What do you look for in students to tell if they are ready for AN/DP?

[Jack Hammer]

Another question. How universal is the rule that a yellow SMB means distress? The SMB I have been carrying is yellow but I have only used it for practice and marking underwater objects.

It's best to check with the boat Captain for color. Orange seems more standard for non-emergency these days but about a decade ago there was quite a bit of regional debate as to which color was emergency and which was deco. There are also some markers that are yellow on one side and orange on the other. Regardless, it is always best to mention beforehand you will be shooting a bag to avoid any confusion.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Take a breath off the loop, close mouthpiece, blow it into the bag, mouthpiece back in, take a breath off BOV, open mouthpiece (or, if no BOV, simply go back in the loop and either activate ADV or manually add dil). As long as you let the SMB go as you take that breath off the BOV/ADV/MAV, there’s still no buoyancy shift.

I do have a BOV. my problem is that a lot of time lapsed between my course and my first dives. I'll admit my first dive was a little shaky and I was much more clumsy underwater. Fortunately, a buddy of mine and I live close to each other and a lakeside park. We have just had our first weekly midweek dive and we'll continue weekly. I also made some changes to my configuration that I'm getting used to (like subgravity adjustable harness). And since we are in freshwater, the post dive cleanup is dramatically reduced to cleaning the loop, CLs, and BOV. As my SPGs, DIL/O2 controller tend to float, I'm now looking at how to secure them so they don't lift up my loop.

 

[Degenerate]

As a rebreather diver, my only option is to use an open bottomed DSMB and be deep enough to compensate for possibly not squirting that much gas from my bailout reg.

I am open to any and all suggestions. Well, non snarky ones that is.

I use my drysuit hose to fill my SMB when I'm using my rebreather, would never consider using an open bottomed one and using one of my bailout regs as that just seems like it would create a much bigger mess than uncoupling my drysuit hose and filling it.

 

[Wibble]

Start with a normal breath in your lungs and blow it into the SMB via the oral inflation tube. There's a lot of gas in your lungs on an average breath, plenty to completely fill a small smb, gets one of the big ones about 1/3 to 1/2 full. If it's blown from only 30ft, either will be pretty much full. If you were stable when you started, there's no buoyancy shift so you should stay put.

Frozen lips won’t seal around the spigot.

Itty bitty blobs have no place in the sea if you want to be seen.

Full size SMBs need a fair amount of gas. Several lungfuls. But hey, just blow in, dump from the wing, reg in gob, lungful of gas, blow in the bag, dump from wing, repeat a few times…

A full size SMB with a suit inflate spigot however…

Tip: Install an inflator hose alongside your SPG hose. Use a couple of lengths of duct tape to keep them together. Or use your drysuit hose.

Get your reel/spool with attached full-sized SMB out, undo SMB and unfurl. Tidy up string, etc. Get inflator hose ready ant place on the inflation spigot— don’t inflate yet. Look around you; up, down, left, right. If all ok and the SMB is not tangled or moved, squeeze the hose into the spigot and begin inflating. It helps if the bag was pointing out and down as it’ll take a couple of seconds to start pulling. Keep inflating as long as you can hold it then release. When it reaches the surface reconnect the drysuit hose and ascend.

The easiest way to send up a SMB by far is to use a crack bottle (small 0.1 litre cylinder filled from a dive cylinder) or a CO2 cartridges.

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2m CO2 SMB (Twin 16gm CO2)

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[kierentec]

Frozen lips won’t seal around the spigot.

No, but the inner rim of your thumb/index finger of your dry glove do. And your lips seal against your dry glove

No issues getting plenty of gas in a 2m smb by exhaling into it. Lots of issues and hazards associated with creating a rocket that’s attached to you by a piece of string….

 

[Wibble]

No, but the inner rim of your thumb/index finger of your dry glove do. And your lips seal against your dry glove

No issues getting plenty of gas in a 2m smb by exhaling into it. Lots of issues and hazards associated with creating a rocket that’s attached to you by a piece of string….

For the sake of decorum, we’ll have to agree to disagree.

BTW how do you inflate a SMB on CCR? Oh, that’s why some CCRs have a longhose

 

[Manatee Diver]

You can put hash marks on your SMB that will help with making sure it's full at the surface. I have hash marks for 33', 66', 99' on mine - fill to the hash mark depending on the depth you're at and viola.

Well I am stealing this idea.

I assume you just measure total length and do the needed math half for 33ft, third for 66ft?

 

[kierentec]

BTW how do you inflate a SMB on CCR? Oh, that’s why some CCRs have a longhose

Scroll up

 

[kierentec]

Well I am stealing this idea.

I assume you just measure total length and do the needed math half for 33ft, third for 66ft?

Just make sure to measure from the top down, did mine from the bottom up first, wasn’t very helpful

 

[-JD-]

For deeper SMB fills (open/duck-valve bottom), I like to hold onto the bag and fill from my wing (corrugated hose). Net buoyancy change is 0 until I let go of the bag so I can take my time to be sure everything is tidy and clear before releasing, then a good shot on the inflator to get just slightly negative since I'm going up anyway and would soon have to be dumping.