dsmb midwater

[DOCRIB]

I am ,much to my chagrin midway through a tech course and struggling with midwater dsmb deployment. I have had no problems in the past. using twins with 2xstages.

[Roz]

Then huzz yourself in Stoney or other suitable sheltered water with a mate and practice till you have it sussed. You don't need to be deep. If you hover above the 6 metre ledge, your mate could sit on the surface and deflate your buoy whilst you spend a dive just practicing deploying it. Don't beat yourself up. We all make muffets of ourselves occasionally. Just get in the water and practice it until you are sweet.

[DOCRIB]

Thanks Roz.U are right of course

[STEVE MC]

There are a couple ways to improve your mid water buoyancy so that you can then undertake other skills, the folowing worked for me:
1) Relax, if your stressing about it, it will only get worse.
2) Try and get horizontal (flat) in the water, you present the largest surface area in the water column.
3) Ascend to say 6m then let go of the reel and float next to it, don't stare at the reel constantly, try and extend the time inbetween looking at it (5 sec, 10 sec etc).
4) As 3 but add some skills, ie mask clearance, stage swapping,OOG diver, shutdowns etc. All the skills that you'd do sat on the bottom can be done mid water.
5) Practice an ascent with no visual reference at all, no dsmb, no shotline. Try and hold stops using only your computer/depth timer and the snot in the water.
Good luck, hope the practice goes well
Steve:)

[DOCRIB]

thanks steve great advice

[northern_diver]

Deploy from BELOW your target depth, as in 11 meters for a stop at 9 meters then reel up to 9 meters, this prevent breaking your decompression stop ceiling. Any movement vertically looks like you are moving to your ceiling also if done right...sneaky!

Sometimes, if i know i'm deploying at a certain point (as in not a static location) i deploy on the move as not only is it easier to be horizontal but you can also complete more task at the same time. This is aided if you fin on your back as you can use your exhaust gases with much less chance of snag...as its above you.

Use of exhaust gases, rather than octo can help, generally as the volume of exhasted gases seems to be lowers, so is such as shock increase in bouyancy, depends on instructors and your personal views on issue.

Consider a drop line, some people consider these to be easier (while some the opposite!) so may be worth a look?

Depending on the reel, i use and have fondness for my mcmahon, the placement of your fingers and thumb can be useful. i place the lip of the dSMB on the reel trigger, holding down, as its held by only a little area, when i place enough gas in, it will be dragged out of my hand and because the reel is 'open', its not much of a chance to frag me up.

Without knowing if the deployment has to be solo or can be assisted, thats about it.

Would recomment a self sealing, manual inflating dSMB withover fill valve, very easy to use.

Practice Practice Practice, cant beat it.

Im not an instructor but its a bit of antidotal knowledge if it helps.

[matt reed]

What gear are you using? Have you thought about the simple finger spool...can make life a lot easier for some.

And of course, being neutrally bouyant is the cornerstone...make sure you have that mastered first!

[Woz]

This really helps:

Get a £5 open ended blob from Go-Dive (or your other favourite LDS) and cut a hole in the top. Then you can fire it and pull it down over and over again till your blob firing is perfect.

[DOCRIB]

woz thats brilliant

[Dale]

Try inflating your SMB with the air from your BCD then you will stay neutral in the water as you will only of moved the air from your BCD to the SMB. It works if you are carrying a spare weight for students but not if you are properly weighted

[Woz]

woz thats brilliantYes, yes it is. And it works really well. Taught the DSMB SD lesson the other week using this method and by the end, had 2 divers banging them up and down like they had been at it for years.

And you don't need a very big hole. Should take 30-40 secs to deflate then you can tug it down. Oh and write TRAINING DSMB on it too! Nothimg more depressing than firing a blob with 30 mins deco to do then see it float past you downwards... :(

[DOCRIB]

Woz I shall do that. Its not the inflation for me its that pesky task loading with twin12's and two 7l stages though Great idea,will give it a go.

[matt reed]

Woz I shall do that. Its not the inflation for me its that pesky task loading with twin12's and two 7l stages though Great idea,will give it a go.

Can you clarify a bit what you are finding task loading...are the tanks getting in the way; or causing you buoyancy troubles?

Once you have mastered your neutral buoyancy the only task you are doing is the balloon deployment...prep you balloon and reel early in your ascent and do the deployment before you reach any gas switch points, or other points in the ascent with other tasks...K.I.S.S :)

hth

[TerryH]

Ok here's an easy fix and please no comments about being tethered :rolleyes:

Usually buoyancy is ok and deploy is ok, it's putting the two together
that can cause pain.

Get a strop made of about 2-3m of webbing and add a piston clip either end.
Failing this a little rope will do, but make sure it has a piston clip one end and
is not just tied on.

Tie one end to some wreckage and the other clip on to you. Go up say 1.5m
and get very slightly positive so that there is the slightest of tension on the
line. Now practice mid-water deploy to your hearts content :D

Very quickly you'll find that you can slacken off the line a bit and drop down
so that you are actually neutral all the time safe in your own mind that the
strop will stop you going up if you get it wrong.

Once mastered remove line, go neutral and deploy - easy ;)