Using Surface Marker Buoys

[ImUnderwater]

Following the recent posts about divers being left behind, and also my own personal perception of divers that I have met over the years, I was just wondering how many actually carry a Surface Market Buoy (SMB) or Safety Sausage.

On some places I have dived this is mandatory, but certainly around the Arabian Gulf area it is rare to see anything like this attached to other divers' BCs.

Not interested in whistles (usually attached to most BCs anyway) mirrors or Dive Alerts, just SMBs

Always! I never clip mine to my BPW or BC though, creates too much drag.

 

[Bob DBF]

Answered yes as most of my dives are with Hammerhead plate and I attached pockets for am OMS SMB and a 50# lift bag. On the Freedom Plate I attach a sausage if I feel it might be handy, its a minimal plate so I minimal dive.


Bob
---------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[lsorenson]

I always carry my SMB... Big fatty 8" wide and 6' in length... I use it alot diving for Meg teeth as we do alot of drifting in the ocean over here off NC and even the cooper river as I found out just this past week...! It stows nicely in a Halcyon storage pack and I have never had a problem with it... nice as it is always there...!!!

I am of the belief that deploying the SMB and doing it well should be part of OW certification...

lee

 

[vladimir]

It would be more trouble to leave it than it is to take it, since it is already sitting in a mesh pocket (from DiveGearExpress) secured to my BC.

 

[D_B]

Always .. it's stowed rolled up and bungeed to the side of my BC's plate just under the wing on the left side ... got that idea from one on my friends BP&W :bounce3:

 

[jupitermermaid]

Always! Since I drift dive, I inflate it from depth to indicate to boaters that a diver is surfacing. Even when I'm carrying a float ball when leading a dive as a DM, I carry one in the rare instance that I become separated from the flag/ball. It's a must-have when drift diving.

 

[oldogre]

Sorry for any confusion in my earlier post.By "used in anger" I meant any "non practice " use, as there is very little boat traffic where we dive, it is usually to tell the RIB where we are to pick us up. As we are lazy, if there is a current we always drift.

 

[DiverDean59]

I haven't actually learned to deploy mine (at depth) yet, but I will be carrying it on every dive now that I actually have it. (Got delayed in shipping before my last 3 dives or I would have already started.)

We took a drift diving class with JASA in West Palm Beach and it was a great class. In part of the class they show you how to deploy the SMB at depth. If you get an opportunity to go there ask for Jim Harris. He is a great instructor.

 

[DiverDean59]

Never go on a dive without one.

 

[jamiep3]

Started out with a 3' "Safety Sausage", carried it everywhere but the quarry. After the first time I had to use it (Divemaster somewhere in the Caribbean " You have one of those, I don't what you call it, safety things on your BC. Could you inflate it?), I bought one of the larger ones that DAN sells, which include a mirror, light stick, and whistle. Now an 8' SMB, connected to a spool lives in the right hand pocket attached to my BP/W.