Stowing SMB

[mer]

Many divers use a 6' sausage, 60# open or 80# closed in the backpad of the backplate typically with the clip clipped to the butt dring with no problems. How you fold it is key however. Wetsuit, drysuit, drygloves, no suit... no problems and it doesn't dig into your back... again folding technique is key. 3' sausages can be prerigged to a spool and stored in a thigh pocket. You can find a great photo sequence on how to fold liftbags on www.ontariodiving.com.

When I've been without pockets (warm water dives) putting the spool or SMB on the butt or even left hip dring seems a better option than the chest. But don't forget to touch check it a couple times during the dive. Anything clipped to the chest tends to get in the way when going through doorways of wrecks or getting close to take a macro photo on the reef.

 

[Tollie]

As this is the DIR forum I’ll try to stick with what I believe to be a DIR perspective.

From a DIR perspective I think there are only two possible solutions… both of which have been mentioned. These are 1) in a pouch behind the BP or 2) in a pocket on your exposure suit. The advantage to the pocket is that you can store an SMB preloaded on a spool. The pouch option pretty much requires you to separately store the spool or if you are using a reel take the time to rig the deployed SMB and the reel.

Two other points.

From a DIR perspective the SMB is team property and the deployment of the SMB is a team skill… so practice deployments need to be pre planned with the other members of your team.

Like all skills the key to comfort is practice, and more practice until it’s in muscle memory. Variant equipment placements are not a strong solution to lack of skill.

 

[jonnythan]

I used to keep mine rolled up in the backplate and clipped to my rear D-ring.. wearing an ill-fitting drysuit with bulky undergarments and drygloves. Never had an issue. If you can't reach your rear D-ring, something is wrong that you need to fix.

If those locations simply don't work for you, I'd suggest just clipping off directly to the butt D-ring if you're very confident in how securely it's rolled up.

 

[cool_hardware52]

Hi All,

I've got a carter SMB or PFD 75. It rolls up to be fairly large. Just wondering if anyone could advise on the best place and how to stow it. I was thinking bungee's looped through the BP? I've got a DSS plate.

Cheers

Alex

Alex,

My first choice would be a thigh pocket on your suit, if the smb can be rolled small enough. That's where I carry mine, rigged to a spool.

If you can roll your smb into a tube it's posible to bungee it to the bottom of your plate. That's why there are 4 holes across he bottom of the plate. I carry my lift bag bungeed across the bottom of my plate.

Tobin

 

[mania]

I keep it in my BP pocket. And we dive dry suits with dry gloves. as mer said - the key and the trick is the way to fold it. Then there is no problem in getting SMB out.
Mania

 

[limeyx]

I used to keep mine rolled up in the backplate and clipped to my rear D-ring.. wearing an ill-fitting drysuit with bulky undergarments and drygloves. Never had an issue. If you can't reach your rear D-ring, something is wrong that you need to fix.

If those locations simply don't work for you, I'd suggest just clipping off directly to the butt D-ring if you're very confident in how securely it's rolled up.

and this way, it will give your next instructor something to "play" with as you swim along

 

[BigTuna]

I have two SMBs. When I dive with my DAN SMB, with is rather large, I dangle it from the crotch strap D-ring (the bag's slightly positive). When I dive with my small SMB, I stuff it in a drysuit pocket, or in a DiveRite pocket that I wear with my wet suit.

In addition to a SMB, I always dive with a lift bag. I accordian-fold it and stow it in a DiveRite pouch that I hang from the bottom of my backplate, attaching it with "sex" screws. I clip off the bag's support loop to my crotch strap D-Ring. This ensures that I can find the bag and deploy it if I need it. I always carry a finger spool that I can use for deploying the bag. (I suppose I could deploy the SMB with it, too, altho I've never tried that.)

 

[alexxred]

Thanks for all the input.

The Issue really is the size of the SMB (the carter PF 75) it's thicker than a coke can when rolled and about half as long again. Can't see it fitting in a stowage pack.

 

[edparris]

Like Mer & Mania said, fold it. Here's what works for me (pictures):

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=1644847#post1644847

 

[DocWong]

When I first saw Halcyon's MC pocket, I too thought that it would be nearly impossible to remove the large SMB I had.....until I took Fundies. My instructor, Beto, simply showed me the correct way to stow and clip it and now with one simple motion I can easily deploy it.