SMB and Finger-spool Practice??

As a Christmas present my wife got me an SMB and Finger-spool. I have never used either before, but want to make surE i know how to use them before going to Roatan with the Invasion Crew.

My questions is how have others gained experience with an SMB? What about those that are located in an area with cold winters and no local diving?

Is it common practice to learn these types of equipment in a pool?

1) thanks for asking
2) you really can't try it in a pool to get the true effect
3) there are several ways but only two seen to work.
a) You can pull the primary from your mouth and press the purge button to inflate it.
b) You can attach the spool to the SMB, while holding the line away from your gear, bring the SMB toward your face and let your ehhaled gas inflate it. (This is the manner which I prefer but then again I use Poseidon regs with side exhaust).

I am not sure if you'll carry these in a pocket or clipped to a D ring on your bcd. You may want to put your bcd on and practice clipping and unclipping these off your bcd. If you wear gloves, I'd throw those on as well. Also, SMB sometimes can be tricky to inflate, you could try that a few times before getting wet. Hope that helps. Enjoy your trip.


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Should have mentioned my concern is possible issues when inflating is that if you're not familiar it can pull you up in an uncontrolled ascend. Hoping I am overthinking this, but just want to make sure I know how to properly use these tools.

#1, DONT put your finger in the hole. There are many many many videos online to show how to properly use them. It does take a few tries before it will feel comfortable. How you inflate will depend on what style you have and how you choose to inflate it.

You could use your octo to inflate it. I use my drysuit hose for mine

kerrycorcoran:

Should have mentioned my concern is possible issues when inflating is that if you're not familiar it can pull you up in an uncontrolled ascend. Hoping I am overthinking this, but just want to make sure I know how to properly use these tools.

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Don't sweat this. It's nbd.

Choose a rigging arrangement so the setup is where you want it to be and handy. I clip my spool and SMB separately to my right rear D-ring with double enders and I practiced getting to them enough so I can do it with my eyes closed.

Inflation was covered earlier - I like to use my primary, but you could also use your octo or exhalation

Tell your DM that you'd like to practice running out your SMB and that you've never done it - she can look at how you have yours setup, walk you thru inflation etc and then observe you when you shoot it. Insist on doing it otherwise she might forget. Also she can tell the boat captain that you are going it so no one thinks it's something it isn't

All the horror stories for uncontrolled ascents I've heard of all involved entangling, so just deploy it the first time at the *end* of your safety stop - then the worst thing that can happen is you get entangled & then you blow bubbles for the 20 feet or it takes you to get towed to the surface.. and you think about what you did wrong and do it again on the next dive

Make sure your buddy is watching as well & practice it until it's perfect!

Have fun in Roatan, it's great diving.

There's some great 'how to' demonstration videos on Youtube. Take a look at those.

Specific technique will depend on several factors; primarily the type of DSMB (oral-inflate, closed, semi-closed etc) and the size of the DSMB (relates to optimal deployment depth range).

You can gain some familiarization with using the spool in your back garden.

Developing muscle memory for efficiently clipping/unclipping snaps to/from your BCD or pockets etc can be done whilst watching TV on the couch.

Basic inflation technique, combined with buoyancy control, can be rehearsed in a pool.

Full deployment, depending on the factors outlined above, may have to be done on open water dives.

Rule 1 is if you are being pulled to the surface, LET GO

I didn't release my double ender properly once as I had a free flowing deco reg, and didn't see I didn't have it deployed properly before filling, soon as I felt it pulling me and realised the reel was not running out, I let the whole lot go. Not worth being bent over a DSMB and reel. I then used my dive buddies rig.

Luckily the boat saw and recovered it but no big deal either way.

Peter69_56:

Rule 1 is if you are being pulled to the surface, LET GO

I didn't release my double ender properly once as I had a free flowing deco reg, and didn't see I didn't have it deployed properly before filling, soon as I felt it pulling me and realised the reel was not running out, I let the whole lot go. Not worth being bent over a DSMB and reel. I then used my dive buddies rig.

Luckily the boat saw and recovered it but no big deal either way.

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I lost my spool once as well. I pretty much just let the thing float above me and picked it up when I surfaced