Imported post
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]The argument that you are making (and Tibbs and Phil on the other thread) seems to be:
"I am too good a diver to ever run out of air. Regardless of the situation I am infallible".
Not at all.
I've seen two scenarios posted - a dive where you were so busy sightseeing you ran out of air, and a problem such as buddy entanglement.
In the first, I maintain that there's no excuse for - I value my life more than sightseeing.
The second, your example was buddy tangled up. And then, basically, your argument is you'll be too busy trying to free him to monitor your air.
I agree. But I still don't agree that's grounds for a pony.
Firstly, you ought to have enough air reserve that you could spend a reasonable amount of time without running out of air. That would get you out of any normal entanglement problem.
In the event of the severe tangle-up that you postulate, my first instinct wouldn't be to charge in blindly, shears a-waving - it would be to alert the surface. Send up an SMB, an emergency signal if you have one, with a note attached if you have that capability...
Once the SMB is deployed, I would get on with cutting my buddy's entanglement. Hopefully, support would be sent down, or we'd get free in the meantime.
Summoning surface aid with decent amounts of air instead of going it alone with my rapidly-emptying cylinder would, IMHO, be a far better option than going it alone. If no rescue divers came down, I would continue to try and get my buddy free until I ran out of air. If I had a pony, I would switch to that and continue my efforts until that ran dry to. I won't leave a buddy to drown just because I'm worried my air is getting low.
So no, even with your extreme example, I see no benefit to any twinset diver of carrying a pony. A twinset protects you from equipment failure, I have no need of something that'll keep me from running OOA.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]What drills do you do to prepare yourself for looking your best friend in the eye before turning your back on him and leaving him to die at the bottom of the sea?
None - that's why a pony is no good to me. I wouldn't leave if I had any choice. From the way you post, I doubt you would either.