed to launch a blob at the end of EVERY dive to make sure that the zodiac knew where we were. During one of those dives I pulled my blob out, unrolled it and blew it up while swimming in "the blue" in what appeared to one of the other divers to be "one fluid motion".

He asked me about that after the dive. How did I learn that, etc. So I explained in detail what he needed to do and told him that on the next dive, he should try it. His first try was very good. His second try (later that day) was more than adequate.

And all of that was what he learned from just hearing it explained in detailed steps.

What I said above is that I didn't think there was enough meat on the bone to justify a specialty. I figure if I can explain it in words and someone who has never tried it before can do it just fine after 2 tries without a demonstration that there is no need for a "specialty".

I notice the same things in my OW course. If it isn't adequate on the first attempt, it is on the second. It's just not that hard of a skill.

R..

 

[scubadada]

As some said they already do, it would be great is all PADI instructors (and other orgs), simply taught dSMB in OW. The divers could then just practice the skill on their own

 

[Trailboss123]

Another reason that I have come to love Scubaboard is that it can just provide timely reminders. I will be accompanying my 2 very best friends to Bonaire later this year for a "bro" dive vacation that I hope will be the first of many. They both just recently got their OW certifications in anticipation of this trip. We all 3 live in different parts of the country, so I had no role in their training. The video clip in post #30 and all of the other posts just reinforced in me that I need to leverage this opportunity with them to not only have lots of fun diving, but ensure that they are properly equipped with some of the most basic skills that many of us take for granted and I cannot take for granted that they were properly trained in-- I love them too much. I just sent them this text:

If we do no other skills training in Bonaire (in addition to all of the fun diving we will do) -- I will be teaching both of you how to deploy a “Delayed Surface Marker Buoy” properly- #1) Because it is a a super critical skill to acquire and can save your life- #2) Because if you don’t know how to do it, you could die in certain dive environments- #3) I don’t want you looking like the guy in this video clip— #4) Had this guy (a dive master in training, apparently?) actually succeeded in getting the SMB filled with air, it would have shot to the surface and taken him with it because he had the reel line wrapped around himself— resulting in a likely DCS hit and lung over expansion injury.— #5) Note how he is not situationally aware and is sinking deeper and not controlling neutral buoyancy- which could lead to other issues, obviously.— #6) This guy is doing this in the absolute optimal conditions of visibility. Imagine if visibility were down to 20 or less feet?— Enjoy —