Who Uses their SMB and Deploys it At Depth Before Ascending to the surface

[stevensamler]

I carry one on every dive, practiced on how to use it and shoot it on an as-needed basis.

Never dive without it and oh yah the finger spool also.

 

[bracko]

*hand up*

always carry one, always. whether it be DM'ing with a class, leading a group dive, leading or just joining a social dive, holiday, at "home", boat, shore.... you get the picture. essential equipment is essential.

 

[TSandM]

I almost never get in the water without a pre-rigged SMB and spool. If there is any significant component of direct ascent to the dive, unless it's up the boat's anchor line, I will shoot the bag and ascend on the line. It helps me with my midwater vertigo, lets me cheat a little on my ascent buoyancy ( ), lets the dive boat know where I am, and MIGHT cause somebody to wonder if they should be driving over it or not (at least they might worry about getting their prop caught in something). But it's still my responsibility to listen and look, and make sure where I want to get to the surface is a safe place to be there.

Aside from the whole team approach to diving, the two most useful things I got from Fundies were the back kick and SMB deployment.

 

[Banyan]

Since nobody has mentioned uses for shore diving yet... on Guam, many of the ingress/egress points for shore dive spots are also used by rod and reel fishermen who wade out to the reef edge. They may see your bubbles coming towards them, but I made a point to deploy my SMB well before I got within cast range of the shore. They may want to avoid hooking me, but probably want to avoid entangling with my SMB line more.

Otherwise, I consider my SMB to be my "hey Mr. Dive Boat, I've started my safety stop so be waiting to pick me up when I hit the surface"-notification. It's very useful to orient yourself in open water. I also saw it used in Palau on a wall dive when the current flipped and the guide immediately deployed to let the dive boat know that we were going the opposite direction, and hauled around the SMB for the rest of the dive. I don't think I've ever really thought of it was a safety measure vs boats. (Might work on Guam but I doubt anybody in Alaska would have the slightest idea what it meant.) Obviously, it's not needed if the dive site already has an upline.

 

[XS-NRG]

I don't pull mine out until I'm on my safety stop. Gives me something to do while floating. I'll casually pull it out and get it vertical and add a light bit of air to give it some shape without taking off or affecting my own buoyancy and as I'm finished I'll give it a good shot then just surface with it and let the air expand inside it and add again at the surface if necessary. Mine isn't on a reel though. I can understand the advantages for reeled vs non reeled but I choose non reeled. If I'm shore diving with no boat etc I'll tow a flag on a reel the whole time so hopefully no boats will be around but if the prop grabs it I can let go of the reel and just let it have it!

 

[djanni]

Always deploy an SMB from depth if the dive master hasn't deployed first. Probably more important here in Coz.

 

[AfterDark]

I carry both in my pocket. I took my SMB and a cloth dive flag to a cobbler (for you young'uns that somebody that fixes shoes instead of throwing them away) and had him sew the flag to the SMB. Then I JB Weld epoxy 2 sinkers together and attached them to the bottom of the SMB. When I need to surface other than at the egress I deploy the SMB/flag, or if I see the DEM on shore I submerge, swim to a location where they can't see the SMB deployed then head back to the egress. I've walked right by the nice officers with my SMB/flag they smile and nod they don't know they're waiting for me! I've watched them watching divers egress waiting for me to reappear without a dive flag for 30 min before giving up!

Since a post ain't worth a damn w/o pictures:

 

[chrpai]

I took my SMB and a cloth dive flag to a clobber (for you young'uns that somebody that fixes shoes instead of throwing them away)

I think you mean a "cobbler", grandpa.

 

[AfterDark]

I think you mean a "cobbler", grandpa.

Thanks kid.

 

[chrpai]

FWIW, I think cobblers still exist. They just fix iPhones now.