If you're going to orally inflate through a one-way valve in cold water, a plastic mouthpiece is usually more comfortable than a metal one. I personally have an Apeks dSMB. It's 1.4 meters long, or 4.5 ft.. orange, closed cell, double stitched, with a plastic oral inflation valve and a bit of retro-reflective tape. It's also got an attachment point at the top so you can attach a strobe for night dives. My spools are from Apeks as well. I've got an itty bitty 15m spool for rec dives, and a 30m Halo spool, which is great for use with clunky gloves. They're a bit pricy, but will last you a lifetime.
After you buy one, make sure to practice deploying it. Let your buddy or guide know you intend to deploy one on the safety stop or at depth. It can take a dozen dives or more before you get comfortable maintaining your buoyancy during deploying.
Many of the local waterways I dive in require a marker. Unfortunately there are some irresponsible boaters, (mostly jet skiers) that ignore the buoys, or treat them as a part of a slalom course. A member of my dive club was pulled up from the bottom by some idiots that thought it was a beach ball and theirs for the taking.
What’s your opinion on hybrid DSMBs? I ordered a dsmb from… the usual cheap place… and was impressed with it’s apparent quality and features. Took some fiddling to realize is it both an open AND closed. It’s two sides, one open and the other closed. Since you only inflate one side at a time, ON PAPER this is the best of both worlds. Not seeing many people talking about these. Is there a downside? Would you dive with one? Cheers.
Clever, the only downside is that I would only ever use one side of it and the other side would be wasted. You do get some extra redundancy and options in the water. Just seems like a lot of extra materials and work for a feature that I probably won't use. If it works for you then that's great but, I won't be selling any of mine to invest in a new hybrid design.
#askmark Hi Mark, thanks for the videos. Been really useful guidance. I see you have the Fourth Element Tec Fins. Will we get a review of it? What do you think of it so far? How would you compare it to the Mares Avanti Quattro fins? How would you compare them to other tec fins? I dive in tropical waters, so I don't need heavy fins, lighter would be better.
Hey Mark, #askmark: Should divers mount a recco reflector to their equipment, e.g. the dsmb or the shoulder straps of the bcd/wing? It gets common on outdoor or ski equipment and it could help tracing a lost diver (if on the surface)
Maybe one day, three things spring to mind when looking at it. 1. I can't find any information about how depth and pressure may affect the Recco reflector. I don't know if water ingress from diving might affect how the reflector works. 2. The detectors mainly seem to be fitted to Mountain Rescue helicopters. I don't know if Coast Guard helicopters are fitted with Recco yet. 3. The official range is 80m and users online on land have claimed that it can be a lot less than that. It does look like a beneficial system to me, but it will probably be a while before we see them fitted to drysuits and dSMBs.
👍😎🇵🇭🤿Outstanding description Mark you covered it all! Well played out your explanation of DSMB!👍
Thanks Mark! Really enjoyed this one! Thought it was a very good explanation
If you're going to orally inflate through a one-way valve in cold water, a plastic mouthpiece is usually more comfortable than a metal one.
I personally have an Apeks dSMB. It's 1.4 meters long, or 4.5 ft.. orange, closed cell, double stitched, with a plastic oral inflation valve and a bit of retro-reflective tape. It's also got an attachment point at the top so you can attach a strobe for night dives.
My spools are from Apeks as well. I've got an itty bitty 15m spool for rec dives, and a 30m Halo spool, which is great for use with clunky gloves. They're a bit pricy, but will last you a lifetime.
After you buy one, make sure to practice deploying it. Let your buddy or guide know you intend to deploy one on the safety stop or at depth. It can take a dozen dives or more before you get comfortable maintaining your buoyancy during deploying.
I like to keep a knot at 15’ (4.5 metres) for my safety stop. Makes it easier to just hang there for a few minutes.
Many of the local waterways I dive in require a marker. Unfortunately there are some irresponsible boaters, (mostly jet skiers) that ignore the buoys, or treat them as a part of a slalom course. A member of my dive club was pulled up from the bottom by some idiots that thought it was a beach ball and theirs for the taking.
Merci
What’s your opinion on hybrid DSMBs? I ordered a dsmb from… the usual cheap place… and was impressed with it’s apparent quality and features. Took some fiddling to realize is it both an open AND closed. It’s two sides, one open and the other closed. Since you only inflate one side at a time, ON PAPER this is the best of both worlds. Not seeing many people talking about these. Is there a downside? Would you dive with one? Cheers.
Clever, the only downside is that I would only ever use one side of it and the other side would be wasted. You do get some extra redundancy and options in the water. Just seems like a lot of extra materials and work for a feature that I probably won't use.
If it works for you then that's great but, I won't be selling any of mine to invest in a new hybrid design.
#askmark Hi Mark, thanks for the videos. Been really useful guidance. I see you have the Fourth Element Tec Fins. Will we get a review of it? What do you think of it so far? How would you compare it to the Mares Avanti Quattro fins? How would you compare them to other tec fins? I dive in tropical waters, so I don't need heavy fins, lighter would be better.
Hey Mark, #askmark: Should divers mount a recco reflector to their equipment, e.g. the dsmb or the shoulder straps of the bcd/wing? It gets common on outdoor or ski equipment and it could help tracing a lost diver (if on the surface)
Maybe one day, three things spring to mind when looking at it.
1. I can't find any information about how depth and pressure may affect the Recco reflector. I don't know if water ingress from diving might affect how the reflector works.
2. The detectors mainly seem to be fitted to Mountain Rescue helicopters. I don't know if Coast Guard helicopters are fitted with Recco yet.
3. The official range is 80m and users online on land have claimed that it can be a lot less than that.
It does look like a beneficial system to me, but it will probably be a while before we see them fitted to drysuits and dSMBs.
I actually kind of prefer to orally inflate, I'm going to be blowing that air out anyways.