Kenny13
Contributor
And there it is.
Yeah, you were right about that one being implied.
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And there it is.
Oh, and don't drop your weights without making sure another diver isn't right below you.
Oh, and don't drop your weights without making sure another diver isn't right below you.
Good catch!
I wasn't thinking about a diver below at the time I wrote my response. Now I'll be more aware of the situation if I do have to drop my weights.
Ah ha, now another thing to think about. Diver overhead while deploying SMB.
While at a safety stop I tend to look above and before ascending at a surface interval I always look up and hold my arm up over head. I would probably see the diver overhead before deploying the SMB at a safety stop (if SMB is on a reel at 15'). However my current (and not so efficient SMB as I'm learning) will have to be deployed after I reach the surface. Sure I could manually inflate it while at a safety stop, but that has proven to be a pain the you know what, as I've learned in pool practice. Plus, its not on a reel! Why didn't the LDS talk to me about this before I made a purchase???
Note for new divers without an SMB, look for one you can inflate using your regulator or alternate with a reel. Manually inflating the SMB is not an easy or efficient thing to do underwater. Practice deploying the SMB in the pool before you actually have to use it in open water.
SMB will likely be one of my next gear purchases. I figured I wanted to get more comfortable and proficient at other things before adding to the task loading. Keep in mind that I'm not doing any boat diving yet either, so I haven't been in a situation where it was a must have item.
Does your SMB have a place for attaching a line so you can deploy at depth? If so you can always just buy a finger spool.