SMB - 48" or 75" (Better Option in Miami)

[USVet96]

Hey everyone:

Looking for feedback on SMB. The 2 options I'm looking at are 48" and 75".

I will be using it primarily (95%) in the Miami area.

I know there are several inflate options but I like the manual inflate.

What do you use and why?

Thanks



USVet

 

[USVet96]

Really lol

 

[tyesai]

The biggest one you can comfortably and carry practically. Honestly if I drift away from the boat I'd like to have this.....

Highland 10 foot Surface Marker Buoy (SMB) HL202 with reviews at scuba.com

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

The 4 footer is pretty small. You wife might tell you otherwise, but bigger is better.

Seriously, the 6' is minimum. On a flat sea you don't need anything, but surface in some 3-4' waves and the toy SMB's are hard to see.

 

[skankpile]

I'd buy the big one because:

I was at the sailfish marina in Palm Beach cleaning our boat and this guy comes running across the pier asking anybody to run him back out to his boat as he drifted off. What happened was his boat called the coast guard and helis were flying around looking for him and he did not want to pay the bill. We ran him out to his boat and he jumped in the water.. his boat radioed in saying they found him.

Basically he got lost from his boat and swam a few miles back to Palm beach, crossed the island on foot, saw the helicopters flying around so he saw --$$ and hoped his fellow man would help... it was pretty cool, and he offered us free dental (dentist) for the help.

So I'd go with the long one, and I also put my initials on it as I hate seeing boats going by smb's and speeding off as they figure out its the wrong group, or diver.

 

[USVet96]

Thank you for the replies. I was thinking the 6 just wanted to get some input.

I appreciate it