ponys

[daz]

Interesting points of view....

It maybe true that carrying a pony for some people is trying to compensate for relaxed buddy procedures but IMHO the benefits of having a pony far outweigh any negatives even with excellent buddy skills.

Therefore why not carry it just in case...  The only downside as I see it is :-  Need to get it filled occasionally (Always test it regularly, whether in anger or not) and putting it on before the dive.

I am still to be convinced why carrying a pony is a bad idea...  And therefore if not a bad idea it must be a good idea

Daz

[John N]

I'm going to limit myself to 'holiday' diving because that's where I have more experience.

Taking a pony to Sharm with a 25kg weight allowance is a real pain, but it's virtually impossible to rent one out there.
I have dived on twins out there though.  Does anyone here go out and rent twins as a matter of course for redundancy?

It is interesting to see how far you can go on one breathe while chasing your buddy in a stressful situation.  It's not far.  I reckon about 10m max in good conditions.
There are almost always divers in the vicinity though - too many usually, and each with an octopus.

The usual dive profiles for holiday dives are very conservative, multi-level from 30m max for a few minutes and then up to 5m gradually over half an hour or so.
It seems to me that the risk of using a single with a good, properly serviced regulator on this sort of dive is minimal.

On the Thistlegorm, you might well be doing a square profile, but there's always a diver a couple of metres away :-((

I've done a couple of 40m ish dives on a single 12 and it is a lot more stressful than using twins because of air use and the 'what if there's a problem' thoughts.  Not recommended.

I guess it's really up to your assessment of the risks involved in the diving you do.  I've seen thousands of dives pass uneventfully using singles with no backup.
An out of air incident is usually down to diver error i.e. not keeping an eye on your gas supply or failing to service your equipment (guage, regs etc).

'In the very unlikely event' that I have an OOA problem on a 30m dive, and having no other octopus to hand, I'm afraid it's 'aaaaah' for me all the way up.  If it's a deep/deco dive then I'll be using twins thanks.

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (John Nortcliff @ Dec. 03 2003,23:05)]I'm going to limit myself to 'holiday' diving because that's where I have more experience.

Taking a pony to Sharm with a 25kg weight allowance is a real pain, but it's virtually impossible to rent one out there.
I have dived on twins out there though.  Does anyone here go out and rent twins as a matter of course for redundancy?

Yes I do

But I dont bother renting a twin set unless there is a mix dive to be done. I just ask for both my tanks for the day at once and dive twin independants. This usualy causes a few raised eyebrows with the guides but I use the same gas as the others I just carry it all at once

before this I used to cart my pony bottle arround the world but now I dont. Mind you I drove to Barcalona this year and I took it then . Interesting reaction from the dive guids. I kitted up my wing with a 15ltr pony and canister torch straped to the back and went for the dive breefing. The guide came up to me and said, you can obviously look after your self you can bugger off and have some fun if you like so I did.

Mark Chase



ATB

Mark Chase