Some questions on SMB usage

[Deefstes]

Thanks man, I'm really glad you decided not to go the 2000 words route

 

[TSandM]

With big bags -- lift bags, or the 6 foot SMBs -- you need to do something to manage buoyancy while you fill it. With the one meter bags, there's no need. Just going a little head down and finning slightly while you are filling it will keep you in place. When I learned to shoot a bag, I was doing a bunch of stuff with air in the BC and lungs and SMB, trying to stay at the same depth. It took longer and was more complicated, and rarely perfectly successful. Simply ducking a little head down and finning makes the whole sequence MUCH faster, and it requires fewer hands

 

[ivobj]

How do you start all over? I mean once the SMB is at the surface you're going to have a hard time pulling it back down so you can deploy it again or is there a way that I just can't think of?


OK, and one last question. A number of peeps mentioned that they like to be a little negatively buoyant when they deploy. Would it not be an option to fill the SMB with air from your BC, thereby maintaining constant buoyancy up until the point you let go of the SMB at which point you can just add air to your BC again? This of course assumes that you have air in your BC and I typically don't. I try to weight myself such that I don't need any air in my BC but I'm just hypothesizing here.

humm, ok, see what you mean, my writing got confused, really very complicated to take the SMB back from the surface. Actually "start over again" doesn't mean bringing the SMB back from the surface, by the time I will start to inflate the SMB I already have a very good idea of the time it will took to surface, as inflation and trip to surface are the quickest parts (taking out the SMB, the spool, connecting the two of then, open the SMB, make sure the line is free not to get entangled, disconnect the suit hose or switch to backup and prepare long hose purge, depending on SMB type, all of this consumes 90% of the time), so if I see that up to this point timing is bad, I just abort the inflation of the SMB without sending it to surface, fold it again, replace the spool, inflator hose or return to primary and so, then I restart.

About using the air in the BC, I never tryed. Your idea makes sense, but you may not have enough air in the BC and then you will be holding the SMB already with some pressure to go to surface while preparing other air source to complement the inflation, it seems to me that it would add unecessary task load. Also remember that with the SMB hold by your hands and already going up and empty BC, you are going to be vertical, not a good position in this situation, as you loose the possibility of finning down if your SMB drags you up.

One curiosity, you wheight with BC empty in the botton? The ideal situation IMO would be to be neutral at 10 ~15 ft with BC empty (safety stop depth), so in the botton you will probably have some air either in your BC or in the drysuit (or both). Anyway, I prefer not to consider air in the BC to inflate SMB.

 

[Mambo Dave]

+1 for the big, or long, SMB's.

I've been both on the "come get me" end, as well as the "****, where in the hell is he/she?" end (i.e. in the water as a diver hoping to be seen by my boat, and navigating the boat waiting for divers to surface - and wondering just where that may be once the current takes them one way and the boat another). Perhaps a 3-foot SMB is good on smaller lakes, or to send up a speared fish. I believe mine is a 6-foot blaze-orange one (made by Dive Rite a few years ago) that is both a SMB and a lift bag, and all I have to say about it is - 6 foot sure isn't enough on the open ocean.

Do I like it? Sure.

Do I bend it twice to form it in the shape of a triangle on the surface to be seen at greater distances? Sure.

But after trying my hand as a navigator on non-flat seas, I know how small and hard to see SMB's are when someone is actually looking for them. Used as a safety-sausage to allow non-diving boats to know there is a diver somewhere down there, one may ask for even more.

 

[promocop]

Great thread. Learned a lot. Two questions. How would you idntify ones sausage from the rest? And two. I have a spool with shot 100 ft of line. How do I tie it off when the sausage surfaces and should I cut it down to only 25 ft or so of line?

 

[mike_s]

Great thread. Learned a lot. Two questions. How would you idntify ones sausage from the rest? And two. I have a spool with shot 100 ft of line. How do I tie it off when the sausage surfaces and should I cut it down to only 25 ft or so of line?

if you're using a spool, you "tie off" by just putting the double-ender through the line and snap to one of the holes in the spool

I don't suggest cutting it off. you'll want to shoot it from deeper than 25' once you get used to it.



not sure what you mean by identifying ones sausage from the rest. your sausage is the one a the end of your line
(sounds kinda like a personal question to me! )

 

[Mambo Dave]

Great thread. Learned a lot. Two questions. How would you idntify ones sausage from the rest? And two. I have a spool with shot 100 ft of line. How do I tie it off when the sausage surfaces and should I cut it down to only 25 ft or so of line?

Oh, I know MY sausage, buddy ... I know my sausage.

...

Some other divers may also know it... :cool2:

 

[promocop]

Referenimg a comment above where the op made a comment about the boat captain being able to ID the people from his group with some kind of marking on the top of the sausage. As for tying off. I thought the end if the double ender went on to the d ring end of the sausage and the other end to the loop end of the string? No?

 

[mike_s]

5. Any tips on maintaining good buoyancy while inflating the SMB and before sending it to the surface?

most folks I've seen try to give that "initial burst of air" to get the SMB vertical with their Octo or primary.

to better stay at the same buoyancy, I instead use the air in my wing and dump it through the hose into the end of the SMB. This doesn't change your buoyancy one bit. It just transfers the air from your wing to your SMB.

This keeps you from floating upwards as it might if you added it from your primary/octo.

Then when you get everything ready (spool/reel hooked to SMB, etc), you can fill the SMB off your primary/octo and "shoot" it to the surface.

just my method, but it works for me and I don't float upward.

note that after you shoot, you may be slightly negative as you've lost the lift from the air that was transfered from your wing to the SMB. You can then simply just "reel" yourself up as needed. If you need a little more lift, add it to your BC/Wing as needed.

pretty simple.

Is all that clipping and looping necessary?

I completely agree. But to each their own...

my reel/spool has a loop in the end of it and the SMB has a brass snapbolt on it. quick operation to snap it on and none of that extra work I've seen in some videos.

A lot of good advice already. Just a couple of minor additions.

Regarding winding up with a double ender - hold the double ender steady, and only rotate/wind the spool.

.

seeing how when you shoot the bag that the spool, you'll be taking that double ender off the spool so it can unwind freely.

Instead of holding that double-ender, I highly suggest clipping it off on a D-ring on your harness. otherwise they are easy to drop when trying to manage the spool sometimes.

just sucks to loose it when you might need it on the next dive of the day. (I've seen people drop them before several times. typically you don't have the air or NDL to go pick them up, even if you could find them on the bottom).

just a suggestion.

 

[ivobj]

Great thread. Learned a lot. Two questions. How would you idntify ones sausage from the rest? And two. I have a spool with shot 100 ft of line. How do I tie it off when the sausage surfaces and should I cut it down to only 25 ft or so of line?

Best way to identify SMB IMO is to mark them with your initials, I have mine in my SMB, about 1 meter high each letter (2 in my case, I use BJ in all my gear) in black waterproof ink over the strong orange of the SMB, to be easir to identify.

To hold the line when using a spool you use one end of the bolt clip clipping simultaneously the line and one of the holes in the side of the spool, i don`t think it is necessary, but you could also, to better lock it, make a full turn around the clip with the line.