Lift Capacity Question: HOG 4.5ft SMB

[g1138]

I'll agree with you a big tall marker on the surface is a plus if you can get it standing up.
For my specific need with the basic class, I don't need a signaling SMB, just one with enough lift to reach the surface, one's that's easy to deploy and small so I can quickly roll it up and stow it once on the surface.

The point of deploying one is so the basic students can use the trailing line as a point of reference if they do their safety stop midwater with no reference.
Over here in Monetery, getting even 15ft vis is lucky, so to have a basic student midwater trying to maintain buoyancy, stick with their buddy, and check their gauges all at once, it's too much of a task load for them.
We don't encourage hanging from anything for a safety stop, usually we'll tell then to "ok" the line so that they're not actually tugging on anything, whether the line be kelp or an actual line off an SMB.
So really anything I can do to help them. I'll gladly launch my 6ft SMB to assist in this, but I really don't want to spend the time to deflate and roll that thing up tight enough to fit my velcro strap around it and secure it.

So I guess what I'm saying is, I want a smaller SMB because I'm lazy ;P

 

[watboy]

Out of curiosity, how do people get a 6' 40lb oral dsmb fully inflated? For me, I have a few dsmbs. I have the small 3.3' halcyon that I can easily orally inflate with one breath. I also carry a much larger, 6' dsmb with some 40lbs of lift. I can get it fully inflated on the surface if I launch from 10 meters or more, but with this model I fill with the octopus. I tried the 6' bigdam halcyons with an oral inflate only. How does one get one of these fully inflated? I tried doing the LP inflate, but I really really dislike disconnecting my LP to do that. Just seems like if i were in an "oh crap" situation, its just another step that if done wrong can be bad.

 

[Tortuga68]

Well, there's a few things:

1. You don't *have* to fully inflate it. If you're in "oh crap" mode, just get it up there - or, don't deploy it until you get to the surface

2. Make yourself negative before deploying ie let some air out of your BCD

3. Fin down during deployment to maintain your depth

4. Oral inflate isn't going to make it easy since you'll need more than one breath, which will mean swapping back to your reg, which slows the process

5. If you use a non-oral inflate DSMB, some people dump air out of their inflator (transferring air from your wing to the DSMB) which means your total lift should stay the same, in theory anyway

Lastly, maybe a 40# DSMB isn't the right one to be using if you're deploying it from <10m

I suggest you ask yourself what the purpose of deploying the SMB is... alert boat traffic not to run over you? Help boat to find you? Provide an upline for stops? The answers will determine what to use and when to deploy it