Teaching of SMB/Safety Sausage Deployment in Basic Scuba training

[bluefabian]

I was wondering how many of you, OW instructors include deployment of an SMB/Safety sausage as part of your student's training. Mine was not included and I can't really blame my instructor because this was not a skill within PADI's syllabus. It was mentioned brieftly in the book but no emphasis was given.

I had a talk with my former OW instructor about this and he said that the skill and practice is beyond the scope of his teaching (for OW). I suggested to him that maybe he can include this as an extra since safety is paramount to me. He replied back saying that how many newly certified OW diver actually went out to do boat dives in bad weather anyway (or rough seas). And I guess he is thinking that most of these new divers do not dive on their own or without an experienced guide.

Now I am doing my AOW with another instructor who is willing to teach me how to deploy the thing. In fact I just bought one (with a signal mirror) from him, based from his brand recommendation (dual sided yellow/orange, non tangle). But again, it was me who insisted to have this being taught.

-----------------

A bit of a background history:
I did my OW in the waters of Saudi Arabia, specifically the Red Sea. The visibility is stunning, coral life is abundant even as far as 1 feet from the shore (no kidding). I did 15+ shore dives when I was there - no boats because the costal guard prohibit them near the borders of Egypt (smuggling issues), so I didn't have this experience before. I dived in many sites around the Red Sea, not far enough from the shore though and had never really encounter a real underwater current. And barely some surface wave (or splash).


When I came back for good to my own country Malaysia, I got to taste the wrath of the mighty South China Sea. My first dive there was done in a 1-2 metres visibility (no kidding) - a shocker at first but I have learnt to focus on enjoying diving here even with such limitations (sometimes we get like 7-10 metres vis though). I lost sight of my buddy a few times and had to resurface on my first few dives. And it was just a few seconds ago that I saw his trail. Yellow/neon fins don't help to make things clearer. It was more of a technical error on my part because I fail to stay close. Lose him and that's it.

As I resurfaced, I was shocked to see that the sea had turned into something close to a scene from the 'Perfect Storm'. Rains started to fall, winds blow against the sea - making it hard for me to swim back to the boat. If not for my powerful fins - I may need to be rescued!!! And it was just moments back that the weather was calm. In a matter of minutes it changed face!!!

And it was my first boat dive. Shore diving is not something of a luxury especially when there were abundants of small rivers branching into the ocean. Spewing it's load into the delta (and messing with the visibility). We had to go out rather far by boat into the sea to really have a good site.

And on my last dive, we were met with a strong underwater current that came in suddenly. I was literally spinning around while holding to the anchor line during the safety stop. It got rather violent as at a time it propelled me to 3 metres from 5 - making my dive comp to beep crazily.

------------

All those experienced alone thought me how the sea can be such a rough place. For me shore diving is no longer a luxury - at least where I live. Boat diving is where my adventure is (well, there's also mangrove, river diving to try...).

It is then I discovered that
1 - you can get lost underwater either by losing you buddy or your buddy losing you, blaming that on visibility, bad partnership, and strong currents both underwater and on the surface. Sometimes the ocean cannot be fought.
2 - I can drift away from the boat, or resurface away from where the boat was
3 - Anything can happen in rough weather conditions
4 - Boat traffic can mean either losing your head or losing your mind.
5 - Having a signalling device can turn the tide against life or death

6 - My open water training didn't prepare me much for this. Especially when dealing with such emergencies.


I dunno. Shouldn't there be more emphasis on safety from this part - signaling device - especially in basic scuba education? Not just having the information being there - but making it as an essential survival skill? Being able to dive is as important to survive on a dive turned bad.

 

[*dave*]

I discuss the use of the SMB and strongly recommend each student conducting ocean dives purchase one. I discuss two scenarios where deploying a SMB could be the difference between life and death or serious injury. I demonstrate the use, but it's not something I drill students on. There's already enough in the course for the time allotted to teach it.

I also discuss DSMBs and use them during checkouts. Again, this is not something I drill on and I actually recommend divers get some experience diving before I teach them how to deploy a DSMB.

