What SMB do you have?

[chris408]

Just wondering what type of SMB you have; make, model.
I've been looking for one and there are lots of options to think about, like self-sealing, dump valves, mutli-color, length, etc. Thanks.

 

[Cacia]

Halcyon

the smaller of the two

very heavy duty

I like the inflator and the *festivity* of shooting the marker to the surface. I don't pack it away behind the backplate because I use it so much.....also I prefer the SS reel because the weight makes handling the deployment easier for me than the lighter weight plastic ones.

 

[ronbeau]

Just wondering what type of SMB you have; make, model.
I've been looking for one and there are lots of options to think about, like self-sealing, dump valves, mutli-color, length, etc. Thanks.

DAN SMB with Surface Marker WDS (Web Deployment System)

My wife daughter and I have the same setup.

 

[almitywife]

bought one of these and love it and had to buy another one for hubby

easy to attached to either my bc or bp, easy to access and use and no way i can forget to pack it. you can either purge to let air in thru the bottom or you can use a lp hose to inflate.

i use to just throw a smb in my suit pocket but never carried a reel - now its all in one place

http://www.scubatoys.com/store/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=ZeagleDeployMarkerKit

 

[nereas]

I went looking for the kind that you inflate from an LP port, and found that Halcyon makes an array of these in several sizes. I bought the 4 ft size, which I can use as either a Surface Marker Bouy activated at the surface, or else for an up-line activated underwater. It is orange.

I use the drysuit inflator LP hose to inflate it, which I keep attached to a DiveAlert, and clipped to a D-ring by an attached bolt snap. Since I use argon for my drysuit, this hose is an auxiliary which serves as a backup in case the argon bottle runs out on me.

The SMB when rolled up and secured by elastic cord is nice and compact, and clips onto a D-ring with another bolt snap attached to the elastic cord. On my last trip to the Florida Keys, the dive boat captain said, "I see that all of you have a marker buoy on your B/Cs, that's good, I'm glad; you all took our notification seriously that these are mandatory on our dive boat."

Dive-Alerts were also mandatory on that boat.

 

[Charlie99]

I carry both a 4"x44" sausage similar to the FM35 and a 88"x6" sausage similar to FM36. http://www.tridentdive.com/Export171.htm

I wrap about 30' of 2mm cord around the FM35, with a boltsnap for weight. To launch the FM35 from 20' or so, I simply let the boltsnap strip the cord off the sausage, then give it one good breath of air, then let it pop to the surface. It is a rather small sausage and the main purpose is a "Don't Run Me Over" signal to boats above.

The FM36 is heavy duty plastic similar to a heavy duty lawn trash bag, but in orange. It is only usuable on the surface. To protect it, I keep it inside a length of skinny bicycle innertube. It is a bit awkward to deploy and I consider it to be a piece of emergency equipment, just like my signal mirror.

The FM35 and 30' of cord roll up to a small cylinder about 2-1/2 inch diameter by 5" wide. The FM36 is an amazingly compact 1" diameter x 8" long cylinder.

Get the biggest sausage you are willing to carry.

A couple times when I deployed the 4x44" sausage divers afterwards told me that they had sausages that were much more bigger and more visible. Unfortunately, they didn't have them with them when they needed it. Both of the above sausages live permanently in my BCD pockets and go on all dives.

Charlie Allen

 

[fdog]

The big orange OMS SMB & a yellow Oxycheq liftbag.

All the best, James

 

[nivla80]

The SMB from Halcyon. Heavy Duty. Stick it into the MC storage Pac b4 every dive. Pretty compact too. You'll like it!

 

[stevephilanyc]

I too have the DAN SMB. Works well and seems very heavy duty.

Steve

 

[chris408]

bought one of these and love it and had to buy another one for hubby

easy to attached to either my bc or bp, easy to access and use and no way i can forget to pack it. you can either purge to let air in thru the bottom or you can use a lp hose to inflate.

i use to just throw a smb in my suit pocket but never carried a reel - now its all in one place

Very cool, should work nicely with my Ranger. How do you mount it?