Recreational divers don't need to comply with the red/yellow coding of dSMB's, however as AG says this can lead to confusion if there are both techie and recreational divers in the same area (Scapa is a good example!). So if you already have a yellow (or bi-colour) dSMB save your pennies and use it by all means, but if you are going out with the intention of buying one I can't see any good reason for not conforming to what is rapidly becoming the accepted norm.
Shops will sell what ever they have to sell that's their business. Yellow has long been the recognised signal of HELP or I have an issue, among techies for quite some time. I'm surprised your large techie shop owner couldn't advise you about this practice. There was a bit of confusion among recreational divers and divers just starting out, as to its use in the techie circles, thus the original post. Nope sorry fella far from it! Shore dives, boat dives, drift dives, buoyancy loss, boat traffic, ease of holding stops, lost buddy, emergency signal. messaging the surface to name but a few. As for being a belief I don't get your point! It's a practice that divers do ( and have been doing for quite some time now ) to show they have or are suffering an issue that will require some sort of assistance. Thus the thread " The Yellow DSMB and its use" Who's pushing it on you? If as you say you have a yellow DSMB and you suddenly end up with a cylinder sent down to you or divers coming to check on you don't be surprised. You can't say you didn't know. Yep techie divers doing techie dives tend to dive together, it wouldn't work if I was going to 60m and a Padi OW was doing 18m it was push the buddy skills a little. The skipper as part of the dive prep will be informed of the dive we and I hope you plan to do, at this point we discuss what actions we'd like taken if a yellow DSMB is sighted that might be from one of us ( techies ) in the shit. Mixed groups of rec and tech divers on boats is a very common as are several boats on the same site. BK
BK- Whilst this forum does have a large population of divers. Not everyone will be aware of the fact techie divers use yellow dsmbs as a sign of help. The first I knew of it was that this thread had been created! To me the dsmb colour was just bright so that the skipper could see them when you were on your safety stop. Techie divers as far as im aware are in the minority in the uk. Which means that they can have their practises but to push that onto the rest of the recreational diving population would not be feasable. However if this was taught and explained in OW or the BSAC equivelant that DSMBs are red for recreational diving and that yellow ones are used to advise the surface support of a problem.
Who's pushing? I'm telling you how it is. I've informed you that in some diving circles ( both rec and tech ) your yellow DSMB is used to signal a problem. What you continue to do with yours is your choice. I started this thread to make novice divers and not so novice divers aware of a growing practice that many divers have adopted. Basc teach that yellow is emergency only (see earlier post by o2 steve). Just because PADI doesn't cover it doesn't mean its not relevant to you! The question you need to ask yourself is, After reading this thread and on seeing a yellow DSMB what will you do? You can act or you can choose to ignore it! But what you do know now is, that some divers in the diving world, use the yellow DSMB to signal they require help. As others have said it's good practice to mark your DSMB to try and avoid confusion. BK
Far as i am concerned and i have not been diving all that long 87 dives and still somewhat of a novice in my own eyes. But i have come to believe that yellow is diver needs assistance , red/orange diver below. Techie or not ,it is a good rule/guide and therefor should be practiced by all who dive . Get both if you wish but use the yellow to say HELP . As Far as anybody being pushy on here, i have found that never to have been the case ,just people trying to help and educate those of us with less knowledge.If that's Pushy keep pushing BK.
I take it there's no issue with the colour of lift bags? All the ones I've seen recently are yellow. 25kg one may look like a DSMB at distance. Don't really want a cylinder dropping on me head when collecting scallies...
A cylinder wouldn't magically appear unless you had rigged one up with implicit instructions for it's use should your yellow dsmb be seen.
I'm guessing you use a dsmb but you haven't had the Padi/BSAC training yet from the sounds of it :lol: Padi do an smb/dsmb course and you have to pay for that but then I guess you can just go out and buy any colour dsmb and know how to use it without doing the course and finding out first which is the correct one to buy. The only reason people use the wrong smb/dsmb's is because they either haven't done a course before using one or because of incorrect training/information.
100% correct smudge. I think that it should be something in the OW if im honest. They do mention them and buoys several times. If its this big of a deal which it is being made out to be then it should be covered from the very start! So that everyone has an understanding of why. Many people wont do a dsmb course... its just buy one and a reel for the necessity of having one when diving off of a boat. and they wont have the benefit of this forum too. Hence why the initial aspect of buoys and dsmbs should cover this IMO. I think some people got me off on the wrong foot here especially BK. When I read this I think god... and it just about scares me into buying a red one. However as several people have said many people dont recognise the yellow one as a sign of needing a cylinder sending down nd many skippers would do this when they were told in advance.
One thing I have to ask, how many people have been diving and when they have seen an unknown yellow blob jumped in to check everything was OK or at least started to get ready to jump it to check everything is OK?
[quote='Silty Bottom] Several times [/quote] There you go then everyone, if you have a yellow DSMB only currently you now have to weight up whether £18 of your cash is worth other divers techy or not getting ready to and/or jumping in when possibly low on air and/or still having no dive showing on their computers because they think there is a problem. The info is there use it as you wish.
Just a suggestion then. Is there anyone on here that has an "in" somewhere for a good sized discount on DSMB's (the correct colour) if bought by way of a bulk order? At least then UKD could "fly the (correct) flag". Just an idea.
Yep, and I am talking on dives with a mix of rectreational and techie divers - the dSMB in question didn't belong to a diver on our boat, but even so everyone swung into action to co-ordinate a rescue.......
YD has one at the moment http://www.yorkshire-divers.com/forums/other-dive-equipment/115601-possible-group-buy-co2-blobs.html
As for teaching dsmb deployment As a compulsory element on an ow course I could see it causing havoc at some inland training sites. Dsmb is covered in both boat and drift courses but again not everyone takes that either. Boat diving in Cyprus we were never asked to put up a dsmb, in the uk it's standard practice. The yellow orange ones are more annoying depending on which side you see.
The first time I realised there was another a colour I simply asked here on UKD what it was for. Now from the very start I know that if I do see one then that could mean "diver in trouble". But yesterday while on the surface at Stoney I saw both the red and yellow being used, I was half expecting the speed boat to go out and take a look.