 

[paddler3d]

The diving that you describe is a bit more than basic open water diving. You are describing diving in advanced conditions, i.e. Advanced Open Water.

If you take the PADI Deep Diver part of the cert is deploying an SMB from your safety stop.

Also, SMB and safety sausage are not the same thing. To deploy a safety sausage, you manually inflate it with your mouth. A SMB tends to have an open bottom so you can fill it up at depth from your reg.

What may be more appropriate is not to ask your OW instructor about why you were not taught to deploy a SMB, but ask him about training you to use your judgment about diving in the conditions you describe was appropriate for your level of training.

PADI is set up so you can start your advanced classes right after OW, so you can learn some of the skills you would have needed. I believe once you actually hit 25 dives, you can get your advanced rating.

If you doing PADI they offer specialties in deep diving, night and limited vis, boat diving, search and recovery, navigation, drift diving. All of these will help you in your local waters.

Good luck!

 

[dhuskins]

My open water class was shore dives at Monterey, CA. There is no need to use a sausage at Breakwater. Consequently, we did not train with one. The local dive shop, when helping us get equipment, found out we would be doing some drift diving and recommended we get one. He showed us how to inflate them when we bought it.

We have never really needed it, but it has come in handy a couple times. I take it on every boat dive.

 

[bluefabian]

Wow! Thanks for the fast reply.

I know what some of you are saying. But in actual sense, how many people actually advanced into AOW? For many, and I have spoken to a few - most actually stopped after OW, just to get the cert. And I am sure many OW scuba divers out there may have actually dive in situation/conditions/depth beyond their training and certification. Isn't it a bit say... inappropriate to hold such information at a higher certification level.

I am more worried with the 'what if' situation. Occassional diver, resort/holiday divers - mainly recreational divers as a whole. Going for a kinda usual, relaxed dive but stumbled upon said difficult scenarios.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Don't just pick on PADI ... none of the major agencies teach SMB deployment in OW. Most don't require it to be taught it at any level.

I teach it in AOW ... primarily because that's where we are exposing divers to more challenging conditions where a deployable SMB could be useful.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Garth]

I recently went through advanced open water for PADI and I did not get safety sausage training for deployment but now own one with a reel. The last dive I did I tested it out in a quarry. Intrestingly it worked.
I think I will try to go out with one of my instructors to go over the practice with them. My LDS is not the cheapest dive shop in the area but definitely make up for it with detailed instruction on the skills they do teach and are open to help you dive outside of class.

 

[Johan Broere]

The sausage : I have 2 experiences with the sausage and in both cases we were all surprised how little effect it had. One was bright orange, the other yellow. I do carry one but my whistle has a greater impact. Therfore, test your whistle, there are some real crappy ones out there. Specially the ones that don't work when they are wet, tick me off.

 

[DiverLS]

I found the necessatity of a safety sausage at Small Brother in the Red Sea. The current shifted in the middle of our dive and I was forced to swim against it. My two buddies swam off without me. Yes - that was inexcusable but I had to take care of myself. With the heavy breathing finning against the current I used up that tank in a hurry. When I surfaced there was nothing to hang on to so the current started sweeping me away to the Indian Ocean. I quickly deployed my safety sausage patting myself on the back for carrying it. The chase boat did see it and came to my rescue. They pulled me on the boat with bp/w and tank still on. They were on the way to rescue some other divers when they saw my safety sausage. After I got back on the big boat I sat down and let myself relax. Even though I never was trained, I watched others deploy a safety sausage. It worked.

Now I have a different type, the one I had in the Red Sea was open bottomed and you used your regulator to fill it. When I dived Cozumel last summer I saw another kind that you blow into to inflate. The tube inflated and stayed inflated. I now own that type, plus a finger spool to let it pop to the surface when I do my safety stop.

 

[leapfrog]

I recently went through advanced open water for PADI and I did not get safety sausage training for deployment.

It depends on the AOW adventure dives you chose. I am all in favor of SMB training an it should be covered at AOW level but if someone does, for example, Night, Search & Recovery and UW Digital Photography, it won't be covered. I know a couple of places where they give SMB deployment as a Distinctive Specialty.