nearly got caught out with smb

[lermontov]

Back ground : just completed 50min wreck dive and incurred 10 deco obligation temp 14º vis 2m diving air

We had agreed with the 2 other divers on the boat that wed shoot up an SMB when were ready to come up so that they could start kitting up and save a bit of time. All well and good I was swimming back at about 15m and got the smb out, unrolled, got my reg ready and squirted air in. smb shoots upon and after a second or two suddenly I start up with it. Before I knew it I noticed ambient light getter brighter and shock horror realised I was was ascending way too much. grab inflator hose and emptied out BCD -back to 15m. Carried on with ascent and deco with no problem.

things I did wrong- , deployed SMB while swimming sideways Shouldn't have been as casual as I was especially considering deco obligation.
When I later unwrapped my spool I found the reel had a couple of hitches in it from the last time id used it as id tied it off -be more thorough with gear check! not sure if this contributed or if it was coincidence either way i did a sloppy job

 

[Peter69_56]

Yep, easy to do. I was taught to let it go if you start to go up with it, particularly if you have deco obligation.

Once I got a tangle, and let it go, cost me a beer from the captain after he recovered it for me. I always carry 2 anyway just in case (and for other reasons). A DSMB is cheap compared to being bent or worse. Its a disposable item. I try and use mine most dives, simply for practice. The more you practice, the better you are at deploying them.

 

[iamrushman]

yes..common problem..i let go of a few after getting spider-ed webbed even after unrolling and re-rolling before every dive......stuff just happens...glad all worked out for you.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I've had a couple times when I've had one snag on me - eventually I spent the money on a Manta reel, which I haven't had issues with so far. Most of the time with the older reels I used the issue was I let the line go slack enough to wrap around the axle or the crank handle. I have video somewhere of the last time I had it snag on deployment; I could have let go but a) I was on the wreck and had my BC fully deflated, b) the SMB was maybe 1/3 full as I was launching it from 70 ft, and c) I had a wreck to clamp onto while I deflated the SMB and sorted out the tangle. I wasn't in deco either. The commentary on my mask cam was ... expressive, to say the least.

I forget if that was the same dive where I had a tangle around the axle as I was reeling up and stopped to sort it out (I may have been at my safety stop already) and was audibly muttering "Not the ****ing time" because we had a 10-ft tiger shark around that was very inquisitive. Pretty sure that was the last straw for that reel.