Safety Sausage

[robertarak]

I know a skipper who refers to these as "Quarry SMB's", very nice for practising with but bloody hard to see in any kind of sea state, next time you have the time and a willing boat captain get a selection of SMB's, blow them up, attach a weight to the bottom throw themover board and move away from the them, you'll rapidly see how ard it is to spot these skinny little things even with flat sea' and bright sunshine!

I guess it depends on the intended use. I do carry a 6footer in the MC storage pack of the backplate. If needed it's there, but the 3footer is the one that is used most often for ascent/descent drills and surface markers.

 

[Elvistheking]

I like yellow because less people have yellow. When diving somewhere that there may be multiple groups I can usually tell the boat captain that I've got a yellow one and that can distinguish mine from someone else's. Definitely not foolproof, but most people have orange.

Actually quite a few people have yellow, they use them when they are having a problem, if you use a yellow in a lot of places there is a small but definite chance that a drop tank of deco gas might drop on your head and/or a diver coming down to see what the problem is/if they can help, if they have just finished a dive and jumped in again anyway because there might have been an emergency when they find out it was because you wanted to be different they might not be impressed.

 

[Splitlip]

"I know a skipper who refers to these as "Quarry SMB's", very nice for practising with but bloody hard to see in any kind of sea state, next time you have the time and a willing boat captain get a selection of SMB's, blow them up, attach a weight to the bottom throw themover board and move away from the them, you'll rapidly see how ard it is to spot these skinny little things even with flat sea' and bright sunshine!"


You guys in the UK have big ones. I know'cause I looked into the AP Valves.

Tough skill IMO, but for the most part, in my area we can survive with a a 5 or 6 ft one.

 

[Elvistheking]

I guess it depends on the intended use. I do carry a 6footer in the MC storage pack of the backplate. If needed it's there, but the 3footer is the one that is used most often for ascent/descent drills and surface markers.

I keep a similar small one as a backup but a backup only (something is better than nothing).

 

[Searcaigh]

The various conventions seem to be either Orange = all fine, Yellow = Oh **** or in some places these are swapped.

SMB's that are Orange AND Yellow are just asking for trouble, if your buying new find out what the convention is in the area you will be diving and buy the right one!!!

Interesting, I have dived all over the Middle East, SE Asia as well as UK an S. Africa and nobody has ever mentioned any difference between orange and yellow markers, perhaps somebody can enlighten me on this.

I was always under the impression that it is a marker showing the presence of a diver below and not the condition of the diver.

 

[theduckguru]

Try piranha dive products. Good quality great price on sausage

 

[Tortuga68]

...if you use a yellow in a lot of places there is a small but definite chance that a drop tank of deco gas might drop on your head and/or a diver coming down to see what the problem is...

You need to tell the boat crew what your signals mean before the dive

I understand that, which is why I asked the question how you would have to "remove the reg from your mouth". If you can inflate with your primary, which is what I thought the OP meant, at first, then you can inflate with your secondary

I read it as he was saying his SMB only had the oral inflate & no opening for reg inflation

Are we then saying other than bringing the SMB with our kit, that we also add weight to our kit so at the end of the dive, we are negative enough to make the SMB float upright?

I wouldn't add weight for that reason. Your weight should be sufficient to allow you to hold a 3m stop with an empty tank. If you can't, you're underweighted. Since you'll usually have ~50 bar left on your safety stop, the gas should provide sufficient additional weight to put some tension on the line

Actually I prefer to slowly alternately pull and release the tension on the line, which makes your SMB 'wave' on the surface, which can make it easier to spot than an upright stationary one IMO - depending on the conditions

 

[Elvistheking]

You need to tell the boat crew what your signals mean before the dive

What your boat crew AND the crew of the other boat that happens to be at the same dive site and see's what is generally considered the "I'm in poo" signal?

 

[Tortuga68]

I don't agree that's it's generally considered the "I'm in the poo" signal. Maybe in the UK it is

If my boat crew saw another boat approaching my SMB - let alone trying to clip a deco bottle on to it to slide down - they'd tell them to *** off and mind their own business

YMMV

IMO yellow should only be considered an emergency signal if it has been previously agreed as such. Some people (me, sometimes) carry two, one red and one yellow - but yellow coming up could still mean I lost/broke my red one. If I want a deco bottle sent down, I'll attached a wetnotes page to the SMB with a note asking for it

Any boat crew that slides bottles down to divers that don't even belong to their boat are running a risk of getting themselves up on a manslaughter charge and should probably rethink their procedures

 

[ReefhuggerJP]

The kind that you have to "blow-up" at depth are generally not that terrible to deal with! It just takes some practice, and you never fully drop your reg, its just like taking your reg out to blow bubble rings...or smile for the camera..not difficult, just takes some practice to become comfortable with it. They are light, and I prefer lightweight over anything else. I'm just not a fan of toting extra pounds!! I also like the oral inflates because it will not blow up unless I do it, on purpose. I dive with an orange 4 footer with the straw style inflate, quick dump valve (good!) and 20' of nylon rope neatly packed and hooked to my bc and put in a pocket, every dive, all the time. I have used them when currents have taken me away from the boat, or on drift dives during the safety stop. There is peace in knowing you have a surface device that can be seen if you have an unexpected issue, even during your stop. Find one you like and keep it with you every dive!