13 cuft pony for duck dives. Is it possible?

[Craig Winnerman]

I do not understand the glory of mixing the two but do understand for the conservation of air and not having to walk to the beach with a full size tank.

Anothe suggestion would be to attach the reg and pony to a float and attatch a 30' teather to you. I do not know if you are already using a float with a dive flag. Do your recon freediving until you find a spot, then assend to get the tank and return via scuba both decending and assending. I would not be concerned about DCS unless you are doing this consitently for 48hours in a day.

 

[Tom Winters]

Use at least a 40 if you are using compressed gas. It's for the "oh s#!t" moments when you need the extra gas to get out of a possibly dire situaiton.

 

[Sam Maghsoodloo]

So how did it work out? Did you find this method to be useful in achieving your goals of scouting more efficiently?

So far i've only been testing it out. But it seems kind of cool, and can definately give me time to get those lobster. I'll have to put it into effect next season though.
As for spearfishing goes, i've yet to decide if it's worth it to spearfish with this. We'll see how it goes once i get the perfect weight dialed in.

 

[Sam Maghsoodloo]

I do not understand the glory of mixing the two but do understand for the conservation of air and not having to walk to the beach with a full size tank.

Yeah, i've decided that even though the beach is 2 blocks away, i'm probably still going to take my car for the gear, haha. This rig is mostly for the convenience of having light gear when i lobster dive or spearfish. Part of it, i admit, is just because it seems like an interesting thing to know how to do It also lets me throw a small rubbermaid tub in my trunk, that has EVERYTHING i need to get bottom time. It only weighs about 20 lbs or so, and thats mostly the weight belt.

Anothe suggestion would be to attach the reg and pony to a float and attatch a 30' teather to you. I do not know if you are already using a float with a dive flag.

That's a great idea. I could use a 40 for that. I guess i have a new project this summer Do people do this?

 

[Sam Maghsoodloo]

Use at least a 40 if you are using compressed gas. It's for the "oh s#!t" moments when you need the extra gas to get out of a possibly dire situaiton.

Yeah, it's a little bit ballsy, i know. I've got to make sure not to empty the tank too low before i surface. That's another thing i was checking out when i tested it out. I took it all the way down to a few psi, to see what it felt like when it was getting empty. There was very little warning before it emptied, only about 2 or 3 breaths. That means i have to surface at 500 psi, but i also have to make sure i check the gauge much more often than normal since it goes down so fast.

 

[shoupart]

If you attached the reg & pony to a float and did the tether method (like SNUBA, I guess), is there a way to attach a pressure gauge that you can monitor during your time underwater?

 

[Heffey]

You have mentioned a few times in this thread that you will be in less than 30 ft of water.

That may be an advantage as far as DCS is concerned, but I am sure that you realize that the greatest change in volume happens in shallow water. Forgetting to exhale when surfacing from 15 ft could easily give you an extra couple of litres of air for your lungs to deal with.

I would be very cautious in this endeavour.

Good Luck

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I often freedive spearfish and sometimes when there is a strong current and a fish gets stuck in a hole, I use a scuba tank to remove it rather than repeated dives holding my breath. We normally take a 30 cu-ft bottle under our arm, but sometimes if that is low, we might use my back-up 13 cu-ft bottle. I have used the 13 down to around 75 feet to free up a fish and gun.

I only recommend this for people that are very comfortable with free and scuba diving. The tendency to hold your breath on ascent after a bunch of freediving could be a problem.

We try to keep our recovery scuba dives very short, maybe 2-3 minutes and I normally do an ascent of maybe 60 feet per minute for these bounce dives in an attempt to minimize nitrogen absorption and save air in case we have another problem. I don't think I have ever done more than 2 bounce scuba dives per day and we might take a break of 10 minutes after a dive.

We don't change our weight belts and it is very interesting to see the significant difference in bouyancy with and without the tank. When I make it past 60 feet freediving, I am really very negative due to chest and suit compression. However, swim down to 60 with a neutrally bouyant tank, take a big breath and I will be starting to float up. Chest compression has a significant affect.

Some people may think it is dangerous to engage in this activity, but in reality the prospect of losing a nice fish and a gun worth hundreds of dollars (not to mention ego) can motive freedivers to attempt breathhold recovery dives that are very strenuous and therefore very dangerous. Often these types of dives may involve trying to fight the current while breathing up and then using their arms in a strenuos manner to free a fish Most good freedivers do NOT use much arm or back muscles on a freedive and when they start yanking and fighting with a fish, the oxygen reserves can be depleted much. much faster than normal.

I think it is much safer to take a pony to 75 feet than to try to crawl in a hole and get a fish out while holding your breath (of course some people can do this easily, but I can't).

Be careful! If I was freediving only 30 feet, I doubt I would want the hassle of a pony in my hand.

 

[Xefe]

Yeah, it's a little bit ballsy, i know. I've got to make sure not to empty the tank too low before i surface. That's another thing i was checking out when i tested it out. I took it all the way down to a few psi, to see what it felt like when it was getting empty. There was very little warning before it emptied, only about 2 or 3 breaths. That means i have to surface at 500 psi, but i also have to make sure i check the gauge much more often than normal since it goes down so fast.

get a cheap small spg

 

[Sam Maghsoodloo]

get a cheap small spg

i've got one on there. check out the pictures.